Becoming Mzungu

Emma had made the biggest decision of her life - to leave her job, her flat, and her friends in London and move to Africa to work for a humanitarian aid organisation. Fear and excitement overwhelmed… Lue lisää Emma had made the biggest decision of her life - to leave her job, her flat, and her friends in London and move to Africa to work for a humanitarian aid organisation. Fear and excitement overwhelmed her in equal measures as the day of departure got closer and closer. The next six months were completely different from what Emma imagined, but gave her so much more than she had ever dreamed. The people, the experiences, and learning: the friendships, the rollercoaster of emotions, and the personal growth gave her something she had never considered before. A whole new career and a whole new life. Emma first travels to Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi. There she meets some of the other staff, both national and international, who she will be working with over the next few months, and gets to know a little bit about how international humanitarian work operates. It seems both complex, and mundane at the same time. She then travels onto Madzivazivigo, a remote area in Burundi where she will be the administrator on a project doing a range of activities. Throughout her first six months in Burundi, Emma makes friends, and learns a lot from those around her. The work and the life brings her joy, happiness, fear, loneliness, sorrow, heartache, and laughter, in equal measures. Along the journey Emma deals with disappointments in how the international humanitarian system works; the stresses and tensions of living and working so closely with people she has only just met; arguments and misunderstandings; and a medical emergency. All the while this is set against the background of humanitarian response work, both the life-changing and the humdrum. If nothing else, it is certainly an adventure.