There's no denying it, these bloggers are bound to make you jealous. Whether it's their guts, their energy or their tan you admire, overseas volunteers have got plenty to share with you about their remarkable work in fascinating countries. Read on to find out what you could be missing.

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Tuesday Sep 04, 2007

Tumemaliza kazi....KABISA!

well, i fly back to England on friday, so enjoying my last few days in country. We finished work yesterday and had a ceremony to celebrate, which was all very nice, we saw our top boss for the very first time and i entertained everyone with sum dancing up to the high table to collect my certificate...i decided it was all far to formal, it was all for and because of us, so i was gunna enjoy it! the volunteers are now slowly dispersing to travel, and to fly home. I'm going to struggle hugely returning back to the UK after such an amazing 8 months. i truly feel at home here, I have FINALLY got the language down, and now can chat away quite happily, leaving friends will be incredably difficult, i never thought it would be so easy to grow so close to people that are from total different cultures. vilage life ended with a huge and succesful tamasha (like a festival) with music, soda's, food, plays, songs and an italian monk called shamassi. it was hard work to organise and prepare, but it paid off, now we have to wait and see how many people test in the regular VCT visit sept 9th. I will be sad to leave, but yesterday made us all feel hugely proud. one of the SPW staff read out all our figures for this years programme. over 700 people now know their HIV status, somthing close to 2500 girls and 3000 boys in secondary alone have attended our lessons, and i cant remember primary numbers. it really made us realise that our work made a difference to those communities, and in a way i didnt really realise what i was doing until I'd finished! so thats it, goodbye to Tanzania and hello to university of Birmingham.

em x

Posted by Emily ( 1:42 PM )
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Friday Aug 03, 2007

The flame of independance

well, its now only a month before I fly back to good old blighty,  All's going well in village. I now teach standard 5,6 and 7 on Mondays and Thursdays on my own. while my partner teaches the secondary school...seemed stupid that we were both working every single day. weekends we teach the community, and we are currently working on organizing a community festival, which could be interesting, as we have about 2 weeks to arrange food, stage, sound system, performances, a football match, video show, etc etc, but this entry isn't about my everyday life. its more to tell you all what happened in my village last Monday. 

Tanzania is aprox 7 times the size of the england, (you can thank my fellow volunteer Vicky for that fact...she can also regail you with population numbers and local wildlife facts...anyone would think she has too much time on her hands!) I live in a village called Ukumbi, which is approx 4 hours out of Iringa town, depending on the rain and road...and the engine staying in the bus! Iringa is between 9 and 10 hours from Dar es Salam, which houses the closest subway and kfc to me right now, therefore I'm officially in the middle of no-where!

the nearest settlement to Ukumbi is Pomern.

We are sepparated from Pomern by 2 hours of hills about the same size as south downs, 5 streams but only 2 bridges, and lots of red dust. Monday morning I walked to school at 8am, after a cold bucket shower, and a chapati with tea. the teachers explained to me that lessons were canceled, because the flame of independence was coming through our village. So feeling completely ignorant, I followed the teachers down to the big river at the edge of our village and lined up with all the students and started trying to join in the clapping and stuff. I was told that the flame of independence travels the whole country once a year to remind everyone of their patriotic duty or similar.

After about half an hour a battered old 4*4 with 2 loud speakers strapped to the top rolled in and out hopped a few women in grey suits, who were obviously there to inspire in us all national pride. After lots of singing and clapping, and traditional dancing, a pick up turned up. They stopped dead in the middle of us all, and i was just wondering what they were going to do, when a 8 man brass band with dust masks and an odd panda effect from the sunglasses v's dust war that exsists in our area, appear in the back and strike up a tune!!

They were followed by a good 10-15 other 4*4's, one with a torch like the Olympic flame. there was a short speech, that only about 10 people could hear, and then lots of handshaking, before they all vanished into the distance, being guarded from behind by a truck full of soldiers announcing presumably their departure, with a ww2 air raid siren!...(maybe its in built in my blood, coz when i heard it i almost hit the deck before i realized where I was.) We all dispersed and went for lunch before lessons in the afternoon.

