Tuesday 26 October 2010

To kindle or not to kindle?

Think...it's to kindle. Having been utterly disgusted at the thought of using ibooks or ebooks - I am now totally hooked (Thanks Rebecca). Infact the downloading of books has slightly spiralled out of control. I am addicted to downloading. The book list so far:

Nothing to Envy
Thousand Splendid Suns
Brave New World
The White Tiger
A Fine Balance
Three Cups of Tea
Half of a yellow Sun
The Help
The Shadow of the Wind
A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich

This will keep me going for a while I think. Please post any more books you think I may like. Think of what I could pack instead of all these books (GHD's? No. I'm afraid they are still on the reserve list and will probably get nowhere near the shortlist).

Friday 22 October 2010

My first ever blog

Well then, the technophobe comes to the internet 2.0 feast!
They say you can take a horse to water but you can't make him drink, well Pam has managed the equivalent of trussing this horse into a ducking stool and between desparate gulps of sweet air as I surface I'll update the reader as to my movements.

I have shied away from this sort of thing before now because I tend to feel it turns us all into self-styled Pepys' or Bunyan's, writing for our immortal contribution to posterity; but I think we all know that after the asteroid all electronica will simply become detritus to the new society, useful only to the extent that it can help build a shelter, with all its miraculous complexity lost to survivors.

I have an excuse for keeping this journal though, as it is by the good will and funding of the Yorkshire Deanery that I am able to be away from normal work at the moment, leaving my colleagues short on the rota, to be in Liverpool studying tropical medicine at the School of Tropical Medicine. You may have seen it on the telly recently in Help I caught it abroad 2. I seemed to have been the only one who hadn't seen that programme before the course started. All the nurses at work told me about the eye worm, which I now to be Loa Loa. This blog can be part of my record of te time on the course.

The course is brilliant and I have been having such a good time. It is a great way to prepare for spending a year in the tropics. I have been looking down the microscope at different worms and other creepy crawlies and I can (hopefully) tell the different types of mosquito from each other.

One of the best things about the course is to meet lots of other doctors who are taking a leap into the unknown, and best of all for me is that two of them are my brother Mark and his girlfriend Steph. We had a trip away to Snowdonia the other week and climbed the mountain. I'll try to dig out a photo of us at the top and put it on the blog.

Thats all for now....


Thursday 21 October 2010

And your laminated card is...(turn it over)....IMF/World Bank

Following our intense VSO e-learning course, Jim and I have just been on our first VSO residential weekend at Harbourne House in Birmingham. The only way I can describe this was like being on The Apprentice for 3 long consecutive days (and nobody was fired although it is possible even at this stage in the game)....HARD WORK! It was lovely to meet other fellow volunteers to get us even more excited and galvanised about what we are about to do. All excercises were designed to explore culture and global development but I nearly died when we were all handed laminated cards - to give a short brief to the rest of the team. I know you won't believe me but I did manage to say a few words about the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, their influences and their effect on global development. Yep I surprised even myself.

Tuesday 5 October 2010

Prep before we go...

As you can imagine - leaving the country isn't an easy task. Not only are there direct debits to cancel, addresses to divert, accounts to stop, belongings to move out of the house, finding a home for wee Pablo....there is also the mental preparation involved before embarking on something like this. We are in the middle of a VSO 'Preparing to Volunteer' e-learning course at the moment, learning about adapting to different cultures and global development. In a few weeks time we'll be meeting some of the other volunteers on a residential weekend in Birmingham. It's all very well thought out and organised! I just hope by the end of it, I am prepared. Oh and I've just ordered a Teach Yourself Swahili CD from Amazon as well today!

Monday 4 October 2010

Where are we going exactly?

Good question! We will be in a village called Nyangao which is in the Lindi region. Dar Es Salaam is apparently 8-12 hours away by road and Mtwara town is about 2-4 hours from Nyangao. My arrow is probably totally in the wrong place but I'll move it when I know exactly where we are! Nyangao is such a small place that even google map can't locate it.


...anywhere within a hundred mile radius of the arrow head! 

Friday 1 October 2010

The fundraising bit...

Jim and I are trying to raise £900 each before we embark on this adventure. We've already organised a few events (jim has been busking and I have been selling art work) and slowly we are reaching our target. The next event will be a fundraising party/leaving party at our house in October and I'm hopeful that we will reach the target soon. Donating to VSO helps to send skilled professionals to share their knowledge and experience with people living in poverty. This knowledge and experience will change their lives, brings hope and provides lasting solutions to poverty and disadvantage. This is a BIG thank you to all that have donated so far. http://original.justgiving.com/jimandpamadventureour g
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ill go a long way. You’ll be helping to send skilled professionals to share their knowledge and experience Your gift will go a long way. You’ll be helping to send skilled professionals to share their knowledge and experience with people living in poverty. This knowledge and experience changes their lives, brings hope and provides lasting solutions to poverty and disadvantage. people living in poverty. This knowledge and experience changes their lives, brings hope and provides lasting solutions to poverty and disadvantage.