Am I ready?
on My VSO Ethiopian Adventures (Ethiopia), 03/Sep/2010 11:42, 34 days ago
Well, with a week to go, this is the key question. The pressure to extricate myself from this country and deal with all the necessary property, household, financial and family matters has really prevented me from preparing adequately for the place, the job and the people I am going to. With all the training under my belt and the expectations around continued self-briefing, there is potentially an enormous amount of information that I should by now have digested and resultant knowlege and understanding that I should have gained. I even took out 5 books on international development themes to read and subsequently took them back 6 weeks later, mostly unread - and that was before I started getting really busy!Hence I have masses of files in electronic format to take, as well as a lot of hard copy material.And that points to the next challenge, how to get all the stuff that I will need and am likely to need into the allocated weight limit!? Suggestions to bring a garlic press and a non-stick frying pan sound bizarre to me compared to items like suitable footwear, necessary toiletries and medical supplies and key items for the job, as well as the bare essentials for leisure time. Most of what is in the category of 'nice to take' has already been jettisoned! Of course when I arrive at the other end, despite lots of helpful advice and tips, I'm sure I will find that I have bought all the wrong things!Separating myself from my house, which is being rented unfurnished is not a task to be underestimated, which in terms of time, organisation and challenge, I definitely have done! This weekend friends are helping me do the final furniture move, my bed has now been disassembled and still chaos reigns and still household items are to be found in nooks and crannies.Its a very sobering experience when one considers that the basic problem is one of having too much and that probably even though a mass of stuff has already been thrown out, after a year in Africa, I will realise that half of what I am hanging onto is superfluous to requirements. No doubt as soon as I arrive I will remember things I have simply thrown out that would have been SO useful out there and could have helped someone no end. The frustrations of distribution and not easily being able to get things to the point at which they are needed even when the rich west/north is willing to let go. My small scale experience is an analogy for everyday behaviours at higher levels between nations. I have too much stuff, but its not easy to let it go and this has been a challenging process for me.So, I don't feel as well prepared for what I will find in Ethiopia as I think I should be. I would have liked to have spent much longer learning, reflecting and understanding in some depth some of the issues covered in the training courses. However, another point of view may argue that this may lead to fixed ideas and that the situation, particularly the job, is likely to be very different to what may have previously been described in writing. So, I will have to start a steep learning curve once I'm there and simply absorb everything, trying to make sense of it all and respond appropriately.Final thoughts - what will I miss? How do I feel emotionally now?Having been through the intense preparations of the last 2 months, I've reached the point of no return. What is about to happen is the inevitable consequence of what I have been through. This experience has got to come, got to happen and yes, I am ready and reconciled to that, no regrets. I have spent so long preparing for this and eventually it is upon me. However, I feel tired and rather emotionally drained from the preparation and am hoping that I will be able to cope with the demands of the new situation, and that it will not be too overwhelming early on and that I will be able to take things in my stride.I know I need to do this and I just go back to my original reasons for wanting to do VSO and they are still very firmly in place.What will I miss? I honestly don't know as I sit here, I haven't had a chance to think about it. I will let you know as time goes by. I am concerned about operating in 40degreesC without airconditionning and trying to keep fit and healthy at the same time, but that doesn't mean I shall miss the British climate!