Change Agent Global Gathering, Portugal

We’re just over halfway through the YMCA Change Agent’s Global Gathering at YMCA Setúbal, in Portugal. There are 149 young leaders from YMCAs representing 49 countries.

While I have been reconnecting with those I met at our regional training in Avignon (read my post about this), I have been discovering new stories about the people around me and hearing from those around me about the impact, challenges, and work of the largest youth movement in the world.

Outside the Portuguese Parliament in Lisbon

We have participated in workshops delivered by World YMCA, YMCA Europe, the Asia Pacific Alliance of YMCAs alongside a programme of workshops and sessions led by Change Agents working and volunteering at YMCAs around the globe.

What has really stood out for me is despite the vast differences in what our different cultures would traditionally find acceptable and familiar, and the potential for barriers in communication that this presents, there is an overwhelming amount of understanding and respect that is unifying us.

A contemplative moment

The other night after dinner YMCA Setúbal arranged live music for us, and while I started writing this blog, I looked across the outdoor area and noticed that regardless of our backgrounds  people were dancing together, cheering, laughing, sharing their experiences and stories as if we had all been working together for years.

We also spent time in different parts of the region undertaking activities supporting the local environment, clearing invasive vines, improving community spaces and historical monuments, in the heat of the Portuguese sun it was hard graft but impressively in three hours - as a collective – 19 days was given back to the local community.

Social impact volunteering in the local community to benefit the environment.

Since we arrived, Johan Vilhelm Eltvik, Secretary General of the World Alliance of YMCAs, has spoken to us about YMCA’s journey and the untold story of injustice towards young people and the Portuguese Government’s Secretary of State and Minister for Youth and Sports welcomed us to the country. We’ve attended workshops on everything from how YMCA India engages young people in Global Citizenship; YMCA’s 2018 World Challenge; YMCA Norway's Stop Poverty campaign; YMCA Victoria’s Bridge Project in Australia, working with young offenders to support them into employment and much more besides.

Alongside this, the seven English Change Agents have also been presenting on Civic Engagement, our mental health campaign #IAMWHOLE and sharing information about our work in Birmingham, Derbyshire and Sutton Coldfield.

English, Scottish, Swiss and Greek Change Agents in Lisbon.

Karina from YMCA Fairthorne Group, who trained as a Change Agent in the previous cohort, has been supporting the facilitation and getting up just that little bit earlier than most to make sure people start the day the healthy way!

Today we visited the Portuguese Parliament, in Lisbon, welcomed by politicians from all the political parties. They hosted a panel presentation, where Change Agents put questions to them on how they are empowering young people, and what more can they do.

Cultural evening and party

While we are not yet finished I want to extend warm thanks to the staff and volunteers at YMCA Portugal, and especially YMCA Setúbal (notably Antonio and Tiago). Also to my colleagues and friends from around the world who have made this experience of discovery and learning so far such a poignant one. Over and out, more to follow once I return home.

My first YMCA Change Agent experience

It's quite difficult to find appropriate words to articulate my experiences from Avignon, France; however as a Communications Officer for YMCA England & Wales, I will try my best. As many a blog on this website will tell you, and for some reading this, a YMCA international experience is incredibly powerful – especially your first - and something you will never forget.

Joining up with trainee Change Agents and YMCA France volunteers to explore the city of Avignon.

In unfamiliar territories, with people who are often strangers, from vast cultural backgrounds and far removed from the realms of our comfort zones – one unifying theme becomes apparent quite imminently: a will to empower young people.

These last few days marked the start of a two year journey to become a YMCA Change Agent, and I’m feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information there is to digest and process as I return home.

Change Agent trainees Tom Truman, YMCA Birmingham and Jerahl Hall, YMCA North Staffordshire in the garden at YMCA Avi

Joining me were young colleagues from our national office, YMCAs across England, volunteers and staff from across Europe, Kosovo, Palestine and Russia. In total 22 nations were represented.

As a global leadership programme for young people we covered many subject areas that would enable us to develop, plan and deliver new projects to reach more young people in our communities, YMCAs and countries.

Discussing politics in our respective countries and the impact it has on young people.

This wasn't just a series of PowerPoints and lectures though, as the schedule was full of self-facilitation, delivery by inspiring participants and graduate Change Agents, management of our own learning, and through conversations that would start in the scheduled agenda and often end up continuing until all hours of the night.

