{"id":242,"date":"2005-10-01T06:19:56","date_gmt":"2005-10-01T05:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/makeni.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=242"},"modified":"2011-06-02T11:23:36","modified_gmt":"2011-06-02T10:23:36","slug":"matthew-dil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/makeni.org.uk\/wordpress\/2005\/10\/matthew-dil\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Dil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Matthew Dil from Vancouver Island (B.C.), Canada, arrived in October, 2005. Matthew writes:<\/p>\n

For me coming to Makeni seemed an obvious choice, like the next step in a life cycle. My grandfather founded Makeni, my father grew up there, my mother was a volunteer there and met my dad there, I was born in Lusaka, and lived as a child at Makeni Centre. I found myself at the age of 20, a second year biology student at the University of Victoria in Canada, not sure what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I thought my experience at Makeni would help me to find some direction and learn more about myself. Also I think once you see how life is for the average person in Africa, you find it hard to ignore, and you feel a need to do something. I liked the idea of how Makeni is a place with many different things happening. There is the school, the orphanage, the agricultural and carpentry departments, the clinic, the settlement villages, so many possibilities for volunteering. I wanted to see how everything was working there, meet all the great people and feel like a part of their community. Before my grandfather died I told him that I would return to Makeni and work as a volunteer. I hope to make him proud.<\/p>\n

Some of my specific goals that I have made after being here for a while include:<\/p>\n