Final countdown

Rwanda here I come! In three days' time I shall be in Africa. Hard to believe on a wet, grey Dorset Saturday. I'm still piling mounds of clothes, hardware and medicines onto our spare bed, while wondering "how can I possibly carry all this?" I have been given a 40 kilo baggage allowance which is wonderful, because there's no way I'd ever be able to keep it all within 20kg.

I've been simply bowled over by the support and goodwill from so many people in Bridport and Beaminster: the churches, our neighbours, the Brit Valley Rotary, the New Elizabethan Singers. Our mantelpiece is crowded with good luck cards, and everyone seems to have looked at the blog already. I can't describe how reassuring it feels to be leaving England with so much encouragement.

Everyone in our family has also been so amazingly encouraging, and at the end of December we had a family gathering on the Isle of Wight for Dad's 91st birthday and for my farewell. Thank you, all of you, and especially to Teresa who has been so patient when half of me has for months been thinking and dreaming about Africa.

As for accommodation in Rwanda, I now know that I'm to share a house with Tom, who is a church-based aid worker. Sounds fine to me to be sharing with someone who already knows the ropes. And, I understand, he has a working fridge: what luxury!

On a lighter note, I'm determined to finish the final "Harry Potter" book before I go - all 600 pages of it - so I'm reading furiously. I've bought a clutch of Dorset calendars to take with me. They'll make useful presents, and also serve as visual aids is people want me to describe what life in West Dorset is like.

The news from Kenya is grim; fortunately I'm flying direct to Kigali and not (as most volunteers do) via Nairobi. But in the Rwandan newspapers there's much talk about a resurgence of "genocide ideology" - the attitudes and inter-ethnic hatreds which made the 1994 catastrophe possible - so there's clearly an important role for me in helping schools promote tolerance. In fact, it seems that schools are very much the front line in creating or dispelling sectional hatreds within the country.

We shall see.

Well, the goodbyes have all been said and now it's time to pack my things. Teresa's taking me up to Gatwick on Monday evening and I'm staying overnight in a hotel there ready for a crack of dawn flight to Brussels (then transferring to the main flight to Kigali). VSO have booked me a seat on the plane with extra legroom which is wonderful.

Once again, a huge thank you to all of you who have been so encouraging to me. The next blog, I hope, will be from Kigali. Africa beckons.