However, I believe one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal as agents of change is the art of storytelling. Our first full day began with two hours on the subject. To both share our stories and with space to contemplate how we develop an emotional connection to them - that in turn can, and does, drive change.

Dren, from YMCA Kosovo, and myself.

And so I listened to the stories of what motivates those around me, who and what inspires them and their personal experiences of being a young person in their countries. I learned of political oppression and dictatorships, of fear to speak out, triumph over adversity, of those individuals who we have loved and lost that drives us forward every day.

These anecdotes continued into every aspect of the training, and I'm sure will continue for a long time to come. Stories that truly humbled me, and at times left me shocked, but helped me to develop a much deeper understanding of the diversity and differences in our world.

Change Agents and YMCA France volunteers together

I look forward to new-found friendships growing in the coming months as we now look ahead to our global gathering in Portugal where our Africa, Asia and Pacific counterparts will also join us.

I will return to our National Council offices with pages of notes, a renewed sense of vigour and motivation, ideas for collaboration with new friends by my side, and confident in YMCA’s global potential to be a movement for immeasurable societal change.

Cedric, YMCA France, supported by Adi, World YMCA, to 'Surf the Change' in an exercise of trust led by Change Agents and volunteers from YMCA France.

Be the change.

Communicate the vision.

Inspire impact.

If you want to read stories of young people working with YMCA in England and Wales, head to our website. Discover more about World YMCA’s Change Agents programme. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

World YMCA Change Agent Global Gathering 2 - Day 5 & 6

I left you on Friday evening anticipating what my ‘community service’ trip would entail over the weekend. That evening, as planned a group of us managed to squeeze in a trip to the bar after a long hard week of programme. I decided upon having a Thai cocktail which was delicious. Perhaps the photo shared on Facebook of me slurping it up isn’t the best representation of my time here – so it’s a good job that you’re reading my blogs!

I’ve just come back from my “community service” group weekend. Over a hundred Change Agents were split in to five groups and each travelled outside of the city to work with the community. And work it was. I’ve heard of other teams building schools and even making beds and dinner for their hosts! I haven’t long got back so any really juicy stories I’ll include in the next blog.

Day five.

My specific group was titled “Natural Resources Preservation towards Sustainable Community Development” and was based at Pa Sak Ngam village some 100 kilometres to the North of our YMCA hotel where we are based. The village consists of 102 households and a population of just 347 people – they did however have one bar and it is this first Welsh flag I have seen on Thai soil… in the middle of nowhere but I suppose that just added to my bewilderment!

The visit started by listening to presentations from two professors at Chiang Mai University, basically about what we would be doing over the next 30 hours. I had a great night sleep and an hour on the bus but I found it difficult to keep attention at a high level with over-defined information and the humid atmosphere. This didn’t mean it wasn’t interesting though by any means and it was obvious to see how important “check dams” are to villages in Thailand. Dams hold the water in a specific place so it can be stored for community use, when otherwise it would simply run all of the

way down in to cities.

After the presentation and lunch we made our way to another part of the village with the university staff and before we knew it many of us were knee-deep in a river trying to net insects that we could barely see. The purpose of this activity it quite important, as the University – by listing and scoring whatever is caught – can judge how clean the water is. This particular part was deemed a 5.15 out of ten, so would be used for agricultural use but not good enough for feeding pets or washing dishes. Drinking water in the village is always sourced from the City which thankfully means built up areas are not too far away. 

By the time 3pm came we were just about to start the Pa Sak Ngam nature trail before the heavens opened. It never rains it pours couldn’t be more correct. After 100 meters we turned back to the vans which was the point things went from optimistic to me really not enjoying the experience.

We had to ditch our luxury minibuses at the side of the road as three pick-up trucks collected us and took us to the hotel. I doubt there was a risk assessment done for the journey but we got to our accommodation safe, albeit soaked through, agitated and already longing for the hotel. Dinner followed suit being especially bland and as 8pm came I was the first one to turn in to our cabin – a florescent pink mosquito net covering the bed offering the slightest glimpse of positivity. By the time I had the full-time Newport County score texted through by the Mother at midnight I drifted off to sleep thinking of all the other Change Agents having a great time in their home stay locations (which didn’t quite turn out to be true for everyone, in hindsight a peaceful cabin in the middle of a beautiful forest competed well). 

Day Six.

