It's been a long 5 days on the "Ocean Dream" Peace Boat, where I am together with another 150 people from 60 countries. After 22 hours leaving Newport in South Wales to the cruise ship via Heathrow, Vienna, Tokyo and Yokohama we're now in day 4 just about to start proceedings. (I'm actually in Devotions which is rather rare for me, although not participating I am certainly enjoying the interactive performances and song).
Life on board is good even if the cuisine takes some adapting to. While pushing boundaries of what I'm used to, raw fish is still vacant from my diet.
To the delight of many of my Facebook friends I'm sure, internet access is expensive and patchy at best so the usual 20 updates a day are absent but it's not due to the lack of activity and enjoyment. My environment has been the same for days. Blue sky and blue sea. I'm still not fed up of it by any means.
I'm living with Gareth from England and Simon from Denmark who I first met in Estonia in May. I've already made good friends with the other Brits including some compatriots Carlie and Ashleigh from Swansea. What has surprised me is how many other friends I have made with little effort. It is common on board to say hello to whoever you pass in the corridor and mealtimes are always with new people, including the 600 non-YMCA residents.
The programme (the important bit I guess) is now in full swing. After being introduced by Johan Vihelm Eltvik the CEO of the World YMCA and brief details of what to expect from the week we went straight into our group meetings to discuss how empowerment (and dis-empowerment) affects our own communities and what the YMCA is doing to tackle issues. With the group consisting of participants from Senegal, New Zealand, Russia, Denmark, South Africa, Italy, Jordan, Japan and Australia you can imagine the diversity of problems facing young people around the World. While my YMCA aims to tackle inclusiveness into society, the movement in Cape Town tackles young people who can - and do - so easily get caught up in drugs and gun crime.
A useful talk on facilitation followed, which I contributed well, joking that I probably said more than the presenter. Yesterday we looked in detail at the World YMCA strategy and discussed in groups how we are going to present the YMCA to 500 Filipino students once we reach shore. Our group has some simple group exercises but I believe others are doing shows and a play which should be educational and if not at least entertaining!
We're about to start a session on leadership, where I hope I can learn new ideas and thinking that can support me personally and my YMCA.
I'll hopefully be back in touch in a few days, after our session in The Philippines.
Life on board is good even if the cuisine takes some adapting to. While pushing boundaries of what I'm used to, raw fish is still vacant from my diet.
To the delight of many of my Facebook friends I'm sure, internet access is expensive and patchy at best so the usual 20 updates a day are absent but it's not due to the lack of activity and enjoyment. My environment has been the same for days. Blue sky and blue sea. I'm still not fed up of it by any means.
I'm living with Gareth from England and Simon from Denmark who I first met in Estonia in May. I've already made good friends with the other Brits including some compatriots Carlie and Ashleigh from Swansea. What has surprised me is how many other friends I have made with little effort. It is common on board to say hello to whoever you pass in the corridor and mealtimes are always with new people, including the 600 non-YMCA residents.
The programme (the important bit I guess) is now in full swing. After being introduced by Johan Vihelm Eltvik the CEO of the World YMCA and brief details of what to expect from the week we went straight into our group meetings to discuss how empowerment (and dis-empowerment) affects our own communities and what the YMCA is doing to tackle issues. With the group consisting of participants from Senegal, New Zealand, Russia, Denmark, South Africa, Italy, Jordan, Japan and Australia you can imagine the diversity of problems facing young people around the World. While my YMCA aims to tackle inclusiveness into society, the movement in Cape Town tackles young people who can - and do - so easily get caught up in drugs and gun crime.
A useful talk on facilitation followed, which I contributed well, joking that I probably said more than the presenter. Yesterday we looked in detail at the World YMCA strategy and discussed in groups how we are going to present the YMCA to 500 Filipino students once we reach shore. Our group has some simple group exercises but I believe others are doing shows and a play which should be educational and if not at least entertaining!
We're about to start a session on leadership, where I hope I can learn new ideas and thinking that can support me personally and my YMCA.
I'll hopefully be back in touch in a few days, after our session in The Philippines.
Great Post Chris. Looking forward to the next one.
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