Toodle pip

This weekend I attended the VSO's Pre-Departure Information & Preparation (PIP) course. An amazing amount of information was provided in a fun & participatory way, but the highlight really was the other people on the course. It was great to spend the weekend with other people preparing to do similar work in similar places & many of them had a wealth of experience living and working abroad to share as well.

The course also raised many interesting issues about working in the development sector and in developing countries: are development workers the new missionaries? Certainly we are going to help and in some cases educate people in developing countries, but we will endeavors to do this in a participatory & capacity building way. However 'participatory' and 'capacity building' are to some extent just NGO buzz words - we tried to unpick them a little on the course & in the short term I am placated to the idea that I will be making a positive difference and not just sermonising. But I think I will have to try to keep an awareness of the risk of exacerbating a problem that in the bigger picture caused developing countries to be in this spiral of poverty in the first place.

Questions

I was in a taxi once & the driver had a laminated card saying

• 'yes I am having a good night'
• 'yes it has been busy'
• 'no, I don't like to chat'

It's lovely that everyone is so interested in my trip, but I'm considering getting a laminated card myself:

• 'yes, it is exciting'
• 'yes, it is a great opportunity'
• 'no, I'm not ready'
• 'I'm going to be researching infant and maternal mortality on an Island called Flores in the East of Indonesia'

And perhaps a few other responses for some of the stranger questions I've received:

• 'yes, they do have wardrobes in Indonesia'

But I'm not complaining really - it's great that everyone is being so supportive... Perhaps I should just give them the address for this blog instead though!

Dead arm

One of the minor downsides of traveling to far flung places is the plethora of vaccinations you have to have. My list isn't too long, but certainly none of them are pleasant... today I started a course of Jap B & Rabies injections - the injections themselves weren't too painful (unlike the Hep B) but I'm anticipating a dead arm by this evening :-(

This weekend I saw my parents for the last time before my departure - they live in a sleepy little seaside village in North Norfolk (Mundesley) but we met at my brothers place in Docklands and went out for lunch at a local Tapas restaraunt. I gave them their Christmas cards & they gave me a Christmas present to take out to Indonesia with me "yes Mr Customs Official, I did pack all my bags myself...!"



The whole family



me & my Mum

1st post : 1st blog

Well this is my first ever post on my first ever blog...

I've decided to write this as I'm off to Indonesia in 19 days to go and work as a researcher on the Island of Flores.

Some credit has to be paid in all this (both the blog & the Indonesian adventure in general) to my friend and former NFER colleague Kathryn Tomlinson. Kathryn also left the NFER (although she never planned to come back again) to go and work in Indonesia. I think our reasoning in taking on such a challenge may have a little in common although I'm sure our experiences will be very different, but anyway to learn more about Kathryn's time in Indonesia checkout her blog, Flying Fish. Meanwhile I hope you come back regularly and read about my new life too.