I just noticed a new VSO blog aggregator, VSO Journals. It’s not an official VSO venture, though word has it they’re working on their own version as well. I think I read somewhere that the dude who started it was a VSO volunteer once, but I can’t remember where I saw it. Anyways, the site was created to collect all VSO blogs in one place. It’s fascinating to know that there are other dudes and dudettes out there right now in Africa, Asia, South America, etc blogging away. The Internet is crazy. I encourage you to go read some blogs, post some comments, and tell your friends.
On a side note, I am now realizing how uncreative I was in naming this website. The “__(insert name)__ in __(insert country)__” naming scheme is very popular. I guess the main bonus is the ease of memorization. The down side is that you end up sounding really unoriginal… I promise I truly thought I was being cute when I picked this site’s first name: http://sarainkenya.org. It’s turned out to be a popular trend in naming; from memory, for starters:
- Alan in Kenya: alaninkenya.org
- Pat in Kenya: patinkenya.blogspot.com
- Kev in Tanzania: kev-in-tanzania.blogspot.com
- Matt in Kenya: mattinkenya.blogspot.com
- Tina in Rwanda: tinainrwanda.blogspot.com
- Rebecca Goes to Africa: rebeccagoestoafrica.blogspot.com (not exactly, but still follows a similar trend; possibly a reference to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)
Also of interest, Peace Corps Journals. If you’re ever bored or curious, just go poke around these sites to see what some other people are doing in other corners of the world.
Cheers for the pointer to VSO Journals, as you say, good to see what others are up to.
Unfortunately blogspot is blocked in Ethiopia – just a warning for anyone heading there and wanting to set up a blog. Can only ever get to those blogs via google reader – ok for the text but miss out on any photos :-(
Was very disappointed with the functionality given by the VSO-stories (http://vso-stories.net/) platform – which seems to be the one endorsed by VSO – doesn’t even offer RSS feeds!
Thanks for the pointer to VSO’s volunteer blog platform; it’s nice for volunteers to have, but it looks a bit old fashioned. Sad to hear about Ethiopia’s Internet filtering, it seems to be a disturbing trend these days.
Hi,
VSO Journals is my little project and I’m a current VSO volunteer in Namibia. Glad you find it useful.
I have to ask though, perhaps I’ve missed something, but… was sarainkeyna.org the name you were going to use before the operation??
Regards,
Dave.
Now that’s funny Dave!
Sara was with me in the beginning, so the blog was for her! Now I’m by myself so the blog is for me :)
Aha – makes sense now :o)