Dave: June 2009 Archives

Having retired from the Royal Air Force last summer after 22 years of service I was left with a bit of a conundrum. Over the 22 years I had lived and worked in a variety of overseas communities and enjoyed their interaction.

Should I join the rat race in the U.K? Or should I continue to travel and work? Whilst re-training as a qualified Domestic Electrician and Aerial and Satellite installer I came across SolarAid's website. It hit me straight away that this was a very worthwhile project and something I really wanted to become involved with, so I immediately enquired about vacancies for a volunteer.

After some months of determination, I was invited to the London office to meet some of the team. The meeting went very well and I was invited back for further interviews and assessments along with telephone conferences with Gavin Bowen, the Country Business Manager for Kenya. This too went well and I was invited to join the Kenyan team.

Preparations then continued in earnest and as I got closer to my departure date the excitement began to build. I arrived in Kenya in the end of Feb 2009. My previous service life allowed me to hit the ground running and I was soon involved with workshop life here in Nakuru, helping to improve the manufacturing process, modifications to the Sunnymoney product, sourcing sponsorship and assistance from various business areas of the Kenyan community.

More about my first few months here in my next blog,
Dave Fryer

Solar Engineer
SolarAid Kenya