Way back in the annals of my A-level history I found myself in the none-too-coveted position of having nowhere to go. For me, there was no question of going through the wonderful system that is Clearing straight away and I wanted the break from education so I could disappear and 'broaden my perceptional horizons' (man). Very pretentious, of course, but it meant I could travel!

Using the contacts of the church and my father's previous placement in Zimbabwe (1982 - '87), I applied to the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG) to join one of their Experience Exchange Programmes (EEPS). It is a missionary society, so there is a certain 'Christianity Requirement' that I played up on – the reasoning being that if I appeared to be vastly religious and good, of course they would love to unleash me into an unsuspecting world.

At the time I did think of myself as a Christian, just not as hugely pious as a good deal of the characters I met during my training fortnight! A lot of Spiritual preparation and mental limbering-up followed, excercises to ready oneself for the inevitable culture shock and panic attacks in a strange world...

So eventally I was sent to a small town in Tamil Nadu, South India called Ramanathapuram (Ramnad) with another EEP (hereafter known as C.) of whom you will hear anon. Our brief was to work in the schools in Ramnad teaching English, to work in the church and then come home and join the armies of 'missionaries' trying to educate those at home about the World Church. It is meant to be a chance for you to share your knowledge while helping those in need and gaining a valuable education of your own about how other people live. What you actually do when you get there is anybody's guess, but it is supposed to be an experience. It was.

My own personal objective was to change. As the idea of being changed by what you do came up more and more frequently in the preparation, it seemed inevitable and I wanted to embrace any changes within myself with open arms. About time too, I thought, for I had been living with the same state of mind for about two years? For an eighteen-year-old, that's a long time. Whether I did in fact change or not is a moot point I guess and perhaps a reading of my diaries will reveal a development in my thoughts as well as being an unfolding of events. Whatever transpires, I'm sure it will be entertaining!

To read them like a book, start here: My India Diaries