To know or not to know.

When visiting somewhere new and different for the first time there is a fine balance between the impulsive thrill of the unknown and unplanned (leaving the hotel with no map, no guidebook, no watch, no directions, no phone, no Hindi) and the boredom of having everything planned out to the finest detail, timed and arranged with precision and rigidity (got to be here at exactly this time to see these things in this order with such and such before rejoining blah de blah to arrange la di da di da). I.e. most of us find the greatest enjoyment lies somewhere in the middle of impulsive self-reliance bordering ignorance and knowing too much, too far in advance.

A case in point: I was totally thrilled by the magic of the Taj Mahal during a misty sunrise in Agra, but I think part of this owes to having actually seen so few photos of it beforehand that I didn’t really have an accurate 3D image if it in my head, let alone one true to scale. So when the time came to stand in its real shadow, it blew me away with its enchanting fairy tale-like beauty. How something like that could be built in the 1600s is beyond me. Mesmerisingly colossal.

There is an irony in the fascination of the unknown of course, because you have to know something of it or else you wouldn’t be interested in the first place would you? I mean, who’s interested in exploring nothing after all? Not many, except Nietzsche maybe.

Anyhow, these thoughts occurred to me as I strolled around a fort and its lake in South Delhi, with no map, no guidebook, no watch, no directions, no phone, no Hindi. Don’t misinterpret me here, I was having a really nice time plus coming across this sight by chance was a lucky find. However, not knowing which direction took me to the centre of the city nor which bus would take me there, where from and what there was to see and where such things would be found, was at best, a little problematic…

Then I stumbled upon four other whities like me. Sometimes it gives me a knot in my stomach when us tourists all hang out like some flamboyant army, but this lot had fluency in English and a precious Rough Guide, so I approached them slowly without making any sudden movements. It turns out they were an amazing family. An eccentric art teacher/deputy head and his wife who are travelling the world for a year with their two freckled cheeked boys, aged 8 and 11. Not only did they have had all the logistical answers but they were also great company, so accepted the kind offer and spent the rest of my day with them. 

Now I have vivid memories of wondering in awe how my primary school peers ever managed to convince their parents to take them to Thorpe Park on a school day, not to mention to Tenerife for a week during term-time. Many would argue against pulling your kids out of formal education for an entire year, but for one these boys had a geography far better than mine and took no time in reeling off all the countries they’d visited: “…so after leaving Mexico and then Brazil we spent three weeks in Indonesia then we went to Australia to stay with aunt Gillian and then a month in New Zealand and then we flew to Nepal where we had a house in the mountains for three months cause my Dad did some teaching and we had a school trip to Darjeeling and I really miss my friends from there but then we had to come to Delhi. Anyways next we’re spending three weeks in Thailand before Cambodia, Laos and then Vietnam before the monsoon and then we’re going to see Beijing…” and so you get the gist. They’re teaching the boys as they go and making them keep a log book of their experiences “to help show them how much they’ve got compared to everyone else”. The youngest was picking up the guitar so quickly from his Dad that it would make any grown up green with envy. I love how they have no idea how amazing they’re going to be once they become young adults, and fully appreciate the year they had aged 8 and 11.

The family was flying to Bangkok the following day so offered me their guidebook on Delhi and Agra as a parting gift. Ha! Such is the beauty of impulsive self-reliance bordering ignorance when it nudges ever so slightly over to knowing that little bit more (but not too much). What a lovely day. Isn’t it nice when things work out.

 

To blog or not to blog?

I’ve always been a skilled accumulator of chores. Maybe they’ve just amassed under my many To Do lists (Daily, Weekly, Ongoing, Long Term and To Do but Know I’ll Never Get Round To Ever lists); internet errands, diary to write, epilation to do, photos to edit, photos to upload, swims to swim, emails to respond to, yoga to make time for, cards to make, sweet potato brownies to bake, clothes washing to take, itunes to update –surprised I’m always late? 