Considering I spent 11 hours on a 2 inch mattress with air-con, I had a really good sleep, albeit despondent that where I was staying wasn’t just a dream. Rice and tasteless chicken was kept down at breakfast and we were led away for a morning’s hard labour. 

This is where things started to look up (you didn’t really expect me to moan for too long?) as we joined members of the community to set up two dams in the village river, one made of bamboo filled in with soil and another made with rock and cement.

The first task was to transport 200 boulders from the roadside some 50 yards down the hill to the stream bed. I felt a great sense of team work as we aligned up and passed the muddy-spider-ridden rocks at great pace. Of interest, the line consisted of people from Thailand, Wales, Australia, Philippines, Trinidad & Tobago, Hong Kong, Niger, Liberia, Ghana and Denmark. I’m sure this makes up for the usual “A Welshman (add other countries) walk in to a bar…” joke I usually make.

A continuous conveyor belt of rocks, cement and water were passed down over the next two hours and the dedication resulted in us finishing at lunch time, two hours ahead of schedule. Muscles on us! Without wanting to make another point of food; lunch on the back of a pick-up truck was the best meal yet. We were treated to a huge fried chicken leg, sticky rice and REALLY chilli paste, all served in pockets made from banana tree leaves.

Just as I was thinking to myself how happy I was compared to earlier Mother Nature decided that my clothes were getting a little too dry and within seconds we were soaked through. Rather collapse in defeat we moved on to the next part of the project which was to plant a tree – no charitable visit to a forest is complete without it! No photos of this sorry as I’d be ordering a new phone by now.

As we started to make our way back to Chiang Mai we were fortunate to visit two attractions on the way. Firstly, we stopped at a viewpoint on the outskirts of the village over-looking tens of thousands of teak trees. Having learned the importance of maintaining tree levels it was comforting to see them as far as the eye could see. Our final stop was along route 1001 to visit the Bua Tong waterfall in the Mae Taeng National Forest Reserve. The spring water contains a high amount of calcium carbonate. As the spring water cascades down the falls, the calcium is deposited on the rocks. The calcium carbonate then adds a non-slip surface to the rocks. Believe it or not, the rocks look slick but it is very easy to walk up the face of the falls without slipping.

So with a risk assessment nowhere to be seen, just two of our 30 strong party made the climb and apart from a little slip right at the top (which was a million times scarier than it sounds!) we made it with ease, perhaps because I’m a terrific athlete (citation needed) or because it really was similar to walking up steps.

Our group was the third of out the five to arrive back and at first glance everyone had a similar dirty, sweaty experience. Like many others my first venture was to have a shower and although the hot water was completely extinguished half way through I finally felt clean enough to go back in to civilisation.

Succeeding dinner I respectfully passed on the devotions session to start the blog and found my place in the room before the final session of the day started which looked back on our experiences, still at the forefront of our mind.

What did we learn that we didn’t know beforehand? Obviously I learnt a lot about dams and water flow which maybe isn’t the most practical of learning but others were taught how to cook and even mix and lay concrete which I thought was quite cool, and it’ll save you a few quid the next time you get the driveway upgraded!

We then took a more sentimental approach of our experience and were told of people’s home stays and experience of working in small communities. The weird and wonderful took place in several houses that night, including a group of three English girls having to go shopping, cook dinner for the host and be sent to bed at 8:30pm. In comparison Amely from the Dominican Republic was taken elephant riding so maybe the brief wasn’t translated very well by some accommodation providers!

On a serious note every single one of us had something to take back from the experience. One group building a mushroom house commented that the head teacher was in a suit one day to greet the Change Agents, and the next morning was in his labouring attire getting stuck in to help the community. My personal reflection was on how welcomed we felt. 30 strangers/foreigners turning up at their village of under 350 people. In so many places throughout the world outsiders are not welcome and I hope that my experience – albeit it on a minuscule scale – can show this.

It’s now Monday morning and sadly it’s likely I’ve come down with a bit of a flu. I have no idea if it’s the sun, the air, the lack of water or lack of sleep catching up with me but having missed the first session waiting for the pills to kick in I’ll be re-joining the sessions after break. Two girls have had to be taken to the hospital because of influenza so I'm being cautious (don't worry, Mum!)