Slightly random story I know, but as they all pulled off it hit me that this torch of independence was traveling the whole country...every single village! its a huge task,and the people doing it all seemed determined and happy to work hard for their shared goal. It made me think about all the obstacles I face currently in village...most are less physical than mountains, rivers and dust in your trombone, but it made me realise that anything is possible with enough effort, and it is possible to show women that they don't have to do everything their husband says, especially if it harms them, and to show school students that there are bonuses to abstaining from sex...

anything is possible with enough time and energy...even a brass band in the middle of africa!

Posted by Emily ( 2:13 PM )
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Friday Jul 13, 2007

ewan mcgregor is close!

sorry for the long delay in writting. had a great holiday with my mum, we saw lions and elephants and everyother animal immaginable! and i got to eat very english food in dar es salam...including a full all you can eat fry up! my first bacon in 6months! now back to village life and teaching. the primary school started this week, and seconday starts monday. we have just seen our targets at the office and with only six weeks of placement left we have 87% of secondary school lessons still to complete! could be an interesting few weeks!  after spending a week or so with lots of fellow volunteers the shock going back to vilage was almost as bad as when we first arrived, it was heightened by the lack of ANYTHING to do! but there was one thing that got me through the last week, and thats the knowledge that ewan mcgregor  (sorry for the spelling!) will be riding past my vilalge soon! how exciting! unfortunatly i got such an issolated vilage that  im 2-3 hours off the main road. but two of my fellow volunteers are on the main road, and are making signs like the "santa stop here" signs but with his name on, and offering free food! im so jealous, but i just think the idea of it is awsome, we are in the middle of africa in little tiny villages, with no contact with the outside world, yet a world famous actor will be riding right past me!

life continues as normal, spending all my day talking about sex, std's, hiv and other thoughrully pleasant topics, my kiswahilli is getting there slowley, but wouldnt say im fluent.
as usual miss timed my writing, as firstly ive run out of time on the compuer and secondly i chose to write just after the holday, so i havnt got much to say, but sure soon i will have some more info about volunteering rather than holidays and ewan mcgregor!

em x

Posted by Emily ( 9:39 AM )
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Saturday Jun 02, 2007

T.I.T moments

 ok, I have 2 T.I.T moments. first is very short...yesterday I spent about an hour typing up T.I.T moments, just to hve a power cut as i was publishing it, so today I'm afraid the story is different and shorter.

So its 6.30am in casa za happy and emmy. I have just finished showering over our toilet in ice cold water i hauled from the well, and run inside to my room to get dressed. Happy is wandering around in her matching african skirt and top ready for school. Im in a kitenge....a handy peice of material that is used for everything you can imagine, currently its my towel. I hear the kitchen bolt squeaking and Happy's screaming. In casa za emmy and Happy screaming is not uncomon, for me it is reserved for special occasions such as panya (rats) or deadly animals. Happy however has told me her philosiphy is that if you are ever in a state of concern you should scream and cry as much as possible, but she also screams when laughing, when singing, and basicly whenever she feels like it. (i feel at this point i have to explain that last night we were given a chicken as a gift. We later found out that about 10 men in our village have a bet going, tht who ever can have sex with either of us will win a cow, so presents are the obvious route.)

 when i hear "EMMY...EMMY!!!!" i casually stroll outside to our 'kitchen' to see the very alive chicken hot footing it across our yard. Happy is hopping from foot to foot looking concerned, and i speedily take chase, the chicken and I soon enter the maize field and i am darting around trying to catch the dinner that I had dreamt about so fondly  the night before, while trying to protect my dignity by clutching to my kitenge. Soon the 'kur-fufle' drew several young boys to help me and we finally cornered it and the youngest boy launched himself ontop of the kuku and we carried back to the house, where happy was now on the dirt floor crying with laughter at the sight she had just witnessed. the chicken got put back in the kitchen, and we had a delicious chicken and rice dinner that night.

