Weekly Photo Challenge: Creepy Spider

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Creepy.”

Taken just over two years ago in Viet Nam. This spider was hanging outside the toilet at our stop on trek in the Yok Don.

Yok Don – Spider

Weekly Photo Challenge: Scale (of Insects)

A submission to this week’s photo challenge : scale.
In the tropics insects come big like this (sadly dead) bee from right here in Tanzania …….

… and small like these ants in Vietnam, feeding on a glob of jam.

Weekly Photo Challenge : Signs of Vietnam

Here is a submission to this week’s photo challenge on the theme of signs. All taken last summer on a trip to Vietnam. I particularly like the Christmas Shop in Pleiku in the middle of August!

Ho Chi Minh City

Pleiku

Yok Don

Nha Trang to Buin Ma Thuot

Nha Trang

Buon Ma Thuot to Pleiku

Buon Ma Thuot

Summer of a Different Kind

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Today is the first day of the Summer Holidays. Normally this would mark the start of a six week break. A chance to get off the hamster wheel which is work and rest for a little while before climbing back on in time for the exam results. Of course this is a different kind of summer. With contracts signed and exchanged and a completion date set for 29th we have lots to do. Thankfully our buyers are happy to allow us to remain until the 31st or 1st but even so a week and a bit to clear out. We still have things to sell and dump and give away and little time to do it. Even with a lot done there is a lot to do still. To add to the mix we have a series of injections over the next 4 days – for me not too many but plenty for the rest. Today is also Anita’s mum’s birthday and a chance to celebrate as a family. We’re juggling lots of priorities at the moment 🙂

A year ago today I was in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and down in the Mekong Delta. Here are a couple of reminders.

Bug Proof?

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Having just come down into our kitchen to make a morning ‘cuppa’, it struck me that we need to change our habits, as we leave our relatively sanitised UK life for life in the tropics.

Weekly Photo Challenge: (Hotel) Room

Hotel Room

A submission to the Weekly Photo Challenge : Room 

I took this photograph whilst relaxing after a long day on the coach from Buon Ma Thuot to Pleiku (Vietnam) and listening to the “Live at Bush Hall – EP” by Alison Moyet, which I’d  just downloaded over wi-fi. The hotel room was somewhat basic but little did I know that the bed in question had an ant’s nest in it – that night was not a pleasant one for sleeping!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Split Second Story – Lakeland Casualty

A submission to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Split Second Story

This photo was taken last summer in Derwent Water in the Lake District. It sums up a big story for us in the past two years.

Reading by Derwent Water

On Friday January 27 2012 Anita was cycling to work in Milton Keynes when rounding a bend she slipped on ice and fell, shattering her forearm in the process.

Hidden Costs

T Minus 86

Moving abroad isn’t cheap!

Weekly Word Challenge : Travel

A submission to the Weekly Word Challenge : Travel

As a child I wanted to visit every country in the world.
As yet this aim has not been achieved. However, I have traveled widely in Europe and can count the following in the list of places visited

• Austria
• Belgium
• Denmark
• Croatia (as part of Yugoslavia)
• Czech Republic (also as Czechoslovakia)
• Estonia
• France
• Germany
• Gibraltar
• Greece
• Hungary
• Italy
• Liechtenstein
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands
• Slovakia (also as Czechoslovakia)
• Slovenia (as part of Yugoslavia)
• Spain
• Switzerland
• Vatican

Although I have been fortunate in recent years to travel more widely in Europe many of these countries were ‘ticked off’ in two family holidays as a child.
My dad drove for a living as a Food Technologist, so the thought of travelling across Europe with only the Ferry and first night’s accommodation booked was no problem to him. The first trip, in 1980, took us through Belgium, down through Germany following the Rhein, staying in towns (e.g Boppard) along the way – veering across Southern Germany and into Austria. We entered near Salzburg and tracked back towards Switzerland. The small town of Telfs in the Alps comes to memory as does Bregenz on the shores of Lake Constance. We then travelled on through Switzerland and back through France. The last night was memorable. Seeking to find a place in Luxembourg we did not realise that they did not accept French Francs and so ended up in Northern France in a run down town. The hotel was old and the owner somewhat intimidating – we asked for steak and were served horse (Dad was a Food Technologist and so knew the difference.

