The beginning to the adventure

It all began with a week on the secluded Isle of Coll. I was shipped off from Oban onto an island in highlands that would leave me with no phone signal and the possibility of heading off to a third world country for a year. Scared? Of course I was!! I was petrified!! Not that I could tell any of my friends or family, they would tell me not to go, but I knew in myself that if I didn't do this I was just going to do what was expected of school leavers and go off to University at the end of my secondary career, something that never appealed to me. Throughout selection I was tested in many ways, such as my ability to climb the highest "mountain" on the island which took 10 minutes so as you can imagine, a pretty small hill! To digging up some seeds and building a shed. I was also given different tasks such as giving a presentation on the isle of Coll and teaching a 10 minute lesson on something of my choice. Over all the week was great fun and by the end of it I was on my knees practically begging to be sent somewhere overseas. So when I received the letter that told me I had been selected to go over to Uganda for a year, I was ecstatic! Mum and Dad were both very apprehensive because of the horrid history of the country, but I was too excited to even care. However, it all became very real when I was handed my first cheque of £100 towards the £5100 I had to raise to get to Uganda. I then held a concert with one of the greatest friends anyone could ask for and raised £400. It was all so real! However the event that made the entire thing too real for me to handle, was my golf day at Blairgowrie Golf Club where I managed to raise over £4000. I was gobsmacked!! With the money I had raised from two events and money that I had been kindly given by sponsors, I had reached my target by mid-October. It was official, I was definitely going to Uganda.