crazymalc.co.nz - Home Page of Malcolm Trevena

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have began to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language, so they will not understand each other."

So the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel - because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Present to 8th of April 2006
The school I am volunteering at has its graduation in the first week of April. Try as I might, I can't get them to commit to anything more specific. I decided to extend my stay here by a couple of weeks so that I can attend the graduation. The principal tells me that I will be the first volunteer to attend a graduation at the school in its 60 odd year existence. I like that.

I booked my flight out of here for the 8th of April. I also changed my destination port from Auckland to Dunedin.

8th of April 2006 to 30th of May 2006
One of the first things I will do when I get back to New Zealand is apply for the Unemployment Benefit. Having some form of income will be a very strange thing indeed. I think the interview will be quite odd.

Benefit Person:	Can you tell me your work experience?
Me:	Sure. For the last six months or so I've been working as a volunteer in the Philippines. I've hunted dogs, killed goats and increased the net understanding of long division in the world by just a little.
Benefit Person:	I see... And before that?
Me:	I spent several months on an ACC benefit, working periodically as a junior computer programmer
Benefit Person:	Uh huh. Before that?
Me:	I was inpatient at a psychiatric hospital for 5 months.
Benefit Person:	Okaaay... Before that?
Me:	Not much. Just going crazier by degrees for three months or so. Brief attempt at studying at university.
Benefit Person:	Dare I ask what you did before that?
Me:	Sure. I was the head of the development division of a software company that was really going places. I was responsible for design work, consulting with the clients and managing the five or so junior programmers. I made crap loads of money as a shareholder and won national innovation awards.
Benefit Person	Stares
Me:	Grins
Benefit Person:	Ok. Deep breath We may be able to do something with the computer programming. I'm unsure about the goat killing though. Not much call for that in New Zealand.

I've got no intention of getting a job in New Zealand. I will be playing the game to get some money. Is this a little dishonest? Probably. Do I care? Nope.

While in Dunedin, I plan to touch base with all friends and acquaintances. Seeing Tara Clark, my clinical psychologist in New Zealand, is top of my list. It will be good chance to look at my time in the Philippines and have a look at what I will be doing next. I was in email contact with Tara quite a bit during my low times here. She was very helpful.

I've got several people that I want to see in Dunedin. Same goes for Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. So I plan to gradually wind my way north until I end up in Auckland, where I will stay with parents until the 30th of May.

Emma had a friend visit recently who works for World Vision. I was talking to her about my impending trip to Africa (see below) and my interest in helping out with the HIV/AIDS situation. She said that she can put me into contact with a person in Auckland who is doing lots of good stuff with HIV/AIDS. I'll get in contact with the person in Auckland and hopefully learn a bit more about HIV/AIDS while helping them out.

Ghana - 1st of June 2006 to 12th of August 2006
I've been bitten by the volunteer bug. I just can't help myself.

After Auckland, I will head to a Refugee Camp in Ghana for ten weeks. This is being coordinated through the Global Volunteer Network, the same organization I coordinated my Philippines trip with. Details of the position can be found here.

I'm not 100% sure what I will doing there. I'm thoroughly enjoying my teaching in the Philippines, so I could do some more of that in Ghana. There are opportunities to do some other stuff. I should be able to help out a lot at their I.T. department. I'm good at that.

This places me in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand, I can do amazing things with computers. I'm sure I could get their I.T. department humming. On the other hand though, working on I.T. projects tend to do my head in. So, should I help enable people to take better care of the thousands of refugees at the risk of doing my head in? Bah. I'm just not sure.

I suspect I'll go there and have a look at their I.T. department. If I see lotsa bad signs, I'll just leave it alone and not mention my skills.

Traveling in Africa - 12th to the 15th of August 2006
Once I finish in Ghana, I'll head across Africa to Uganda. I'm not 100% sure how I'll get there. I'd like to catch trains and buses and slowly make my way across Africa that way. This would mean lotsa passport stamps, which would be cool 'cause he who dies with the most passport stamps wins.

This might be an extremely unsafe thing to do. I'm pretty ignorant of the political situation in African countries. I'm talking to various people to try and assess the safety situation. If it is too dangerous, then I'll just fly over to Uganda.

Uganda - 15th of August 2006 to 30th of January 2007
Once in Uganda, I'll start another (!) six month volunteer stint. I will be doing the Mukono Youth Project while I am there, details of which can be found here.

Back in New Zealand - 31st of January 2007
When I return to New Zealand on the 31st of January 2007, I will be unemployed, flat broke, and have no assets to speak of. I hope to have had a wonderful adventure and learnt a little bit more about myself.

Everything I have said up to this point will happen. I will go Uganda and Ghana. Things get a little bit more vague after that...

Volunteering through GVN is all well and good, but it is a unsustainable activity. It slowly but surely gobbles up my money.

Volunteer Services Abroad (VSA) is a New Zealand agency that places professional volunteers in distance lands. The key word there is professional. I almost went to Papua New Guinea to do some I.T. stuff with them. The good thing about VSA is that they pay your airfares, accommodation and food and give you a very small living allowance. i.e. it is sustainable. I could volunteer with them forever if I wanted to.

The commitments tend to be quite long though. A two year position seems to be the norm. I don't want to do I.T. for two years, so I need to do something else instead. Teaching is the obvious choice. Unfortunately, I do not have a teaching qualification.

So, what I might do (might do) is take a year off volunteering and get myself a formal teaching qualification. Student Loan! Here I come!

VSA have tons of teaching positions world wide. It will just be a matter of picking the best one for me.

Of course, this might all change. A year is a long time and all sorts of stuff might happen before then. Keep checking out www.crazymalc.co.nz to see what happens!

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(c) 2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
All the stuff on this site is written by me, Malcolm Trevena. Feel free to link to this page. Heck, you can even copy stuff from here if you want. Just make sure you sight me as a reference.

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