Less than a week to go...

It is now just under a week until I’ll board a flight to Addis Ababa and begin my 12 month placement as a volunteer paediatrician with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in Harar, Ethiopia.  My journey with VSO began about a year ago with an online application to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH)/VSO fellowship scheme, a programme that enables UK paediatric trainees to share their skills and improve outcomes for some of the worlds' most vulnerable children.  A selection day followed and I have since attended residential pre-departure training, as well as a more specific global child health course.  Contact with recent volunteers has been invaluable in helping me to prepare for what lies ahead.  I feel inspired by the incredible people that I have met on my journey so far and look forward to meeting many more in Ethiopia.

It has been strange not to be part of the annual rotation to new paediatric posts within the Severn Deanery but I am very much looking forward to spending a year in a completely different setting.  It is hard to imagine what life will be like (and therefore what is most useful to pack!) but I hope that I will soon adapt to my new surroundings.  I will initially spend ten days completing ‘in-country training’ at the VSO Office in Addis Ababa.  Most importantly this will give me the opportunity to get to know the other new volunteers and help us to understand the culture (and language...) of the Ethiopian people.  After this orientation I understand that I will fly to Dire Dawa in the east of the country and complete the rest of the journey to Harar by road.  I hope that I will be sharing accommodation with the other new VSO volunteer, Helen, and that the three current VSO volunteers will help us settle in to a very different lifestyle.  I am sure that my first visit to the hospital will be quite overwhelming but hope that I will be able to work with local colleagues to identify how my skills will be best utilised.

Thank you all for your support and good wishes over the past month or so.   I will be in touch again soon from Ethiopia and look forward to sharing my adventures with you.