Yugoslavia 1981

Yugoslavia 1981

Sunset over the Adriatic

View of St Mark’s Square – Venice

Our second trip in 1981 began as before but this time we travelled via Mannheim ( where we spent a surreal day watch the wedding of Charles and Di on TV in a Lounge accompanied by a German lady whose repeatedly commented “Schön Schön”). Leaving Manheim and on to to Southern Austria staying near Klagenfurt before crossing into what was then Yugoslavia. We turned up in one town Opatija in what is now Croatia, liked the hotel so much we stayed a week. We use the time to visit the caves at Postojna as well as spending a fabulous time on the beach. We travelled from there into Slovenia and up to Venice in Italy. Leaving Yugoslavia via Italy and Southern Germany where we stayed in the Black Forest before returning home.

These holidays were tremendous experiences in an age when petrol was a lot cheaper and company mileage included holidays! We couldn’t do it today unfortunately.

Other than this my only childhood experience of foreign parts were a German exchange and a day trip to France.
In more recent years I have travelled further afield travelling to

• West Africa visiting The Gambia (with a brief sojourn into Senegal)
• South East Asia visiting Vietnam and Cambodia (with an 8 hour stop over in Thailand and a journey across the city between airports – so it counts – just).

 

Looking down on Tallinn Old City from Toompea Castle

Vatican St Peter’s

Sunrise in Holland

Zierikzee Windmill

Weekly a Photo Challenge: On The Move (7) – On a different scale

Another submission to this weeks Photo Challenge from my trek through Yok Don last summer in Vietnam.

Unlike the Elephants this is on a completely different scale.These ants had captured a centipede and were dragging it away. I love the way they joined to form ‘ropes’ which heaved the bug along.

 

Weekly a Photo Challenge: On The Move (5) – On The Road in Vietnam

My fifth submission to this weeks Photo Challenge is taken from the road trips last summer through Vietnam

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: On The Move (2) – On An Elephant

Last Year whilst Trekking in Yok Don (Vietnam) I got the chance to go on an Elephant Trek. On the Move in a very different way as these gentle animals meandered through the forest. They were treated well as far as we could see and the trek was under the franchise of the Yok Don nature reserve. It was a great couple of hours!

On Elephant Back

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/on-the-move/

Vietnam

T Minus 132

A day off preparing today – a heavy cold preventing me from doing a lot. Two viewings today – but as yet no offers on the house, so we wait.

 

As part of an aim to blog earlier travels before leaving for Tanzania,  the Vietnam Page is now live with content.

Follow the link to see much more detail and more pictures. 😀

Weekly Photo Challenge: Threshold -5

These four photos represent the furthest I have been on the earth so far and are therefore my personal thresholds.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Threshold -2

This remote crossing in the jungle between Pleiku (Vietnam) and Banlung (Cambodia) was traversed in August 2013 as part of a World Challenge Trip to those two countries. Strange to come across this place in the middle of nowhere. It can take several hours to cross if you’re unlucky. Fortunately it only took us an hour!

Brave?

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You’re brave!

It’s a comment I’ve heard a few times.

I’ve never thought of myself a particularly brave, but it is probably true. Others might feel I’m reckless or foolhardy – with these sentiments I can’t agree, though I appreciate the concern.

In truth I could have ‘pootled’ (is that a word?) along for years as I was – day in day out for years to come and reached retirement never having travelled beyond the two-week summer break and maybe the odd World Challenge expedition. I probably would have become increasingly frustrated with the education policy in England but endured it all with Facebook moans to keep me sane.

In an alternate universe then maybe that is what will happen.

In this universe I’m taking a different path and bringing my family along for the ride.

