We Do Adventure

I had a long conversation about humanitarian aid with a co-worker today. It was about humanitarian aid but it touched on education, transport, housing, displacement, development...the list could go on. The seemingly endless list says less about our ability to stick to the point than it does about the complexities of helping people in difficult situations. When faced with so many variables, most of which you have little influence over – certainly none you control – it would be easy to admit defeat before even attempting anything. While neither of us seem predisposed to pre-emptive defeatism, as we look at where we go from here it’s fair to say we’re both grappling with the question: where do you start? You have to start with what you can do. Yes, there needs to be a big picture, a grand scheme perhaps, but those are never achieved overnight. But the picture must be of individuals, of names not numbers. Help must help them. Self-serving projects may make for great project reports but for...

Never underestimate the power of a late night conversation. There is the tale I would retell here – and a tale worth telling it is – but time does not permit me to delve into the details. However I cannot let an auspicious anniversary pass with drawing attention to one of the more defining dialogues of my life. It is three years to the day to when a few friends hijacked the small hours to ambush my comfortable consumerism. It was a battering. I was left under no illusions about my shallowness; with no excuses or adequate explanations for my seeming aversion for getting my hands dirty. That was then. Now, almost six months into a new life, things are different. I have taken giant strides toward meeting the challenges laid down for me. I won’t claim to be there yet but I’m definitely moving in the right direction. And so to my, discretely, unnamed assailants I owe a huge debt of thanks. We’ve often joked about that evening but it truly had a profound and lasting effect. I know it was pre...

This morning I was beaten by the weather. Rowan is anxious that we attend to the decking at the back of our house. She left the house announcing that 'it will be sunny and cloudy' today, which was code for 'I expect you to have stained the decking by the time I get back' ! I was a little surprised seeing as only yesterday we'd had a conversation about the weather forecast being rain all week - and you can't stain decking in the rain. I was a third of the way through the first coat when I felt the first drops of rain. I know when to quit! It was back to the Bosnian - the faithful flash-card programme on my laptop . It is going in, albeit a little slowly. A recap of what I've covered the last couple of weeks was encouraging although I know I need to keep up the speaking part. Rowan has plans for us to make videos of the role plays in one of the books we're studying from. That's sure to give you some amusement, whether you understand the language or not...