A bit about me

That's one small move of the mouse, one giant leap for blogging kind!!!!

As I'm not actually in Africa yet, I thought I'd write a bit about letting you all know what I'm doing to get ready for this experience.

First off a bit of legal stuff (stop yawning at the back there)

Basically I’m going to a country in Africa (Not many people know which one, thankfully I do). The problem is that the mission I’m going on is in a difficult and insecure area.

As well as a large amount of armaments the main protagonists also have access to the web. Therefore in the interests of not compromising the safety and security of myself or the other people around me I’m not going to write about where I am working or the names of specific places, or the name of the organisation i'm going with, which does sound all a little bit secretive but if I didn't do it this way, this might end up being the shortest blog in history!
I’m not actually sure it’s that important to know anyway as this online diary is not about providing a running political commentary on the country in question. It is more about being an outlet for my thoughts and feelings on the issues and events that will confront me.

Monday, a few weeks ago, I accepted the position of nurse with an aid agency. This basically involves wandering around the countryside to various health clinics doing a bit of teaching and..... Well.... Rather than try and explain, read over the next few months and you’ll find out what I’ll do (and so, hopefully, will I!!!) I am thinking I might start taking bets on how closely the job description matches the actual job. Certainly no job, I've ever had has resembled the role advertised.

So me, in a paragraph, or two.

Born in St Thomas's Hospital (on the river Thames) in London on the 21st July 1981. To Roger and Hilary. Very happy childhood in the southeast corner of England, with one brother Julian. A spectacularly average school career ended with three A-levels but not a lot of direction.

So the direction taken was east. More specifically Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. There, though a series of happy (and not so happy) accidents I found myself both in a children’s medical centre and a vocation.

Three years in sunny (!) Liverpool, doing an adult nursing degree and three years in London doing a kiddy nursing degree, and a variety of other courses left me both sick of essays, exam phobic and ready to go back to the developing world for round two.
Well the gumsheild's back in, I'm off the stool and the bell has rung, here we go!