Well I finally made it to The Gambia after missing my original flight scheduled for Thursday. The traffic on the M25 was horrendous and we simply hadn't left ourselves enough time to get there. I was cool as a cucumber as I phoned the travel office to let them know I had missed the final check-in time and would need to re-book a ticket. Luckily VSO are a fantastic organisation; they issued me another ticket for Saturday and told me not to worry about it. Still, as I got off the phone I burst into tears and snivelled, 'But I really wanted to go today. I'm so disappointed.' After all, I had been waiting for this day almost all year.

But here I am, in Fajara, sitting outside my room in the Safari Garden Hotel. I arrived at 10pm last night after a 12 hour flight via Brussels and Guinea. Flying over the Sahara was really quite unbelievable. I was met at the airport by VSO staff who drove me to the hotel where some other new VSO volunteers were sitting at the bar waiting to welcome me. They are a great bunch; an interesting mix of experienced development workers who have been all over the world and others like me who are doing it for the first time. I think they'll be a supportive group of friends and they seem up for a laugh too.

I slept well despite the humidity and woke today to the sound of unusual birdsong. I smiled when I looked up and saw the mosquito net and remembered I am in Africa. I took a walk to the beach at the end of the road with the rest of my new gang. We found a very cool bar/restaurant and ate a tasty local dish called Benechin- a fish and vegetable stew made with broken rice. I paddled in the warm sea and then we walked back to our hotel where I've been swimming and chatting and pottering around since.

The In-Country training starts tomorrow and we are moving from the hotel into our new houses this week. It's funny to think that I'm not just on holiday; this is my home now. It's sinking in but still quite unreal.

So I'm here, I'm really happy and I want to say thank you to all of my friends and family who have been incredibly supportive and have helped me prepare for this adventure by donating money and buying me useful items to bring with me. Thanks for being so positive and nice about the whole thing too.

I'm off to hang out with my new crew round the pool. It's a hard life. Check out the photo of the beach at the end of the road! xx