Wild Speculation, Emotional Farewells and Unexpectedly Organised Packing!

Today is my last full day at home, surrounded by familiar, nostalgic and comforting things and people who love me (even if they do get a little exasperated by all of my dramatics over packing!).

Tomorrow I will board a plane, and then another, and then a bus and finally arrive in Mzuzu sometime on the 24^th of April. Although I speculate constantly and try madly to imagine what life will be like once I am there all I can really do is focus on saying my final emotional farewells, making sure I have packed everything and getting to the airport on time and with my passport to hand!

Leaving for such a huge and almost unimaginable adventure is bound to be fraught with nerves and apprehension but I am finally feeling a sense of calm and excitement about what lies ahead. 

My mood has almost certainly been aided by having finally packed my bag full of (hopefully) everything I will need. It even weighs considerably less than the baggage allowance so praise be and jolly ho hockey sticks. This is actually happening!

In twenty four hours my parents will drive me to the local National Express bus station and I will be Heathrow bound, ready to meet my team mates and probably let off some pre-departure steam! Once we are all together and everyone has said goodbye to any remaining emotional family members we’ll become each other’s support network, at least until we get to Malawi and are all introduced to our new host families and counterpart Malawian volunteers.

I’m sure it will be a rollercoaster of emotions, a lot of hard work and the most amazing experience of my life. Now all there is left to do is eat a last meal with the family (I still get to request my favourite food!), check my backpack about ten more times and say my goodbyes.

The next time you’ll hear from me I will hopefully be in an internet café in Mzuzu with many stories to tell!

Farewell lovely folks, till next time!