Megan’s trip – the full circle

After leaving the last post hanging in the balance and many people who attend the event having seen Megan and spoken to her about her trip – the posts that I have done seemed to end in the middle of no where.

Well there was a reason for this and although not originally planned has turned out really well – serendipitous!

Megan and Sophies return to Heathrow

Arrivals! Jane, Sophie and her Mum

Whilst Megan and Sophie were in Uganda and Thailand they was looked after – you could even say adopted by some wonderful people who looked after them  and really made their stay in these places so welcoming.

Megan has unpacked

What was the weight limit! Wellie the dog was home all the time!

During this month, June 2013, we, The Humby’s have been able to look after them!

At the beginning of the month Rogar and Za Moore came to our home in Herefordshire.  Roger and Za not only arranged the girls’ first week in Thailand – the works experience – teaching for Megan and then working in the mother and baby unit for Sophie they helped them experience the real Thailand – from meeting Za’s mother who spun silk in her back garden – photo’s of the silk worms, the loom, the finished silks all amazing!

When Roger and Za came to us we visited Weston Cider – a true Herefordshire business established in 1880 and still run by the Weston family – and this is amazing – still using the original vats that Henry Weston installed in 1880 (they were second hand then!) to mature the cider!

The original vats that Henry Weston installed in 1880

View from Westons towards the Malverns

With a celebratory/thank you dinner at The Pilgrim Hotel with Sophie’s family the first day ended on a real high note –

The Pilgrim Hotel – setting for the thank you dinner for Za and Roger!

The following day was a trip to Tintern Abbey – even with all the temples and history in Thailand this ruined abbey really did impress!

Megan, Za and Roger at Tintern Abbey

My chronological order is somewhat awry as I have written about Roger and Za first – Thailand was the last part of the trip!

The Ugandan leg was the first seven weeks and as you will have seen from previous posts that Megan and Sophie spent their time at Kisiki college – the people who made them so welcome were Annette, Irene, Madame Rita and many too numerous to mention.

Sophie, Megan and Head Teacher Irene at Kisiki

As part of the exchange between John Kyrle High School and Ross-on-Wye and Kisiki both Irene and Annette came here.  They spent 2 weeks in Ross with different families, visiting different sites and experiencing a slice of life in the UK.

Megan, Annette and Sophie in Uganda

We had the pleasure of welcoming them into our house as a thank you for what they had done for Megan whilst she was with them.

As it was the last day of their trip as they were flying back on the Sunday rather than do the cultural, historical trip and knowing that Annette and Irene needed to get presents for their family we chose some retail therapy – Hereford City!

We also took them out for lunch -somewhere which had a eclectic menu with a range of different foods!  Just what was need after many hours shopping!

Annette, Irene and Ellen (Megan’s sister, my daughter) with some of the lunch!

The experience for us was brilliant in a number of ways – spending some time with people who have a totally different way of life to us, us realising that many things we take for granted need to be treasured and also how many things we do have in common.  We all need to eat, drink, wash, launder but the different ways in which we do it are amazing.  We talked about making lemon curd, marmalade – Uganda has an abundance of the fruits so Irene went back with the recipes to make both!  Thank you Prue Leith!   Whilst sat talking our washing was being done in the washing machine – Megan whilst at Kisiki hand washed everything and Saturday’s were spent doing this!  We sat talking until gone 11pm which was something very different for Annette and Irene – with Kisiki being so close to the equator their day is dictated by the day light hours!

We are especially delighted that Irene and Annette took may books that we had on our shelves – not only to read on the trip back but also for the school. They also selected another box full that we will be sending over separately – they will be used throughout the school!

The time that we spent with Roger, Za, Annette and Irene was fantastic as it really brought a new dimension to the photo’s that we had seen and also a new perspective on what Megan had told us.  The pictures that we saw were of Megan and Sophie actually teaching/working…..

Megan teaching in Thailand

Megan teaching at Kisiki

Indoor teaching for Megan in Thailand

Sophie in the hospital in Surin – a fruit basket to say “thank you”

What’s next?

Well Megan is going to start an Open University degree and will hopefully be going back to Thailand to teach for a year!  Sophie will be off to University in September to start a degree in midwifery!

I guess it will be watch this space!