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Published: August 29th 2013
Before travelling out to Uganda, Vanessa had to do 2 weeks of Africa School. This consisted of everything she would need to know before working in a Ugandan Hospital. 2 days of the course was ‘security training’, which I was invited to attend the second day, which was led by Big Dave. The course ran through everything we would need to know about being safe in an African country - what to do in the event of a mugging, hijack of a car, being arrested or being kidnapped. The day was full of scenarios and group exercises for us to think about what to do certain circumstances. Was funny watching Ness pretending to be a hijacker, using a rolled up piece of paper as a weapon and shouting at a fellow paediatrician to get out of the car. The make believe car was just four chairs. Ness started hitting the colleague on the knee, stating afterwards she was pretending that was the bonnet of the car!
One tip Big Dave gave us was to empty a lipsalve tube and put as many $100 bills in it as possible. In the event of an emergency, we would then hopefully be able to buy our way out of trouble. Big Dave did say if you happen to get arrested or kidnapped you may want to hide the lipsalve on your person…???
So a week before we leave Ness realised that we had made a mistake regarding my visa, and it would be beneficial to sort it out before we leave. I made a last minute dash to London to hand in a six month visa request. The website states it takes 24 hours to process, so I handover the form and passport to the gentleman in the Ugandan Embassy and he says - “Ready Wednesday.”
Me: “But I was told it takes 24 hours?”
Gentleman: “Wednesday.”
Me: “Your websites says it takes 24 hours?”
Gentleman: “Wednesday.”
Me: “Can you post it to me?”
Gentleman: “Pickup Wednesday.”
I quickly realised I should either, leave the passport and pick it up Wednesday or I won’t be getting a visa. Luckily an old work colleague agreed to pickup my passport in his lunchtime. Thanks Jon, hope you enjoyed my free Nando’s voucher I gave you in return?!?
So in the last week, we packed up our flat in Nottingham, the removal men came on time and took all of our belongings. We then visited Newport for the last time and left another car load of our belongings in my Grandmother’s spare room and the car in her garage for the next six months. Then it was onto Reading to do the one thing we were both dreading…. packing our bags, trying to condense everything we wanted to take. Here is a photo of everything before we filled the 2 large wheelie bags and 2 rucksacks.
We arrived at the airport and checked in, I think the customs guy had heard I may have a lipsalve on my person as he gave me a thorough pat down, at one point I though he was going to reach for his rubber gloves…
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Beccs
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Great
Off to Joburg on 10th for 3 weeks. Will be reading your weekly updates! Brilliant xx