One Geek

Well I’m now on the train to Heathrow. Waiting to leave England. I leave having visited Malaysia, Uganda, Belgium, France, Northern Ireland, Ireland, as well as of course England.

Did I accomplish what I set out ti? in a word no. I thought I was going to be able to use research methods in Africa that require far more time and planning then I could do. I found the needs in the area of IT in Uganda is great, and complex. I wish I could of done more to help the organisations I visited. I found that lack of infrastructure, expensive prices and poor training made the use of ICT far less effective then it could otherwise of been.

I set out trying to define my life for the next few years by determining where I could serve over the next few years, only to have that worked out two weeks before I even left. What I did find is that my future colleagues are helping small frail but ultimately powerful fighters of poverty a lot. I am looking forward to serving and helping them be more effective.

I set out planning to be largely independent and end up living closely with two awesome TEAR Fieldworkers and getting to know their community.

I had a wonderful time having a holiday with my friend Pete who’s in the Peace Corps. He has had a challenging year, but is ready to face another year in The Gambia. I enjoyed staying in a great bed & breakfast in Brugge, Belgium. I enjoyed visiting the pubs, and chocolate shops their a lot. I got stuck arriving in Paris looking for accommodation for a night. I went to the top of the Effiel Tower, and was starting to fall in love with the city when I left.

My highlight though was Belfast where I caught up with my friend Ally who I met in India I got to meet her fiancé who was pretty cool (I am always glad when people choose well). We travelled 200miles in a day as she showed us the best of Northern Ireland, and a little of Ireland. Then we out for dinner at an Indian restaurant, which was just a great time reminiscing with Pete and Ally about our time in India. On Sunday we went to church and out to lunch with some people from her church, which was really good. I love Irish humour.

Last night and today was mainly spent hanging out with Pete in London. It was a good day. It was a bit sad and strange to say goodbye again to Pete, but I was glad I got to spend this past 8 days with him.

So now I head back to Australia to live in a new city, with a new job. I hope that Melbourne and TEAR are good to me. I’m not sure quite how it will all work out but I am thinking at the moment it will be good.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 6:05 am and is filed under About stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.