___ 

For my final blog on FRIDAY I’m hoping to use this as a way of raising funds that can go towards the next time young people have an opportunity like I've been lucky enough to. For a very small price you can read about the final 5 days, guaranteed travel shenanigans, 19 hours in Helsinki, my top photographs and how it felt to say goodbye for the final time to so many friends.

Thanks for reading!

Chris

World YMCA Change Agent Global Gathering 2 - Day 3 & 4

It’s hard to come to terms with the fact it is now Friday and it’s been a whole week since I left home. Although I am missing many parts of life in Wales I really hope the final 5 days slow down.

I left the second blog at a point where I was about to join a party provided by students from the local University. It was an event everyone enjoyed accompanied with Thai cocktails and a band playing some global tunes – the only downside being Justin Beiber included in that list. Another night of having the nest intentions of going to bed early diminished… but I can sleep when I’m back home, right?

Day 3

After two solid days in the conference room, Thursday 25^th gave opportunity to visit outside of the YMCA hotel as part of the programme. Our 100 plus population split up in to a dozen minibuses and by 9am we had arrived at another branch of Chiang Mai YMCA – Sao Hin YMCA.

The morning focused on environmental issues at Sao Hin, specifically the fantastic teaching they provide to the community about the many different types of producing energy and how we use it, and importantly education on how we can reduce our energy levels to make our habitat more environmentally-friendly. As we cascaded through the classroom style exhibits I thought about how cool this would be for young people to experience and noticed a number of Change Agents reacting as it is the first time they have been made aware of the damaging impact our reliance on electricity and oil has become.

Following a typical delicious and filling lunch we then drove 45 minutes to Maesa Elephant Camp. I’m still unsure whether I seen my first ever elephant at Berlin zoo two years back instead of yesterday but one thing is for sure and that’s I have never had the pleasure of being so close to these majestic animals. The sea of red shirted change agents felt similarly going by the exciting atmosphere and selfie production. After about half an hour petting the giant trunks the elephants were lead to the stream to be washed by the trainers – called mahout’s – before being led to the showground.

What followed next was a hot topic of discussion on the way home. What we had seen so far was in no way untoward so to have a circus-type show divided the opinions of some. Over the space of an hour up to a dozen elephants completed a number of impressive stunts including placing hats on their mahout, taking penalty kicks, trunk hula-hooping and even painting using a brush and easel! I did have a keen interest in one of the paintings had it been in my price-range as can you imagine that as a conversation starter with guests over:

“So tell me about this picture?
An elephant painted it
…
no, seriously.”

One of the final acts was for a member of the crowd (namely Mario from Italy) to play darts with against one of the older elephants. Although some shocking arm-work by the Italian meant he took a while to take the lead, it did take some purpose cheating by the larger mammal to claim victory, to the joy of the hundreds in attendance.

Once I had arrived back I immediately did some research on the well-being of the elephants at the camp and felt relieved that I was correct in feeling comfortable enjoying the experience, and before we set out for dinner both the YMCA staff and hotel personnel assured this. My question of why do they ‘have’ to do a show was suitably answered by the reason that if the show wasn’t part of the experience, attendance and therefore funds would drop and ultimately they would cease to be able to preserve the animals. The website out of interest is http://maesaelephantcamp.com/.

I’m aware that I haven’t mentioned food in over three paragraphs so I’ll fast forward to dinner which was at one of Chiang Mai’s most popular restaurants, the Kantoke Palace. As we removed our shoes and sat down a starter of onion soup and pineapple cocktail were served immediately. After this came the main – or eight to be precise – that included curries, fried chicken, pickled vegetables and that British classic; pork scratching’s. This was devoured by everyone on the table before the entertainment started. We relished eight traditional Thai dances which were entertaining not only because of the fact it included extremely loud drum banging, colourful costumes, playing with knives and the first ‘pantomime’ two-human-bodied animal I have seen for 15+ years.

The final minibus ride of the day gave us opportunity for the food to digest as we travelled to another market this time in the newer part of town. There were literally hundreds of stalls vying for custom and I contemplated how risky I should be with the gift I bring back for the better half… and there wasn’t a Pandora shop in sight!

Surprise surprise I soon noticed now legend of these blogs; Aussies Steph and Bec in a small bar in the middle of the market so joined them for an innocent beer to end the night. By the time another 6 people joined the congregation we had an audience of Jordanians, Lithuanians and Spaniards not only being entertained by a live band, but firstly yours truly dancing to “Uptown Funk” and Stewart from Scotland delivering three brilliant karaoke ballads that had the rest of the bar – whoever they were, in raptures.

