Ending

 

I am sorry there isn’t a happy ending. I am sorry there isn’t even a satisfactory ending. By the time they contacted me to say, yes it would be OK to return for 6 months it was June and they suggested July. My savings had run out and I already had a job.

After I had rung up Hammadou to tell him that I definitely wasn’t coming back and to give away the items I had left in my house and my sheep and chickens, I cried. It was unbearably sad to think I would not go back.

Seasoned volunteers tell me that the impact you make is on individuals. Just before we ended our conversation, Hammadou told me he had built his house. He can get married now and have children.

I would have liked to have got the toilets open and a few more well committees established. Would they stay open and running after I left? It’s hard to know.

When Sean the horse is too old to ride, Jake is on his feet with a job, I feel I can leave Graham and the house is finished, then maybe I will try to be accepted to volunteer again. But I would not go back to Bogo. I want to remember my exceptional year as it was.