From an early age I wanted to travel the world. I have been lucky enough to see most of Western Europe and a bit of Eastern Europe.
Lord Williams’s School has given me great opportunities to travel to The Gambia and Vietnam/Cambodia, but I want to see more, to travel further.

Since joining WordPress I have read many interesting and amazing blogs written by people travelling throughout the world from Greenland, Norway and Iceland in the North to Laos, Taiwan and East Timor in the East, as well as many from Africa including  Tanzania and especially Mwanza itself.

Mwanza is located in the north-west  of Tanzania close to Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda and it should be possible to travel there and further afield (e.g. Malawi, Zambia) during holidays a relatively little cost. It is something I definitely want to do whilst out there. Being just 2.5 hours by road from The Serengeti is a major plus. Obviously I am not just going for the holiday but it is all part of the experience and will be affordable in a way it can’t be in the UK.

In the UK most of our income goes to pay the Mortgage and Utilities, Car (inc Fuel) and Food. Whilst in Mwanza, though my wage will be low (by UK standards) we get a house provided and utilities paid. I can’t imagine food will be expensive and although we hope to get a car, fuel won’t be either. Outgoings should be a lot less and so holidays will be more affordable.

Thirteen years ago I made a much braver decision to resign from my Science teaching job and become a supply teacher giving up a secure job and holiday pay. I had had enough of teaching and a bad experience with the school head (being shouted at in a corridor in front of parents – for something I hadn’t done wrong!!!) left me disillusioned and determined to get out of education. Applying for a Web Design course I took supply work to pay the bills. Luckily for me in  less than two months I had a supply contract at another local school which evolved to a permanent position after completing my web design course. Reinvigorated in my teaching I applied elsewhere and this led me to my current job and a change to teaching ICT. Ultimately this lead to being  appointed Head of ICT and now (5 and a half years later) to the taking  job at Isamilo.

I believe God is at the centre of this chain of events – And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28  NIV)

Who knows where the chain will lead next?

So bravely we leave the UK in August but we do so confidently.

How did I get here?

T Minus 175
Taking up a job in a foreign country in a city you’ve never been to and a school you’ve never visited is a daunting thing to do.

Granted – teaching is teaching is teaching and I’ve been doing that for twenty-six years.

Faces change

hour by hour,

day by day,

week by week,

term by term,

year by year.

Even so  the role is essentially the same. Even changing country doesn’t phase me too much. I have spent (albeit very briefly) some time in a Gambian school and found that in spite of being on a different continent there were many similarities.

Classroom at BUBS, Brikama, Gambia (May 2006)

Time spent travelling in the Gambia with colleagues in 2006 was a great experience and fired up a desire to return to Africa at some point. This desire had actually been with me since I qualified in 1988- before I’d even heard about my future wife Anita who was then a development worker in Malawi.

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To be honest the death of my dad, 10 weeks later put these things on hold for a few years. The needs of family were paramount for a time.

Within a couple of years I was appointed as Head of ICT at my school. This was a new challenge and one which I relished. It was exciting to take the reins and plot the future of a subject. There were pressures of course but I relished the challenge. I built a good team around me. Much of my first year was spent interviewing, it took time to find the right people and we didn’t take the first available person who applied. From the latter part of 2009 I had my Team and I believe it to be a fantastic group dedicated teachers – who I will miss very much.

The ICT Team – Admin Assistant: Sue; Teachers: Naveed, Bernadette, Debbie and myself; Network Manager: Darrell

ICT Teacher Nik (at Angkor Wat, Cambodia whilst on World Challenge)

Lord Williams’s has given me great opportunities – I have mentioned already the Gambia Trip. Our school is partnered with a national school (Brikama Upper Basic School) and as part of an Staff trip. The next opportunity arose last year as I was able to partake in a World Challenge Trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. This trip accompanying sixth form students lasted nearly 4 weeks and incorporated a combination of Treks, cultural visits, some development work and lots of travel.