Day 4

Perhaps thanks to my tiresome sharp moves the night before, I woke up today the freshest I have in a week and even caught the end of breakfast. Today’s morning show team included Icelandic Change Agent Isak and it would come as a shock to nobody that the energiser was the ‘Icelandic clap’ that was brought to fame at this year’s Euro 2016 tournament. I made sure that the English participants joined in (why wouldn’t they?) before the day’s workshops covering health and employment kicked off.

The workshop that I attended was delivered by Emma and James from Australia concentrated on physical health and exercise. Not exactly right up my street but as I knew Emma was a personal trainer would be good to get some tips from her at the very least.

We discussed why it’s difficult to eat healthy in various countries and I alluded to us Brits usually rushing or skipping lunch during a busy days work and that it’s almost impossible to go out socially and eat/drink healthily. I for one have never seen a celery stick in a cinema (then again I’ve never looked!).

What was interesting was that in Oz they do not follow the 5 fruit and veg a day rule. Instead it is recommended that people have 5 veg and 2 fruit a day… which when you think of it is quite different to our perception of healthy intake.

After lunch (Thai green curry again if you’re wondering) I attended 2 workshops on Employment. The first was brilliantly delivered by Joumanna and Lara from Jordan. We discussed how family influences young people’s career choices and whether this could hold someone back or is a case of simply a parent having their child’s best interests at heart. A video produced by Lara interviewed several young people in Jordan and sadly a case such as a young girl wanting to be a lawyer was an uphill batter just because of the fact she is female. What rubbish. We went on to discuss how YMCA’s can help young people in to employment along their chosen career path. This is something I’m really proud of Newport YMCA for. Our casual caretakers are more often than not young people with little or no qualifications from the local community. When they leave working at the YMCA for greener pastures they have a variety of experience in working with young people, hospitality, conferencing, caretaking and catering.

The second session was led by Alex from Victoria YMCA and concentrated on how global demographics are changing and what this means for young people. She admitted that she finds it difficult to speak to decision makers on the basis she is young and female (and I bet bloody good at her job). Let’s hope our generation do not look down on young people when we are in these situations as every generation will bring something different and fresh to the table.

I can’t quite remember how it fit in to her presentation but one highlight was the work that Victoria YMCA delivers to refugees and asylum seekers. Every year they provide 180 people ten weeks of free swimming lessons and from these they go on to employ 32 as staff and pay for ten to achieve an education. Isn’t that fantastic? And similar to what is happening throughout YMCA’s worldwide.

So, after a quick rest and 1,486 words in to this blog post we are going for dinner and popping out for a few hours tonight. Tomorrow morning we will leave for our community participation programmes that I detailed in my first blog on Monday. I’m really looking forward to this albeit whilst the mosquitoes are starting to work through my bug repellent! 

Catch up on Sunday evening if all goes well!

Chris

World YMCA Change Agent Global Gathering 2 - Day 1 & 2

Greetings again from Thailand. Since my last post the eventful programme has begun and I’m currently taking five before we go to a welcome party organised by the University of Chiang Mai.

Day one.

We started yesterday with a news-type “Morning Show” delivered by World YMCA staff Romulo and Maricris. These are important yet fun ways to initiate the days learning and it’s common that they include some form of silly chanting or dance, just to ensure everyone is awake. They seem to work!

After an introduction to the programme and an ice-breaker (you do tend to forget the odd name after 12 months…) we were presented to by a student from the Chiang Mai University on how to greet and show respect in Thailand. This included some simple words such as sawasdee (hello) and kab khun krub (thank you). He went on to explain certain things that we should abide by to be respectful that included not wearing vests or shorts in temples and slightly bowing your head to elderly people. It is all a bit strange coming from the UK but everyone was happy to follow and I’ve finally nailed the pronunciation!

