How I got to Africa

Fetching water for home

In our pre-departure trainings, volunteers were always reminded that despite their skills and competencies they should not expect to produce miracles in their placements.  We are there to share what we have and not to impose.

Chickens come home to roast

I have not accomplished for others anything inexplicable but I had recent personal experiences that I can describe either as serendipity, good luck or miracle. 

Prisoners on the way to court

My getting into volunteer work in Uganda started with the chance reading of the VSO ad in an

in-flight magazine during our return flight from a family holiday

Papyrus stringed into mats

last December 2009.  New year's day found me filling-in the forms for sending online on the first business day of 2010.  I thought this was a 

wonderful gift to me because volunteering was something I wanted to do some years back.

Highway vendors

Initially, I was to go to Vanuatu, formerly known as New Hebrides. The prospect of living in the South Pacific Islands attracted me until I accidentally met a stranger in one of our trainings.  I started our conversation by telling him that I admired the intricately carved wooden cane that he was using.  He said it was a gift from a tribal chief in Vanuatu.

Shot of the moon taken at high noon in Gulu

That's when I learned that he volunteered in Vanuatu, a place that he could circle on foot in one day. (He could be exaggerating because of his limp.) I then changed my topmost placement preference to Africa.  I was not disappointed.   I think at this moment that with these two unexpected occasions, Someone up there where the sun and the moon are, had given me the choice of serving time in Africa - now.