Return to England and Entering Professional Life

Hello all,

First blog post since returning to the UK. I've been back a little over a week now and am already missing Africa. Life over there is such a different experience to the modern western world that we live in, where we take such things as electricity and running water for granted. Although looking at the way things work I couldn't help but think that the western world could learn a few things. An excellent example is the way that nothing goes to waste and I really mean nothing. Me and Ben saw old car wheels being used as barbecues and grills being made out of old banding wire. One story Bob told us was about a guy whose scooter's front panel had been smashed. Instead of getting it replaced (cause there is little chance of him being able to afford it) he simply sewed it back together. Really wish I could of gotten a photo of that (Bob did say he had one, not sure if it was in the photos that Ben got off him). Ben used the example of his old car, it had a fault with it that caused it to be written off, but there wasn't really much wrong with the car itself apart from this one fault. In the UK the car was scrapped, in Africa it would of been fixed. Of course this is all driven by the lack of income that the majority of Africans have, but it was interesting to see how they dealt with life with very little income. One of the kids who came with the mission in Hoima said how happy all the children looked despite the fact that they had nothing and how kids in America simply weren't like that. But I ramble.

Tomorrow marks an extremely important day. My first day in my graduate job. I've been looking forward to this day for almost 6 months. I can quite clearly remember getting the phone call informing me that I got the job and remember with the fondness the feeling of elation as well as my celebration that evening and in fact the next day (dinner and a movie with Laura and then watching the final day of the 6 nations when Ireland got the Grand Slam, despite the rather large amount of work that still needed to be done at that point). Hopefully this job will make the last four years worth all the hassle, stress and pain. Althought the work for real won't start until I go to Chicago. One thing I have to stop doing is writing down Student as my occupation.

Well those are my thoughts for the moment and if any of you are interested in seeing some photos here are some links to the albums that Ben has put up.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Benjamin.P.Riddle/KibbuseVocationalSchoolUganda#
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Benjamin.P.Riddle/LakeAlbert#
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Benjamin.P.Riddle/WellDrillingInHoima#
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Benjamin.P.Riddle/KampalaToQENP#
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Benjamin.P.Riddle/MurchinsonFallsNationalPark#
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Benjamin.P.Riddle/JinjaKisumu#
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Benjamin.P.Riddle/MasaiMaraNairobi#

Till next time,