Slightly abrupt ending, but  feel its a good example of life out here, I'm very proud to say that I have caught my own food...truely self sufficient (ignoring the fact it was a present, and technically some one else caught it, i just ran around, and then collapsed in a heap and couldnt breath.)

Posted by Emily ( 1:19 PM )
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Thursday May 31, 2007

Kijijini continues

hi,

sorry Ive been away for so long, spent the last 4 or 5 weeks in village, i almost forgot that there were other wazungu in the world. Life is going well here, its still hard work ,and we are continualy either on an up or a down, there is no medium. after returning to kijijini last time my phone broke, and as i have 15 pounds to last me until june i cant afford to fix it, so life has been slightly removed from the real world.

 Im not sure how much I've talked about my partner Happiness.She is 21 and like me will continue onto university after we finish in september. we spent 1 month training, in which we wrote down preferences for partners, and lucky me and happy agreed on each other. We are very similar in many ways...eg, we both have short fuses, we both sulk, we both hate mornings, and we both have short attention spans. As you can imagine mixing all that togther makes for a volitile relationship. we laugh and joke a lot, and often she helps me and encourages me with my swahilli, but on the other hand we have many screaming matches involving throwing of maize and slamming of doors, but its good fun. She works hard in village and we try to help each other as much a possible. Often it is her leading things as she is fluent in swahili, understands the culture and naturally likes to be in charge.  Often it can be frustrating, but i am incharge of small things that i take great pride in, such as the end of term "festival" and all our paper work.  Despite our stuggles i really appreciate her, especially after talking to other volunteers this time im in town and finding out 2 national partners have run off, one to get married, the other to her home in dar es salam, several are spending weeks away from village, and most of my fellow wazungu are severly unhappy. maybee i have been lucky, maybe im just more positive, or maybe my african heritage about 20 generations back has kicked in slightly!!

 Village life can become very lonley, especially for me as my skills at language are minimal, and i take a long time to learn, but i have made some firm friends here now, with students, teachers and community members. Happy and I have successfully finished 1 term at both the secondary and the primary school, and held a "festival" at the secondary school last week. There were dramas and role plays, songs and a comedy show, it went really well, and all of it was based around reproductive health. There was sketches on teenage pregnancy, women and men having affairs, hiv transmittion and  the dangers of  unprotected sex. Almost all the students attended, and so the audience was about 150 strong. Everyone laughed a lot, not only at the comedy shows, but at the maandazi (small doughnut) eatting competition, inwhich the boys cheated an unbelievable amount, all to win a bottle of soda. I was really proud of the students, so many of them worked really hard to pull it off, as in true tanzanian style there were no preparations till the day before. Like i said life here is either a high or a low, and things like that help so much, it shows that as little as we appear to do, just our presence makes a difference, because it makes them talk about the subjects.

The biggest struggle in life at the moment is keeping quiet in the school staff rooms. Every day I have to watch children being beaten, as young as 4 or 5 years old, for terrible crimes such as sending a note in class, or getting a maths problem wrong. I may know very little about child psychology,. but it seems to me that if a child is shown why they have done wrong, and shown the choices they have, then surely they will learn the right and wrong choices. Children here live in fear of all teachers, and follow instructions blindly and it really makes me sad. I was a very awkward child for my teachers, because my family always taught me to follow my judgement and beliefs, and so I often refused to do things that seemed pointless or immoral to my young self, but I now completly trust my judgement, and learnt when young to follow what i believe and not what i am told. Its something i think a lot about, a hope I have influence in a small way either now or later in my life.

 Over the months i have ajusted to a slow pace, and doing only one thing a day, but village is something else when it comes to time. there is the complete opposites of the schools being run like military  camps, and children making sure they are on time to avoid a beating. and the community, where people take it as normal to turn up 2 hrs or 2 days late, therefore me and happy are always early for the community meetings, but late for school.

