my journey

What am I meant to write? Every tine I sit here I wonder what on earth I’m meant to say. I’m sorry if I end up just waffling or writing rubbish!

  I’ve been thinking about what I had to do to get here. I messed around on google trying to find work&charities that interested me (I spent about 1 hour actually researching charities and about 10 hours on facebook.) I then picked 3 charities and emailed them and then filled in their online forms. They all kindly responded so then came the rounds of emails, personal statements, phone interviews and face to face interviews. Then came the worst bit...waiting for a response!!! Waiting for the phone call and being terrified when the call does come! Happily I got accepted by all three chrities which was nice and for the only time in my life it was an easy choice.

  Now came the training, choosing a placement and the oh so exciting fundraising. Months of selling sweets to sugar happy kids, selling my car (sob!), cake stalls, bag packs and genrally begging! All this on top of buying equipmet (at the last minute) getting my inoculations done, applying for a visa (less than 24 hours before I left)and saying goodbye to my friends and family. All in all it’s been a funny year; a weird mix of waiting around and rushing around.

  In the midst of all that I couldn’t actually picture myself here but here I am. I am living in Ecuador! The first words I speak each morning and the last thing I say at night are in Spanish. My friends and family are all Ecuadorian, all my money is in dollars and I’ve started to read a Spanish bible. I am well and truly settled here and I am happy. There are times when I can’t quite believe this is real. When I look back at what I’ve achieved to get here and my hopes for the future I know that this is a momentous year. A friend calls this my “awfully big adventure” (I’ll let you work out the quote) and she is right!