Out of Africa...

So, we organised our flights back to the UK through a number of manic phonecalls and then a plater of emails between London, Addis Ababa and Malawi and finally got a date to return to London.  Unfortunately our onward flights to Belfast were going to cost us far too much (£50 to change and then an extra £230) so we decided to rebook flights with a different airline (Easyjet) which worked out at less than £50 all in!

The only problem was - and this required the utmost of careful negotiations and tact - our final flight back into Belfast wasn't going to be for 5 days after we arrived in London! We would be stuck in England for 5 days so what could we do?

Thankfully a close friend, Aaron, and his partner Tara, helpfully agreed to let us stay with them for the few days we were to be there - a God send!  It was all looking good and it would be great to catch up with them since we hadn't seen them since the wedding.

It was so nice to be back in cool/cold weather too! We landed after 13 hours of travelling (excluding the 7 hour to, and overnight stay in Lilongwe) from Malawi to the Congo, on to Addis Ababa and then to London.

We arrived in around 6.30am and went to pick up a hire car to help us get around over the next few days - it was once again nice to be back driving.  We got to Aaron and Tara's shortly after 8am just as Tara was about to head to work - and she was shocked to see these two tanned figures appear at her door in summery clothes!

It took me a while to acclimaitise (hence the flipflops and t-shirt) but Danielle was feeling the cold straight away so our first port of call, after a quick nap, was into High Wycombe to get some clothes to wear that were more suitable to the temperatures in the UK!

Danielle really felt the whole reverse-culture-shock sensation while we were driving around.  Not seeing multitudes of people walking around, seeing animals actually in fields, how green everything was in comparison to Africa, not seeing people working in the fields to the same scale, and even having running water that you could drink!  I don't know why I don't get those sensations - I seem to be able to switch from one world to another like turning on/off a light.  It is possible that some of that comes from the years spent as a child at numerous times throughout the year living in Donegal in the West of Ireland.  I remember having to go and collect water from the river and local wells so that there was something to wash and drink, I've experienced cereal with the fresh milk still warm from the cow's udder.  When in Donegal I wouldn't think twice about going outside for a pee, back in Belfast I wouldn't consider it - an immediate switch happens and I think that is the same between UK and African living.

We also began looking for work for when we got home to cover us until we would leave for Korea.  We had a quick chat on Skype with our recruitment company out there too and finally set a firm date for our interviews which were scheduled for 5.20am for Danielle and 6.20am for me! Doh!
We had a great time in England - we got to go into London to see Wicked (though Danielle's cousin Rachel was off that night - she plays Elphaba (the green witch)) and enjoyed it so much that we swore we'd go back again to see it when Rachel was working.  We also got to enjoy Bonfire night too and it sort of made up for not having been around for Hallow'een.


Hot food, good craic and, of course, fireworks! We had a great time!  And even little Sam showed no fear or shock at seeing or hearing the fireworks at all!



On the Sunday night we left and headed to Luton airport and got the first flight home to Belfast.  We arrived in and again got a hire car just to help us get around and surprise everyone.  We stopped up to my parents' house first.  My brother Tomás opened the door saying, "Holy S%&T! Holy S*"t!" quickly followed by tears from my mum.  After a bit of breakfast we drove over to Danielle's mum's and again there were tears flowing as they were so surprised and happy to have us back home.

So, that's us home until Jan/Feb when we head off again.

(Well, its techincally the end of Jan 2011 now and we now know that we leave Belfast for South Korea on the 15th of February.  We have been told we will be placed somewhere in the Cheungbuk province - an area that wasn't even one of our choices!  So, the next time we post it will be from Korea!

It will be much easier to post on the blog from there - super internet speeds! And I am sure there will be so much to tell!  I also hope to get some video footage on here too so that is all still to come!)