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All About Africa
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One Week to Go! - Niamh O Riordan. Hello hello hello. I can hardly believe it. We are off in seven days. At seven a.m. Typical! Why do I always end up on flights that are either ridiculously early or ridiculously late? Anyway, I'll get over it. I'm about to embark on a trip I've been looking forward to, preparing for and working toward for about three months now. I have to say, ever since we booked our flight to Cairo last week, it's all become very real. We've been very busy. It's been like a long distance sprint. We've been pushing ourselves so hard. First of all there was the market research in January. Then we had to create a business plan for ourselves. Then there was the project planning and budgeting. After that we had to contact all of the local schools asking if we could visit them. Then we had to actually create and deliver schools talks. This was actually great fun. I've really been enjoying visiting the schools. People on the street have taken to asking me when I'm off. We had to speak to as many Irish aid agencies and bodies as we could find. We had to build a website, design our logos, get images for ourselves. In the middle of all of this we started writing articles for the Imokilly People. We had to contact local media (96 and 103FM, CRY Radio, the Echo, the Examiner) and let them know what we were up to. We were looking for corporate sponsorship for our articles and our map poster so we spent a lot of time organizing all of that and then there was the trip itself. We had to organize our vaccines, determine our route, order currencies, sort out flights and travel insurance, decide what to do about Malaria (I'll be on anti-malarials for an incredible nine months and Malachy is going to take his chances with this potentially fatal disease - poor guy!), find out about visas and embassies and consulates. Are you getting tired just reading this? Imagine how I feel! Here I am with a week to go and I still have a fortune of work to do. As I write, the sun is shining and I would love to go for a walk but I just don't have time - I must edit all of the images on the website as they've been poorly compressed and I must write another article for the Imokilly People. Meanwhile, Malc is stranded in the city tearing about the place picking up cash, traveller's cheques, travel insurance, under 26 cards, dropping books back to Comhlamh (they're on Grand Parade and have a wealth of useful information) and God only knows what else. Don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled to be doing all of this. The trip will be amazing and the project has been well received and should be really good. I'm so lucky to have this opportunity. I've already learned so much and I haven't even left home yet. The thing is that I just haven't had the time to contemplate this trip. I wake every morning with knots in my stomach and I ask myself if I really am going to do this but then the day begins and I don't have time to consider it. I alternate between feeling that it will all be fine (we'll be healthy, we will meet nice people, we wont be robbed and we wont get lost in the desert) and a sense that I'm about to commit suicide. And then I think to myself, big deal! It's only Africa. It's not Mars. People travel there all the time. I wont be the only Westerner ever to set foot in Africa. "Get over it!", I say. What do you think? You can email me. Or post a comment on the message board. I'd love to hear from you. |
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