Richard Feidler

Yeah, I think, you know, in retrospect, it was just a combination of everything I wanted to do and also kind of what I believed I should do.

Africa was, well, South Africa anyway, was unfinished business.

I always missed it once we migrated.

And I always thought that I wanted to go back and live there and be a doctor there.

The HIV AIDS epidemic was really ramping up when we left.

And I kind of thought that just seemed like a good role to go back as a doctor and kind of give back.

And then, you know, I was a keen backpacker at uni and I love travel and I love the feeling of being in a foreign place where you just don't understand the language around you and, you know, everything's just different.

I absolutely love that.

So I think it was a combination of those things and just, you know, I suppose at some point you can just keep rolling your eyes at the news or you can kind of roll up your sleeves and do your bit.

So there was definitely idealism in there as well.

So they take you to Angola.

Yes, yeah.

I got there a few years after the Civil War had ended, so the country was still really impoverished and the infrastructure was quite decimated, but it was, you know, ostensibly quite safe.

The landmines in the area we were were the only real risk, but there'd been disarmament, so there weren't a lot of guns around.

So I think it was a good first posting and a lovely introduction to rural Africa.

But my parents were slightly horrified when I got the posting.

It was the only posting I got offered.

They were sort of, this is what we're going to give you.

You're inexperienced.

Take it or leave it.