We have 2 weeks left before we have 1 week holiday, in which my mum is visiting, and i am apparently going to meet the infamous Bannana Zoro in dar es salam (hes a big star here, who lives down the same street as 1 of my students) after that we return for the final two months of placement.

Think thats about all for now, hopefully add on of my TIT(This Is Tanzania) moments soon, such as assisting in an operation, chassing my dinner through a field, or catching a bus with 150 students with a goat n the roof!

em x

Posted by Emily ( 11:02 AM )
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Friday Apr 27, 2007

kijijini

ok, well as usual I've left it ridiculously late in my internet time to try and write.

But you'll be pleased to know, after all the seemingly pointless entries im finally doing it!! I've been in village for about 2 and 1/2 weeks, and popped into town for a day or two, to sort out some issues. Its going really well. Me and my tanzanian Partner are teaching 12 primary school lessons and 6 secondary school lessons a week, all in kiswahilli. Since arriving in UKUMBI my swahili has improved massivly, mostly because it has to, rather than choice.the local language is ki-hehe, which im not even attempting to learn at the moment, i want to be capable in swahili first. We have held one community seminar, which went well, with about 20 out of school youth attending to learn about haki wa wanawake (womens rights)

The school lessons are going well, Happy does most of the teaching, and I am the not-so-glamourous assistant that askes questions and looks stupid in the corner. but its getting better,  its just language thats holding me back. Secondary school is rather daunting, with the majority of students being the same age, if not older than me. some are 24/25, and the 19yr old mzungu is stood up the front telling them about sex and similar!

Afraid its got to be really short. hopefully can be more detailed next time about the village and the work we are doing. but have to go and sort out a kerosine lamp issue....i.e; the lack of them!
em

Posted by Emily ( 12:59 PM )
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Saturday Mar 17, 2007

still training

well, im still training! had a lovely week in Zanzibar of drinking and smoking! but back to reality and we met the tanzanian volunteers who all seem really nice, there are 15 of them, and now its been two weeks they are getting more confident and louder,  at the beggining I think they were a bit intimidated, us wazungu have know each other 2 months, and all become really close...we must be quite intimidating. So yeah we are currently learning about non formal education tequniques, which is actually really interesting, and a definate step up from the sex education we had which was so basic it was scarey, but they have promised some better sessions soon, because there are an awful lot of miss conceptions floating around which really need to be cleared up if we are expected to teach this to children. Many tanzanians believe that masturbating makes you impotent or if you are a woman stops you from wanting a man. Also that friction causes HIV to be transmitted....so you can see the problems we are having, but overall it is good. I feel completly at home here in Iringa, and I dont look forward to returning to england in september, would just like to fly my family out every few weeks to see them and I'd be happy to stay forever.
well, my time is up because as usual I have badly organised my timing and list of things to do on the net.

em

Posted by Emily ( 11:42 AM )
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Monday Feb 12, 2007

1 month in...

its been a long time!


I've just had an extra half an hour added, so please forgive spelling cause its slightly hurried writting.

To be honest cant remember what had happened since last time i wrote, so ill write about my last week or so.

Im still learning kiswahilli in Iringa, so 6 hours a day in a class room, but over the last few weeks weve been able to get some other activities going as well, on wednesdays we go to a local youth center and redecorate. the last two weeks have been spent marking out and painting a netball and volleyball court, which was really rewarding, and I cant wait till we get to play on it against the iringa netball team.

Also being in homestay I've managed to get really intergrated into my family. I try to help cook, but unsuccesfully, and entertain the 3 and 4 year olds with my blonde hair and crazy disney songs. Added to that is that now the group of 15 of wazungus have bonded, and so Im constantly round different peoples houses making fruit juices and cornflake cakes! At certain times i almost forget im in Tanzania when we listen to western music, eating chocolate and chatting ,that is until i need the loo, or wander outside for the 1 smoke a day that I still cant stop myself from having, even with my current chest and sinus infection!

