Decisions, decisions

Last week I was offered a six-month placement with VSO in Sierra Leone, starting in June. I'm busy trying to decide whether or not to accept the offer.

Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa, is the twelfth-lowest-ranked country on the Human Development Index and eighth-lowest on the Human Poverty Index. (Paradoxically, it's extremely rich in mineral resources, being one of the top ten diamond producing nations of the world.) Sierra Leone is slowly recovering from a particularly gruesome civil war – although there's not really any other kind, I guess.

All of that makes this placement offer hard to turn down. How can I, in my privileged position, say that I'm not going to go and try and help this country and its people in my own small way? Weighed against all that, the fact I'd have to get my water out of a well and would be without mains power, pales into relative insignificance. Yet, I'd have to live and work there for six months, so I have to be sure that I'd enjoy the experience enough to survive my time there. A wise friend of mine who has been through his own share of shit, wisely told me that I need to think long and hard about my decision. He said there's no point taking a leap and then feeling abject again because I've rushed into it. He's got a point. He also said that after his loss, he never wastes time doing things he even half likes, ever again. He's got a point about that too.

I'd be working as a marketing adviser for an NGO, based in a small, green, town in the hills. There's a plentiful supply of fresh fruit, vegetables and rice but no running water and no mains power. Power is available via generators *sometimes*. There is a cinema in the town and some bars and 'chop houses' (not quite restaurants, apparently). I've been told that Sierra Leoneans are generally very friendly and that I'd receive numerous marriage proposals, even from married colleagues! The capital, Freetown, sounds like an interesting place to visit for a long weekend, and the beaches in Sierra Leone are meant to be particularly beautiful. So I'll be expecting at least one or two brave souls to take advantage of me being there, if I choose to go.

Anyway, I'll keep doing my research and thinking things through and will keep you posted regarding my final decision.