I am about to go to Ethiopia to work with the Ministry of Education as a volunteer with VSO. This BLOG is designed to keep anyone who is interested informed of what I have been doing, seeing and thinking.

Who am I? My name is Liza Darroch and I have been living in Cirencester for the last 27 years. I was born in Near Sawrey, in the Lake District, went to boarding school in North Wales and to the University of Sussex. After wandering around Asia and Africa for a year I came back and worked in Liverpool 8 (Toxteth) for a year before taking another two years to train full time as a Community and Youth Worker. I then married Jeff and we went to live and worked in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) for three years. Dennis (he whose wedding you can read about on this BLOG) was born there and I was pregnant for Caroline when I came back on my own (to Cirencester) in 1978.

For the next 13 years I was a single parent having great fun with my kids and working as a youth worker and then a lecturer for Stroud College. In 1991 I met Bill and started work for Cirencester College. We had seven wonderful years together, married in 1996 and then he died in 1998.

So here i am in 2006- I have just left the College after 15 happy years there and am about to take up the next challenge of two years in Ethiopia. Who knows what that will bring - the story will unfold on this BLOG if I have the time and the facilities to maintain it.

If you want to know more about how this BLOG works please see the other articile entitled "How to View this site".