Last week I taught my first lesson, which was really exciting. We were in groups of 3, and luckily the girl in my group called val is REALLY good at swahilli. We arrived at the school with a lesson plan due to last 40 minutes maximum for 10-20 children, but being africa our group got the 52 strong class and told it had to last 80 miunutes to make up for the extra students! all I'll say is my game of "simon says" lasted a very long time, and the children spent a long time trying to do the splits and lick their elbows!  but  Nathan, Valerie and I all walked out after just over an hour with huge grins on our faces. We did it!! I danced like a chicken, jumped up and down, and hopefully taught them something new about V.V.U/U.K.I.M.W.I (sorry, as my swahilli improves, my english gets worse!)

This week is our second to last week of swahilli, which is daunting, but all that is left to do is for us to practice, we know almost all the theories and grammatic rules (not that i use them much) and i need to continue talking to random people to practice vocab and sentence structure. which should be easy to do in the week holday weve been given, and the following month with our fellow tanzanian volunteers.

I think thats about all for now, except to say, aswell as everything else im getting a bloody good tan!!

em x

P.S unfortunatly no photos uploaded yet, but hopefully next week i can steal some from another volunteers camera as i forgot my lead!

x

Posted by Emily ( 3:28 PM )
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Monday Jan 22, 2007

Here at last

Well, after all the months of waiting im here! im sat in Iringa, Tanzania. We landed jan 9th at 7am and after the 8 hour plane journey we had to travel another 8 1/2 hours by bus to Iringa which is further in land than dar es salam. the journey was amazing, which breath-taking views and nasty toilet stops! For the first 2 nights I stayed in a hostel with my fellow volunteers...5 other english, 6 americans, 2 aussies and a kiwi. they are all roughly my age (19) up to 22ish, with only one american a lot older, but hes only 28. After 2 days we moved to homestays, where we are living for 4 weeks. I am with a huge family, with only the mother speaking english, but it means I get to practice my swahilli which im learning 9-4.30 mon-sat. so far not getting very far past gramatic rules, but its only the 2nd week of lessons. The family are really nice, with a 2 yr old and a 3 yr old called gladdy and happiness; they have become my best friends at the moment, and a few older sisters aswell.

Learnt to wash my clothes the other day which was an experience and a half, but it amused the family greatly. Also have been alowd to cook,  which is a step up from the first week, in which they wouldnt let me even take my plate out, but admitidly all i did was stir and pour in what the gave me, but i was proud!

Not much more to report at the moment, just getting used to life over here, squating to go to the toilet, sticking my bum out the window to get to and from school, eating rice continually! but Im loving it.

Hopefully have more to tell when swahilli is finished in a few weeks.

em

P.S i appologise for my spellings, after 6 hoursof swahilli lessons my attention to grammer and spelling are minimal.

Posted by Emily ( 2:38 PM )
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Wednesday Nov 22, 2006

slowly getting closer!

only 46days to go! everything is getting very close, bought my kit, and managed to annoy my mum and the sales assistant greatly by insisting that I get the orange rucksack because I liked the colour (and I still do!) despite it not being as practical as the plain black one. Applied for my visa with shocking photos, I looked like a starteled rabbit. and sent off my last bit of money, so Im all ready to go!

what I wanted to talk about though was something else that has been making me think. I do a photography course and the woman I sit next to found out last week, or the week before that she has won 8 and a half MILLION pounds on the lottery! Shes probably in her 50's, and want to go on holiday to lapland with it. the interest she earns in one day on her winnings would pay for my trip to tanzania, think what a difference even 5 million could make to people living in poverty across the world. it could pay for hudereds of thousands of children to go to school, and learn to spell hundred! stop child labour, build proper housing for people living under inadequate shelter. Then I thought that acctually 8 million would make a huge difference, but not without passionate people behind it, making it work....and one passionate person can make more difference than 8 million pounds.

