As you might guess from the pictures, my farewell party has now happened - what I remember of it was great, lots of dancing, not too many speeches and yet more presents for me – including the statuette below, , which by all concerned (except me) was declared a dead ringer of me in my chief’s outfit.
So what will I remember? Well I think it will take a while for all the impressions to get sorted out in my head, but I will not miss the dust, the mosquitoes, the cockroaches, the dust, the power cuts, the water cuts and oh yes, did I mention the dust? What I will miss is the beauti
ful hilly, jungly scenery, the big sky so full of stars, the music, the food (well most of it, I never did get to like cola nuts) and of course most of all the friendship of the people here, which although overwhelming at times, will live with me forever. It’s quite remarkable to me that in all the two years here I never once received a hostile or jealous reception, even though most of the people I met are dealing with poverty and its effects on a day to day basis and to them I was the rich white man. I have promised to come back in a year or two, ostensibly to monitor progress, but it will really just be to see all my friends again. I also will miss meeting other VSO volunteers, a very mixed bunch from all over the world, but all dedicated to the task in hand and in one or two cases quite inspirational – those beekeepers in particular – look out for that 
So that’s it, I hope you have enjoyed this little blog, perhaps it has made some of you think about doing some volunteering sometime, I would recommend it, I have had a great time – here’s to the next big adventure – ciao - Duncan
