ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the period the author attended the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) for career training once he had decided to work in international development post-Ethiopia. He enrolled on the Postgraduate Diploma in Social Administration Overseas at LSE. He went there for two terms, was granted leave of absence overseas for two years to work in Botswana, returned for two final terms, and got a distinction. The LSE course required intensive fieldwork in the vacations. Being unable to do this overseas, he was sent to a borstal in Suffolk, a Christian group in the Gorbals of Glasgow, a probation office in London, and the Juvenile Court in Wimbledon. In London he went to Holloway Women’s Prison and an adventure playground in Brixton.
His contemporary at LSE, a Franciscan monk, started a short-life housing association (the Patchwork Community) based on community living on leaving LSE, and the author stayed with it between overseas jobs, participating in its unique ethos.
The LSE course was valuable in preparing him for a career in overseas work, and the diverse nature of the UK experiences provided a grounding in poor and marginalised people in the UK, even if not overseas.
