I was really not very adventurous. Trips abroad had usually been package holidays or visits to friends and relatives in far flung places. I was quite content balancing family (husband and four kids) and work (Primary School teacher) in a small town in the North East of Scotland. I wanted to be more intrepid but not nearly enough to do anything about it.
Then an opportunity arose to participate in a Connecting Classrooms project, run by the British Council. A link was established between 3 Ethiopian Schools, 3 Namibian Schools and 3 Scottish schools. Teachers would travel for 10 days, to live and learn with colleagues in partner countries.
I persuaded my family they would manage perfectly well without me, applied and was accepted for the project. It was February 2009. Namibia awaited!
After a whirlwind of travel vaccines and packing lists, I met my fellow Scottish teachers: Molly and Pat. We were equally excited and nervous about the challenge ahead. Especially when we discovered we had been given conflicting advice on necessary vaccines. In short, between us all we seemed to be covered for most eventualities. But none of us were covered for them all.
However, being solution-focused, we agreed that if the threat was a rabid dog, Molly would step forward and take one for the team as she was the only one with a rabies injection. A bleeding child would be my shout – I had had Hep A. Pat was the only one of us who had been advised to have Hep B. That was when our research became more interesting. Hep B is particularly useful if you are planning on having multiple sexual partners in a refugee camp. I really needed to go and check our itinerary again!
Please note that names have been changed in this story.
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