I came to IMG as a VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) volunteer, and so went through their rigorous screening and training process in the UK. I had always wanted to live and work in Africa and was very happy to be matched to a placement in Uganda. My background was working as a management accountant in the private sector, so coming to work at a hospital was a bit of a challenge in many ways.

I worked as the Finance Manager for IMF (International Medical Foundation) which is the charity arm of IMG, but very much integrated into the organisation. As its activities were expanding considerably - I worked on setting up financial procedures and reporting, as well as working on proposals and being involved in the day to day running of the projects. The IMF management team is small - during my placement it was the Program Coordinator, Jemimah, and I, so we both had to muck in and do everything. We were much better off than most people working in small NGOs as we had the whole IMG infrastructure to support us, but we had to work hard to make our limited resources go as far as possible.

It took time to acclimatise to working in Uganda - Interviewing people for jobs was a very different experience to the UK, but fortunately the HR team rescued me from making any serious mistakes. Our small, noisy, hot office had to accommodate 2 or 3 of us and any of the visitors who turned up randomly - from donor representatives appearing to check that we were a legitimate organisation to people who had travelled for hours for treatment on Hope Ward.. on the whole I really enjoyed the experience - the best thing was that people always had time to talk, and often problems could be resolved with a quick chat on the balcony.

Once I got over the hospital thing I really enjoyed it - being there for two years meant that I felt like part of the IMG 'family', and I still miss the people. I learned a lot from my colleagues, and really enjoyed seeing projects like Touch Namuwongo go from small beginnings to a really successful project, mainly because of the dedication of the team of people who work on it. Almost every day I saw something which shocked, surprised or amused me and I was lucky to have supportive colleagues and VSO friends to share these experiences with me. Unlike most of my jobs in the UK, every working day was different and almost never went to plan - I still miss the spontaneity of working life there.

Kampala is a great place to live and work - it has shopping malls, a cinema, supermarkets with European foods (though quite expensive) so most people find everything they need to avoid homesickness for material things. The climate is lovely - even when it's very hot there are usually cooling breezes from the lake, and there are truly spectacular storms in the rainy season. There aren't very many 'tourist' sites in Kampala but you can have many adventures just pottering about in the markets, especially the legendary Awino market, and doing day to day things. There's loads to see and do in Uganda - stunning national parks which are very accessible for budget travel, mountains to climb, white-water rafting, gorillas etc but also lovely quiet places to just sit by a lake or river and chill.

I think the best thing was the people who I met and worked with and seeing projects grow, as well as learning so much about things to do with health projects. It's set me off in a new direction professionally and given me a lot of experience to draw on.