Sorry dear blog

I have just got back from the most crazy 2 weeks in Prague. I was managing a large festival for over 8000 young people, running a venue at the site. Now to say it was a crazy whirlwind was an understatement, but now I am back and trying to reccover, the last two weeks have really taught me how important this blog has become to me.

I literally did not stop from very early in the morning until the early hours every day, so I barely got a chance to think, let alone blog. And now I am back I so wish I had forced the time. I now realise how important blogging has become to me when I am working away with work. It really helps me to process what I am seeing and doing and vocalise and understand it. It helps you make sense of the tough times but also helps you to remember all the memories, the smiles, and the laughs. It also means so much to get your comments and know there’s a few of you reading out there too.

So blog, I am sorry for neglecting you…Off to Honduras soon and will not make the same mistake again.

Disorientate me

I sometimes get very confused and disorientated. I have just travelled through 4 Latin American cities in 5 hours, as we flew from Tegucigalpa, via San Jose and Panama City onto Bogota.  This on a day we had woken up in a rather ropey hotel room overlooking one of the most beautiful lakes I’ve seen after a ‘day off’ after a week of work.

Travel can really disorientate and confuse and I sometimes have to check myself in with where I actually am. I know it may seem glamorous, but it can sometimes be quite angst inducing.

Sitting in a vaguely confused state in Panama I realised with LG that the previous month, in the space of 4 days we been through 5 airports – Heathrow, Belfast City, Belfast International, Geneva and London City.

Having said all that, I love what I do and I won’t even mention the words carbon and footprint……

Back…and with a few less things on my list

I am off to India again next week, so have been drawn back to my blog.

The last tumultuous months in my life have meant I haven’t written for a while, despite a fair few trips. These included a tough (work-wise) visit to the Czech Republic. Though I did thankfully once again feel like a smug vegetarian whilst there! (see previous post). I was the only one and at the first meal time, this caused much mirth amongst the young people and leaders I was with…that was until I seemed to served the finest, freshest meals the kitchen seemed capable of serving! Whilst everyone else made do with meat and offal broth, I was served lovely mushroom pastas, fresh vegetables and gorgeous omelettes!

I also got to cross off one of my things of list if things to do before I die. I had a sauna and then cooled off by running (almost) naked into the snow and roll around like an idiot! I have to say it was absolutely brilliant and took me a day to come down off the high!

I was also in Geneva again, a city I have still never quite got my head around. It just seems to be like the culture dementors have been round, sucking the life out of the city. I know much of this is due to the fact that the city is full of NGO workers, bankers and business people from all over the world, many on transient business stays or short-term placements from their own countries. Its always disappointed me that this hasn’t produced a vibrant and noisy multi-cultural mix of a town that would be a pleasure to spend time in. Yet this time, I was privileged enough to be taken out for food and drinks by a local guy from Geneva who has started working with us. Wow…what a difference it made to be with him, as he took us to the hidden away bars that are kept the preserve of Swiss, away from the life sapping visitors like me! I had a fantastic evening that has restored my faith that there is much more to Geneva underneath its undoubtedly beautiful clothes.

A complacent ‘business traveller’ ?

Being in Kiev for one night has been an odd experience. I literally arrived at lunch time, got in a car and taken to the hotel, and as I was already late, walked straight into the meeting I was there for. We stayed in the same room in this hotel until dinner, where we then went to eat. By this time, my best attempts to get colleagues to go into town so I could see some of Kiev were failing, we comprised and went for a drink at a local bar around the corner from the hotel. We all got talking and before I knew it it was time to sleep.

The next day; breakfast, then straight back into the meeting, which over ran, so I went straight from their into a taxi back into the airport.

Before then, I texted one of my best friends in the morning, moaning about the meetings, saying how bored I was. She replied saying however bored she was in the meetings, she’d be so happy and excited to be in Kiev.

She was so right.

Am I becoming complacent? So many of my friends, like her, would have loved to have been in my position – and here I was, moaning,

Had I not made the effort I should have to see Kiev? After all, when would I ever get back there? Had I missed a real opportunity? Was I taking for granted the great places I get to see with my job?

I know I am not becoming the complacent business traveller you have probably met and thought how much they miss by just ‘seeing the inside of the airport, a taxi and the hotel’, but this was a little wake-up call.

I am always so lucky that people in YMCA never let that happen, and are always such amazing hosts. But this was a wake up call for me that when you go somewhere for such a short time, make sure you appreciate every tiny bit it!

I do travel so much, and it does knacker me out and has real affects on my personal life back home, but I need to acknowledge the negatives, and in doing so also realise I am so so lucky and must savour every second of it.

Speechless

I realised in Kiev how important language was.

I admit I have been so busy before going that I didn’t have a chance to look up any words in Russian. I was only there two days, so was being lazy and thought I’d just try and get by. I’ve not learnt Russian before, so the language was completely new to me.

When I got there I really felt helpless, totally helpless in fact. I couldn’t even say hello or thank you to our driver who took us from the airport, and embarrassingly used English, hoping he’d realise that I wasn’t some language imperialist! I’ve always made such an effort to learn the basics of whatever language is spoken where I go. Creole, Hindi, Tamil, Zulu, Arabic, Hebrew…I’ve made a poor but committed effort to speak them all. But this time, going to Ukraine, I hadn’t, I’d been lazy. And boy did I feel so uncomfortable that I couldn’t manage even a few words in the language.

It made me think how people can go to places for weeks, and not be able to even say the basics needed to appear polite. Communication is so important and making the effort, however basic so vital to relationships.

I hope to not be ‘speechless’ again.

Smug vegetarian

I have officially become a smug one. I know I’m not a real one, I eat fish, and have no real moral leg to stand on…but still.

Flying to Kiev the airline had not ordered enough veggie meals. The staff were so apologetic, but as I could see my fellow passengers tucking into their food and thinking I was just being difficult and should just suffer the consequences for being so ‘fussy’.

So for about 30 minutes I began to doubt my vegetarianism as I sat like a social lepper, with my tray table down in front of me, empty, with no food, whilst everyone else tucked into their meat meals.

Self doubt…

Then the nice steward came back from first class with a veggie meal from first class especially for me. So there I was with my large tray, polished silver cutlery, real cotton serviette, feeling like the smuggest man on earth, as I tucked into my freshly cooked food, warm rolls, French chesses (veggie I am sure?!), freshly cut fruits and chocolate profiteroles.