Paradoxically, combined with procrastination such chores become double chores, chores², thus taking double the amount of time to carry out. As anyone who has ever been to university can tell you (or rather anyone who actually worked at university can tell you) procrastinating can itself be a great time-consuming chore. This tends to give me very late bedtimes, unless it is something that has always been engrained in my genetic makeup - which only leaves my ancestry to blame.

Hence, part of the beauty of nipping outside of Europe every now and then has to be the release from some of these everyday time absorbing tasks, and to achieve earlier bedtimes. Whilst blogging sits in the foggy area of categorisation, flitting around somewhere between classification ‘chore’ and classification ‘enjoyable task’, I left the UK with the resolution that I would choose not to blog for this trip. Why?

     1) Because it’s one less thing on the To Do list (even if the list does not exist in its physical form)

     2) Let’s face it, they’re pretty self-absorbed. Look at me look at me and my philanthropy!    

     3) If I could amount the number of life hours already spent in front of my laptop as it is, I’d probably vow never to use one again/delete my Facebook account/continue to promise to myself never to sign up to Twitter, in spite it being cleverer and much cooler than Facebook.

     4) My traineeship has already started, so why start a blog over a month in?

     5) There are so many amazing existent blogs out there, I could never match such ingenious/succinct/witty/compelling content. (Defeatism?).

     6) I always write too much. I can’t help it.

     7) Earlier bedtimes sound good.

Ah, but fuckit, the thing is…

    1) Being away makes me think more

    2) Being away makes me want to write more.

    3) Most of you who are reading this I care about a great deal. It sounds cheesy but maintaining my ties and friendships while I’m away is something that is important to me, and part of that involves sharing, I believe. So here’s my effort to keep in touch and to keep you in the loop with my little world of thoughts and learning, if you’re curious to do so. A wee little umbilical cord of communication between us (I was going to include the words nourishing, or nurturing and symbiotic relationships in this sentence…but…too much?). 

So further on down the line, in a couple of months’ time when you feel like I’ve forgotten about you and Brighton life, and when all that comes to mind is me frolicking in a warm heavenly-tinted romantic bliss in on the beach of some hot tropical climate on the other side of the world drinking an icy mojito to yet another lazy sunset with a whole new group of international, trilingual, quick-witted, musical, multi-talented, athletic, better-looking friends…just check into this blog and remember that I’m posting, not for me, but for you –to keep the connection. 

Look at me look at me and my philanthropy!

P.S. I’m still in Delhi by the way, getting used to rare travel luxuries of a/c, en-suite and buffet breakfasts. I do have thoughts I’d like to share with you already but it’s gone 5am, and I have emails to refresh, a diary to write, teeth to brush, yoga to do and pre-procrastination to be getting on with, so bye for now x

European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps...sounds fancy, but what does it mean?

A bit of background, because context is important after all.

What am I doing? Taking part in a year-long pilot Traineeship funded by the The European Commission and run by a consortium of NGOs, Masters programmes and training bodies which specialise in humanitarian assistance.

Why? Twenty five of us European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps (EVHAC) have been recruited through Save the Children to increase the professionalization of the emergency/disaster response sector. This will boost the number of fully trained personnel available for deployment, particularly at the onset of a sudden large-scale emergency.

We have completed our one month’s pre-deployment training in rural North Wales and are now embarking individually on the first of our two overseas deployments.

Where/what/when.

Wales; Emergency Field Training (simulation exercise), security training, cultural awareness/ethics and dilemmas of the job/UN and EU structure/stress management/Project Management and Logistics training. (Sept-Oct 2011).

NE India; working in a Save the Children team on the current Orissa flood emergency response (November - March)

Kenya; Re-grouping of trainees and Advanced Field Training (March 2012)

tbc; second overseas deployment (April – September 2012)

It’s been a very dark summer trying to get into the sector, so hurrah for the internship I’ve always wanted!