New skills and new friends
on Tricia Atherton (Rwanda), 06/Dec/2010 16:33, 34 days ago
I have just returned from the last weekend of training before I go off to Rwanda. When I arrived back home last night I had to dig the snow and ice away from my front door before I could get in - I don't think I will be having that particular problem in a few weeks time!The first part of the course was about health and security issues, so people of a queasy disposition got their chance to ask about creepy crawlies and naughty worms. The key learning points seem to be:have all your vaccinations and keep them up to datekeep taking the anti- malarialsonly drink clean boiled waterdon't eat food from street sellerssleep under a mosquito netdon't swim in the lakesThere is a small group of seven going to Rwanda in January and it was great to meet some of them this weekend. It's amazing to find out about the variety of placements available. People go out for 3months, 6 months, 12 months or two years, depending on the type of work that needs doing. My job involves long term change of attitudes and skill development, whereas another volunteer is going out to help some craft workers set up a small business and it needs to be time limited.It was a busy but fun weekend and strangely enough we were sharing the conference centre with a large group of women and children from all over Africa - it was great to join in their very noisy celebrations and gave us a taste of what is to come.It was weird to think that we were going out to their countries just as they had arrived in ours!! Fantastic