Reflections

There is 1 week remaining for me here in Uganda and my mood is definitely changing. It's not that I don't want to return to the UK, but there is definitely a sense of 'reality' knocking. With a new job to start in 6 weeks time in Somerset (brilliant news!), my studies to pick up again in February (very worthwhile) and the world of general responsibility with which to be reunited (c'est la vie), the heady excitement of this adventure on the other side of the world starts to become somewhat diluted. For many of my colleagues here, this world is their long-term reality. They have contracts at Childs i and Kampala is their home for the foreseeable future; they are doing fantastic work in this country.

There is a strong part of me which would love to follow up my Ugandan friend's suggestion to look for a teaching job out here and really settle in for a year or two. I believe I would be happy. Life here for me as a mzungu from The Land of Far Far Away (last week's panto Shrekerella was fabulous!), despite the daily 'challenges' associated with Kampala chaos, power cuts, corruption and so on, is stimulating, fascinating, shocking, inspiring, entertaining, eye-opening and so much more in ways which my life in the UK tends not to be. It is the extent of the dampening of those factors which has pushed me to undertake such trips every few years – moving outside of one's comfort zone, overcoming the initial hurdles of fear, anxiety, discomfort and home-sickness, can deliver you to a place where so many slumbering senses can be awakened.

It is not only the sheer adventure and fun of it all, but really seeing how another part of the world ticks along. It gives you perspective; for all the ways in which my life in the months to come may resemble the one which I left behind before the trip in terms of work, social life, concerns about money, the future and the myriad of elements which make up our daily routines, I will also carry with me the experience of seeing days old babies brought to the babies' home having been abandoned in rubbish dumps or car parks, 2 year olds deserted by their mothers at police stations and all the trauma with which they will be afflicted (that is not to say that these situations do not occur in the UK and all over the world, but it is here that I have been exposed to them). I've experienced the extent to which the everyday workings upon which we rely can be disfunctional; policemen, guns slung over shoulders, hauling you over in the car to charge you a completely unjustified whopping fine, the inconvenience caused by the lack of water and power on a semi-regular basis when you are trying to feed and clean tens of needy infants, and the list goes on. Life as we know it in the West is worlds away from that experienced by so many on this planet; we would do well to shed our complacency.

There is a debate around how valuable you can be to a project or a community on a short-term basis; to spend a couple of months somewhere, acclimatise, experience the culture, contribute what you can in terms of work and then leave again. For myself, no doubt like many others, the limited timescale was my only option at this point and undeniably, such an experience can be as valuable to the person in question (in this case me!) as it is to the project or community you are working with. I hope and feel that my contribution to Childs i's nursery scheme will have made a positive difference to the toddlers' daily lives at the home, continued as it will be by Christine, a Ugandan employee there. However, I myself have benefited enormously from my time here. I left one life behind in London, riddled with cracks as it had become, stepped out into the unknown, have grabbed hold of the adventure with both hands, immersed myself in a different culture, formed special durable friendships, had Fun, felt Happy and will return to the UK to a location and job which feels far more suited to my natural preferences; I will have crossed over.

It seems to me, from my experiences of late, that if you take all the steps possible to help yourself, you are likely to be given an extra push by a helping hand.