Training and Getting Ready to go

Once I had a placement offer there were still a lot of hoops to jump through - all had to be completed as quickly as possible as VSO Uganda wanted me to start ASAP, and I couldn't tell work as my placement wasn't confirmed until I had completed all the clearance procedures and training. It was a whirlwind few weeks of medical check ups, dental check ups and much form filling in the run up to Christmas.

Much to my mother's delight one of the recommendations for my placement was that I learn to ride a motorbike, so over my Christmas break I took a day and a half of motorbike lessons at home in Northern Ireland. A few false starts, some wobbles and one wheelie later I successfully passed my CBT and spent some time riding around the back roads of Northern Ireland in the cold, wind and rain - I am sure it will be great preparation for the heat and dust of Uganda!

Finally, all my clearances came through in early January and my flights were booked for 17th February. The final steps to complete were handing in my notice at work, packing and saying goodbye to everyone in the UK. It wasn't all plain sailing (Boots in Northern Ireland in early February didn't quite have the amount of factor 50 suncream I needed!) but I managed to purchase everything I thought I might need for a year in Uganda, and eventually get it fitted into two bags in plenty of time to catch my plane.