Erica Buist AV Alumna, Ex fraidy cat - Africa and Asia Venture

Erica Buist AV Alumna, Ex fraidy cat - Africa and Asia Venture

Why would a Slough-dwelling state school kid, grasping a hard-earned acceptance letter from Durham University, suddenly decide to go to Africa instead? Is it in case those friendly bombs did finally come?
 
Partly, sure. Also in case they didn’t.
 
I opened the letter, considered the information for two minutes, and Googled "year out" (which I realise is rude to Durham University). AV was all I needed to see.
 
I trotted to my holiday job, a pet shop, and by the time I arrived and greeted the rabbits, the decision was made. It happened that quickly. I was less sure of 2+2=4 than I was of going to Africa to teach, travel and discover this elusive inner core that people seemed so sure a Gap Year would unveil. I pictured myself coming home sun-kissed and wise, with braids in my hair saying "Pff, I knew I had an inner core, but for some reason it wasn’t so much ‘inner’ as it was...in Africa."
 
That was six years ago. I’d love to say I’ve made a better decision since, but I haven’t.
 
There was nothing easy about it - working 50 hours a week for £4.70 per hour in a Slough-based pet shop is potentially soul-destroying, but my soul and I were as single-minded about saving as a junkie seeking a fix. (You have to be, if your mind-numbing duties include sweeping floors, tidying shelves and an hourly "dead fish run")
 

Six days a week I would walk the 45 minutes there, scrabble around for 8-10 hours in the dirt of various types of irritable livestock (no offence, Slough), crawl the 2.5 miles home, and put the £35 or so on a slowly building savings chart.
 
The day I got a raise of 20p per hour! The joy! That’s a whole £6 extra a week! In a month, that’s almost a whole day’s extra pay!
 
Finally, it all paid off. Every dog mess, every rodent bite, every shoplifter, every dead fish in yet another dead fish bag...had all paid off. Without a penny’s help from anyone, I landed in Malawi and changed my life forever. Really.
 
Now, six years on, it’s worth wondering what AV gave me beyond treasured memories, amazing photos and a laissez-faire attitude to cockroaches.
 
Nothing scares me anymore. "I should really have a career change, but it’s so scary". I’m sorry, but I can barely relate to that now. You’re afraid to change jobs? Try giving a class on AIDS at 15 seconds’ notice to 50 expectant children who know more on the subject than you, and tell me a job interview scares you.
 
I wouldn’t know how to be set in my ways anymore. "The French dip bread and butter in their coffee, it’s just makes no sense!" In Malawi I saw a boy playing football with one shoe. When I asked why he was wearing one shoe, he replied "Because I have one shoe". Just dip your bread and butter in your coffee and see why it probably makes PERFECT sense. Dip your fingers in too, who knows, you might discover something.
 
After AV I finally started thinking "I could do that". In my third year at Durham I went to see a stand-up show of not only the funniest students, but still some of the funniest people I’ve ever met. And yet the thought that crossed my mind was "I could do that". I don’t know if I would have had that confidence if I hadn’t done AV; if I hadn’t saved for months rather than received generous family donations, if I hadn’t done a skydive and a bungee jump on a whim, if I hadn’t been thrown onstage to sing with a Malawian band with no preparation, if I hadn’t taught 2-year-old Bahati her first English words and how to high-five.
 
And now, six years after coming home, I do stand-up on the London circuit and people still ask me "Aren’t you afraid no one will laugh, that you’ll forget your jokes, that people will heckle you?"
Of course I am, the best things in life are difficult and scary. But now I’ve learned the alternative - not doing them - doesn’t bear thinking about.

To find out more about Erica's stand up comedy visit http://www.chortle.co.uk/comics/e/33702/erica_buist
 

Back