Following this Andrew Mackenzie from Australia presented findings of the One Million Voices research campaign. As mentioned in my first post OMV is “a global research initiative to gather the views and to better understand the needs of young people. This is something that YMCA’s in Wales contributed to and is just one example of how the global YMCA reaches out to its 58 million members and beneficiaries worldwide.” We learnt that 60 countries participated in the research and although there was no budget or resources, thanks to the global network of the YMCA we gained information from nearly 18,000 young people. We were able to receive specific country reports and our Welsh one contained some interesting results:

• Young people using YMCA’s in Wales believe they get more information on employment at the YMCA than anywhere else apart from the internet. More than schools and unsurprisingly the Department of Work and Pensions.
• Young people receive a higher level of personal, social and health education at the YMCA compared to schools.
• Young people in Wales are less likely to be in education and less likely to have any qualifications than the global average.
• Unemployment levels in Wales are higher than the global average, with the main reason being the lack of jobs available.

The two bottom points especially stood out for me. Although the UK and Wales isn’t perfect, I fully expected us to have higher levels of education and employment… remember this survey was cast to 60 countries throughout the world, some  we would regard a lot 'worse off'. I wonder what British Prime Minister Theresa May would make of these statistics?

Looking through this was of real interest. Many of the group looked terrified to see so much ‘data’ but this sort of thing is similar to my employment role and I’m fortunate to read the information rather well. I really hope that the YMCA’s in Wales will be looking through the results of the research to gain a better understanding of what our young people need to be empowered when they walk through the door of a YMCA. I will be lobbying for it to be placed on the agenda at the next Strategic Development meeting that the Welsh YMCA’s hold every three months.

Moving on – it’s still only 4pm on the first day by now – we participated in a workshop led by Change Agents from Denmark and Australia focusing on SDG’s. More beautiful statistics and numbers to get in to! What is an SDG you ask? Well, Sustainable Development Goals were created by the United Nations in 1990 and updated in 2015. There are 17 goals in total containing 169 specific targets to meet or work towards by 2030. They include some quite incredible aspirations such as no poverty, zero hunger and gender equality. Since 1990 the amount of people in poverty has lowered from over 1 BILLION to 700 million. That’s great right? The one issue I have with this statistic is that the SDG’s class ‘poverty’ as have less than $1.25 a day income. Realistically how many people can manage off $1.25 per day to feed, dress, shelter, educate… live? I wonder what the total would be if it was $5, and even then is this a realistic amount of money to break free of poverty?

Staying on the topic of finances, what we learnt next is something that you should just think about for a few seconds. On Earth we have rich people and poor people. I ask you, the poorest 50% of the world’s population have the same amount of money ($2 trillion) as how many of the richest people?

Sixty-two.

If that wasn’t quite clear… the SIXTY-TWO richest people on Earth have the same wealth as the bottom THREE BILLION. The figure in 2010 was 388. Whilst the $1.25 poverty numbers may be decreasing, the inequality gap is growing wider at pace.

The close of this presentation led in to another workshop led by Mari Cruz from the YMCA in Madrid. It focused on the different ways charities can and do fund-raise and resulted in deep discussion as we argued what type of fundraising is good and reasons against others. For me it was nothing that I didn’t already know but it was really good to be refreshed and contribute to the discussion. Mari seemed grateful at the end of the discussion when I thanked her for running such a thought provoking session.

We have finally reached dinner time and the food on offer has been superb. Although rice and noodles are a staple at every mealtime, the Thai green chicken curry last night was superb and on the whole the selection available has been my favourite of any YMCA event I’ve attended.

The first evening concluded with a quiz, where teams were organised by a concoction of doing the conga, team working to model a car made of bodies and once having thought of a team name producing a song to go with it. Our team “The Dumbo’s” – perhaps in reference to Thailand’s love of elephants rather than a summery of our academic qualities – was well received as was the other four groups. Sadly the questions were not as appreciative with a selection being:

•     Which country produces the most oxygen? (not Brazil)
•     What year was the first Olympic Games held? (no idea)
•     What country produces this largest amount of false teeth? (we still don’t know this)
•     What is the only country where you can marry a dead person (we got this correct!)

It’s fair to say we didn’t come first, and knowing that the tie-breaker was following the eye-catching dance moves of Lykael from Trinidad & Tobago, I was delighted to witness Isak trying to keep up rather than myself! It was all very entertaining.

Day two.

My inability to wake up at a reasonable hour meant I skipped breakfast and went straight in to our conference room where I respected the majority of Change Agents participating in daily devotions.

Our first port of call today was to learn what next year’s World Challenge will be. In 2015 the World Challenge set a Guinness world record for the most consecutive football penalty kicks taken in one day across multiple locations. I’m sure you’ll find out 2017’s soon enough.

