Little tangerine in a big fruit bowl. Today I did actually have my first day at work, which is cause for a little celebration me thinks. Having been told to arrive at 8.30am, I got to the offices on time only to be greeted by an eerie silence, and seemingly no-one around. Dreading another tumble-weed morning like yesterday's, I began to wander around to see if I could find any signs of life. Office by office, one by one, the doors creaked open to reveal empt...

I was really looking forward to my 'first day at work', I was quite excited and couldn't help myself, even though I had been warned by others not to expect too much! In a way I hould have guessed what was about to happen, after all it was familiar territory in Malawi...You arrange to meet someone, you together set a date, you together agree the time. So you sort yourself out to be there on that date and that time, ready for the perfectly pre-arranged get-toget...

Zebilla is such a lovely little town! It's one strip of main road, with the hills of Burkina Faso in the distance on one side, and a huge expanse of farmland and rural communities on the other. It has a fantastic small town vibe, full of noise, colour and cacophony on market days, and a quieter hum-drum of rural African life on the others. The people are fantastically friendly, as we were confidently told they would be, and every journey takes twice the length...

Finally I have arrived at my new home!!! Arriving at the house I was greeted by all the members of the free range community that happen to live on our doorstep and roam about our house. First was the family of chubby and rather hairy pigs that I practically had to climb over to reach the doorstep seeing as they were too concerned with their snuffling in the mud to even notice my arrival. The naughty-looking goats loitering by the mango tree like a bunch o...

22nd Feb 2012 Long journey. Long blog post. Long time before I'll forget this adventure. When I was told to bring an alarm clock, because the busses leave early in Ghana, I promptly popped that on my list of pre-trip birthday presents, and one was magically conjoured up (or at least ordered on the ASDA website, which to me now does seem like magic) by my wonderful friend Penny and it was popped safely and happily into my bag. Now I wish I had left the d...