But you know what would be great....a compassionate rich person! but can that acctually exist? If someone is charitable and genererouswould they ever be able to make a fortune, without using it or giving it away before it builds up. And if they are born into it, can they ever keep it? I dont know...

x

Posted by Emily ( 4:55 PM )
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Thursday Nov 02, 2006

training weekend

well Ive just come back from a training weekend up in london for tanzania. It was really good, i finally got to meet the people I'll be travelling with, and it succeded in making me very aware that I am actually going. For the majority of saturday I panicked about packing when they told me that I should only take one huge backpack...for 8 months! but I've come to terms with it now, and think I'm going to cope...just! Im very succeptable to the culture I'm in and at the moment my room is overflowing with jeans, t-shirts, jumpers, necklaces and shoes, but when i get out there Im sure ill be fine, if not I'll shop! The weekend also instilled in me the importance of learning swahili, so I'm trying to do that a lot more now, and I learnt one very important word at the weekend...'jamba' which apparently means fart! Aswell i learnt some cultural rules like what i can and cant wear, and they confirmed that my smoking must stop, but i dnt think thats going to cause a problem as i smoke out of habit, and if i'm busy, or out of daily routine i can not smoke for weeks.

I'm so excited, I just want to buy all my kit stuff and go..NOW! this has been made even stronger with the beginning of christmas songs at work yesterday (1st november) when rudolf the red nose reindeer is on every half an hour it makes me just want to scream, but i have what...6 or 7 weeks of it left! after a weekend of excitement, and talking to people who are passionate about the same things as me, to return to helping overweight women but jeans is hard, but not long now! whoooooooo

 

Posted by Emily ( 5:47 PM )
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Saturday Oct 14, 2006

less than three months!

well, its all getting a bit real now! The 3 month count down began on my 19th birthday last sunday, and now the pressure is on. I've just been given another £300 from a local rotary club, so thats a bonus! and a huge pack has arrived with what I need to pack, and general information about when we arrive and everything, so cant wait. Apart from that life continues as normal, working and enjoying western life while i can!

Afraid a very short entry, but nothing to tell!

x

Posted by Emily ( 12:09 PM )
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Monday Sep 18, 2006

3 & a half months!

well, only 3 and a bit months left, and Im getting so excited. Just had a minor panic with some paper work that I wouldnt be home in time to start uni, but it was just a typing error...thank God. And I refuse to be scared by the health booklet thats thicker than most normal books i read! there are whole pages about Bilharzia, S.T.I's, rabies and Dengue fever. Half the stuff I've never heard of before, and the other stuff I think i caught in Ghana. I've never been a hypochodriac (mostly because I cant spell it!) but now I starting to think I have every possible symptom. Luckily I've already got most of the immunisations, so wont have to have too many needles stabbed into me.

Fund raising is still very slow, got a possible idea, but need to clear it with one of the richest men in the world...Philip Green, the owner of arcadia, because I've been thinking of being a "Live maniquin" in the shop window where I work but obviously in huge companies I've got to have clearance from every level, and my manager is so busy at the moment it might never get any further. Just been writing to the proper HUGE companies for sponsorship, like IBM etc, who with many my dad has 'connections' . My fundraising was set back by a massive £50 last week with a snide little man putting a parking ticket on my car for 5 minutes over my time and me running back as fast as possible when I saw him! but thats a bit off track.

hopefully some more interesting things to write about will start soon on the fundraisng front, but at the moment its all just stress, oh except my Swahilli is improving, and I can now propose marriage, and order a chicken sandwich!

Posted by Emily ( 9:56 AM )
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Saturday Sep 02, 2006

usual update

wow, its seems I'm a bit behind in my blogs. Recently has been a bit of a whirl-wind. I got my results...which were good enough for birmingham uni. (BBB) after that I went to Momentum, which is a christian camp thing....its part of soul survivor, which is much better known. Got back from that about a week ago, and its been all go, saying goodbye to all my friends off to uni. Oh and plus....completly not volunteer related but I've just been chosen to be a model of sorts for Evans (where I work) so there are now  trips up to london to be done.