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For me this was a great opportunity to re-experience the developing world (especially in Cambodia) and I loved it! I especially loved Cambodia – the people were friendly and the country was amazing. Angkor Wat was a highlight but so was the week working in the orphanage. Most of the time we were painting a dorm – but I managed to sneak out a couple of times to spend an hour or so in the classroom where orphans learnt some English.

I returned to the UK wondering whether it would be something I’d like to do more permanently. A conversation with Mum in the Autumn had a profound effect – in essence she wanted to release me from any feeling of burden to stay in the UK. She was aware that I was becoming more jaded with the mood music in education – especially towards ICT. My school had decided to make ICT optional not core, partly in response to Government decisions to demote ICT from its core status, this was a concern to me.

Having reflected through Christmas I decided that I would actively seek my next job abroad. I started scouring the TES and within a few days came across several jobs in Thailand – these appealed to me, I told Anita but for reasons unknown to me I did not pursue them. Then on the 17th January a job appeared in Tanzania at Isamilo International School.

I pondered for a week by myself and checked out as much as I could on the net, quickly coming across a blog called Bousies in Mwanza. This blog had a major impact – giving as it does a real insight into expat life – I can’t recommend this blog enough  – it has inspired me to write this blog myself. One evening I came across a post incorporating a video of a road trip around Mwanza, this gave such a feel of the place. Other blogs have also been inspirational – check out some of these on the right of the page.

The following weekend a conversation at the BETT Show with my brother about education in general further confirmed in my mind that I should apply for and so I shared this with Anita. Another week of deliberation and then I went for it.  Elsewhere I recount the speed of the process from application to appointment so I won’t repeat it here.

So this has been my journey so far. As a Christian I believe that God has been a part of it every step of the way and this is the right time……………  and there’s more to come!

Juggling

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There are so many preparations it’s sometimes difficult to decide what to do. It’s a bit of a juggle.

Yesterday we had valuations on the house which are encouraging, however we play things in the future. The market is moving apparently which means it’s to the advantage of sellers. Even so the rental market is holding its own – so there are plenty of tenants wanting properties.

The car is a bit of an issue as (in a different world) we bought new in the Autumn. We’ve probably lost money. We could have done with keeping the old one which was on a three-year lease expiring in May. It can’t be helped, but it’s annoying.

Once in Mwanza we would ideally like a car as with a family of 4 it might be a challenge otherwise. Cars tend to be much older, a little pricier than UK equivalent, but hold or gain in value apparently. We need to be able to fund this and many other things in the coming months.

Also yesterday, I spent some time filling in Forms – though some of this was impossible to do (needing clarification) and a need for new passports (see below)

The kids need new passports and we need to get those sorted today. A bit of a chore as we can’t find Bekah’s. The replacement needs us to get her identity certified which was luckily accomplished due to seeing friends yesterday one of whom is a teacher (funny that!). Also Matt has changed so much since he was 7, that he needs to have an authorised photo too! We are seeing the same friend this afternoon (thanks Rowena!).

On other fronts we are looking to see what injections we will need and have therefore booked appointments at the local health centre and with a MASDA clinic. Luckily for me (Graham) I had a number of injections for Cambodia / Vietnam which should cover much of what’s needed.

The Head at Isamilo has helpfully sent a couple of links to international Churches in Mwanza ( Newcastle
Christian Life Centre and Mwanza International Community Church) and I have looked at their websites and Facebook pages. They both look fine and we will be wanting something which has a western flavour and with a good youth program with a good mix of expats and nationals. On first glance these both look fine – surreal that one is a branch of a Newcastle church. We will need to do some more research.

On the clear out front Anita is working on the Lounge and Bedroom cupboards (a bigger job than it sounds) and compiling a list of ‘must haves’ for Mwanza.

The kids both have paper rounds and the weather is sunny and dry (a rarity in recent months).

Even so I have a pile of marking to do (it’s electronic,  it’s actually a virtual pile! ;-D ). Nonetheless I must stop tinkering and get on with it.

For now life in UK has to continue too!