Halfway Point

I’m now back in South Africa after a terrible journey from Ndola to Nelspruit; running to five different desks in Johannesburg airport in between. I spent my first weekend back doing some photography for Tommy and Morgan’s wedding, they’ve been volunteering out here for a few years now and have been the first couple to get married while at Hands at Work. Morgan asked me to do the photography because the person who was meant to do it had to leave suddenly for Canada due to a family emergency. So I was asked along with my friend Alicia to shoot the wedding, I’d always been warned in the past never to do wedding photography because of the stress involved – and doing the photography at a photographer’s wedding is even worse! It was a stressful day but in all honesty I loved it, I got some shots that I’m very proud of and enjoyed running about with a camera after the service at a beautiful location with the bridal party. All in all some good shots and a great day to first try wedding photography (and I think Morgan was happy so I think I passed the test).

I spent last week being introduced to the communications team. The communications team is responsible for everything that gets sent out to partners, sponsors and the public; this includes things like reports, newsletters, websites, t-shirt design, Facebook and visual communications (photography & video). I’ve been lucky enough to join the team just as two members have gone back home to Canada for a while and one has gone on a honeymoon, so It’s just three of us in the office at the moment. I spent most of the week preparing the audio from the celebrations in Zambia and making podcasts of all the talks that were made during the conference, we also did a little bit of filming and interviews ready for a video that will be taking shape in the next few months.

My weekend was nice and quiet; I’ve been living up at a farmhouse that Hands rents from a local farmer which is 7km away from Hands Village, it’s a pain getting lifts up and down every day because I’m too young to drive the charity’s vehicles and my bike isn’t fit for duty at the moment. But I managed to get out on Sunday to church and then to a mall in Nelspruit to get some much needed shopping in (although I did get side-tracked by the fancy kit in the outdoors shops). It’s always refreshing to get out at the weekends because it can feel a bit trapped here in South Africa, in Zambia I could go out and hitch to town but it’s just too dangerous in South Africa, I’m not even really safe to walk the 7km to my home on my own. I’ve been feeling a bit homesick lately because living half at the farm and half at the village doesn’t feel like I’ve got a home to settle into (I’m living out of my suitcase because I’ll be moving back down in a few weeks so it seems pointless to unpack) so I’ve been thinking about England a lot.

I’ve been asked by a few people what I miss about the UK so I thought I’d answer on here.

I miss…

            My brothers and sister, parents, step-parents and granparents are at the top of the list, the freedom of driving to the mountains with my mate Lozz and our bikes. Going walking with my Dad in the mountains.  My old school mates who I’d normally see every week, at the pub or round for a DVD and takeaway. A few good friends that I see less often, I’m missing KFC dates with Shane and tinkering with cars with Joe. The guys at the youth group I helped lead. Chinese food & a good chippy.

But other than people (and the freedom of a car and my bikes) there’s not much I really miss, there’s not much that I need to live in comfort and anything luxury like my camera and bike is just a bonus. I think I miss home because of the new memories with family and friends that I’m missing out on, it’s a shame I’m missing six months of everybody’s lives. Especially things like my big sister’s graduation.

Having said that, I’m having six months in Africa with a heap of amazing new friends, making memories and experiencing some aspects of life that I would never be able to in the UK. I do miss home but if somebody bought me a plane ticket home tomorrow I wouldn’t get on the plane, not yet, I’ve got another three amazing months ahead of me and it’ll be three months I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I’m only half way through my journey… I wonder where I’ll end up…