Volunteer wise I'm not much futher Im afraid, except worry and upset. My family and friends are all really supportive of my trip to Tanzania, and my ambitions in life, but people are still upset, mainly just two people; my mum and my best mate Hannah. When I traveled to Ghana my mum nearly had a nervous breakdown about me...shes not obsesivly protective, if anything shes the opposite, but her youngest daughter of 17 was in Africa alone with little communication, and she found out on the second day that I wasnt where she thought I was, because I got moved, and I was the first volunteer there. I can completly understand how she felt and I hate putting her through it, but i think she has much more confidence in me this time, and she knows she has to leave me to it now. But she is worried about my health because I came down with salmanela (cant spell) in Ghana, and got really ill. My best friend hannah, well shes a different matter...she wants to work in africa as a nurse once she's qualified and we are so close its impossible to say; we are like sisters and hardly miss a day of seeing each other, ...ok, babbling now! but shes really worried about me leaving, and how she's going to cope.

Looking at it from my way of course I will be completly home-sick...Im a country bumkin homey kind of girl who hates not having her own space and fields around her and I take a long time to make true friends, but I am confident in myself, and in God ( or whatever name different people call him/her/it!) I am expecting a rollercoaster of emotion, but I also think i am better prepared than many because of Ghana.  And surely thats half the point of the experience....volunteering benefits both parties, and my time in Tanzania will hopefully make me more confident and more flexible with things like where I live and being away from the good old south downs!

well I have to go, as work is beconing...and work means money for Tanzania.

Posted by Emily ( 8:14 PM )
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Wednesday Aug 02, 2006

holiday Club '06 + FUNDRAISING!

well still fundraising...what a suprise eh?! But also been doing something new. My local church have a holiday club every year. It runs for a week with activities from 10 till about 12.30/1pm and we have kids from 4-8. Ive been volunteering there since monday, and I just love it. I get to wear a snazzy t-shirt...ok sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but there you go. what I love is the kids. When we all move off to do different activities I go help with craft, which lets me get really messy! Yesterday we were making trumpets, and so we all smeared glue everywhere and made everything multi-coloured! Ive been helping out for a few years, but every year it shocks me how much I enjoy it.

As Im sure everyone in a dull job understands; I get really down hearted with the monotony, I enjoy clothes but after 8 hours of advising what colour suits people best, I must admit I couldnt care less what they wear or buy, so its a great relief to spend some time doing something I truely love, and that represents a future to me. I really want to become a teacher and make education interesting for kids, and every time I do something practical with children it just re-enforces how much the job would suit me.

Im also looking into some different volunteering, which is PAT dogs. We have 5 dogs at home, and I really want to do something practical with my old cavelier (Tommy) who is too decrepid to go for walks or swims like we used to. Plus I want other people to benefit. PAT dogs go round people in need of comaradery (cant spell) or would benefit from interaction with animals such as people with disabilities, people in nursing homes etc and they just stroke them and play with them. Not quite sure how much I can class it as me volunteering because all I do is hold on to one end of the lead. So I go to a talk on that next week to see if any of our pets are suitable, and how much commitment they require because obviously I dont want the people we visit to get attatched to Tommy, and then him stop visiting because Ive gone to Tanzania.

Added to all of this is the continual fundraising! now go £1500, so I'm exactly half way there, but still to collect £700 of that. Now writing to all my companies I have in mind to get some more money, and then once that is sorted I'll hopefully be in the local newspapers Chichester and Bognor Observers, but there is little point going ahead with that until I have sponsorship to advertise...if that makes sense.

sorry Ive written so much about...well....nothing!

em

Posted by Emily ( 12:23 PM )
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