Following that section, the many Change Agents from African countries actively presented one of their projects named S2C – or subject to citizen and there is more information on this here http://goo.gl/W7eIRi

After lunch we listened to guest speaker (and quiz team-mate from the night before) Guro from YMCA Norway titled “Where the power resides: The vicious circle of poverty”. The presentation was similar to the SDG information but including some surprising realities. Using her homeland as an example she shared that Norway sends hundreds of millions of dollars to protect rain forests every year, but at the same time invests 20 times as much capital in companies that are tearing down the forests to manufacture their products. In groups we discussed how we need to look at problems within our communities and find the reason for the problem before we can provide a solution.

I brought up the steelwork industry in the UK and in particular South Wales where recently thousands of people are in grave danger of losing their jobs. These jobs are low-skilled and it will be near impossible to place them in similar roles should the worst case scenario become reality. Alex from Victoria YMCA in Australia said that in her part of the world, education and degree places are capped to a certain number to prevent people being overqualified and there being insufficient roles, whilst her local government advertise to businesses who offer low-skilled jobs to maintain a healthy variety of employment opportunities.

And here we are now! I’m just getting ready for dinner in 45 minutes before the welcoming party mentioned at the start of the post. It won’t be a late one tonight as tomorrow be have a reeeeally busy day visiting Sao Hin YMCA to learn about their work before a visit to an Elephant preservation camp and dinner at one of Thailand’s top restaurants. I hope it is as good as it sounds!

A final note on the recent bombings in Thailand – these are not aimed at tourists and every issue has been experienced in the far south of Thailand some 1,000 kilometres away from peaceful Chiang Mai. YMCA staff have no issues over our safety (and I’m not planning on jumping off cliffs again anytime soon!)

Catch up towards the end of the week.

Chris

World YMCA Change Agent Global Gathering 2 - Pre-programme Adventure.

It is now fourteen days ago that I finally purchased flights to Thailand to participate in the second Global Gathering of YMCA Change Agents, some 120 of us will be here from 50 countries to further develop our leadership qualities with a view to transform and impact not only our local communities but to come together to share information and to advocate the views and needs of young people in every corner of the world.

Why so late to join the party? Well I will admit it has been a difficult few months for the YMCA that I am Chair of, and perhaps the timing of the programme isn’t ideal which did insert doubts whether my participation would be appropriate and justified. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh on myself? Maybe not. That, together with it being the first year in 3 I haven’t fundraised for the trip, meaning the “bank of Mum” has been initiated and it may take several months to square up with her. Nevertheless with support from other Change Agents, trustees, YMCA England and family I’m toasting away in my hotel room some 700 kilometres north of Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand.

The program itself doesn’t start until tomorrow (Tuesday) but I have been lucky enough to have planned my journey to arrive on Sunday morning with friends from England, Iceland and fellow compatriot Ashleigh from Swansea in Wales. At this point only a handful of delegates were here but you could already sense the anticipation towards what I’m positive will be a great ten days.

The journey over was purposefully adventurous involving cars, coaches, planes, “tuk-tuks”, trains and taxis over the course of 47 hours. The journey to Bangkok was pleasant and I was grateful to meet up with people and share time in the City before boarding an overnight train to Chiang Mai. The train, formerly used in Japan, was comfortable enough albeit not quite adaptive to a larger male figure on board, but when you think that the 14 hour transit cost just £18 pounds with some wonderful scenery thrown in, it was a really special experience, yet still one that I was glad concluded when arriving in Chiang Mai on Sunday morning.

Staying on yesterday, we immediately bumped in to many of the Australian contingent; and as we had the day free, decided to walk in to town past the countless temples and street food huts, feeling grateful that I went back to my room to apply some factor 30. The Australians namely Bec, Steph, Emma and James got word of a canyon on the outskirts of town and after an hour suggested we hire scooters to go and check it out.

“Hire a scooter, over here – are you mad!?” was the toned-down version of my initial response, but I knew fully well from last year how mischievous certain Australian ladies can be and within 15 minutes there I was, helmeted up trying to ignite the engine. I thought to myself that this is going to be one of those trips where you really don’t want to be saying no and so far – in hindsight – I’m ever so pleased I haven’t. The scooting itself was surprisingly easy, and (more unbelievably than surprisingly!) safe. The drivers seem to respect their follow nippier road users and in the sweltering heat it was blissful to have the wind in your hair as we travelled to the canyon.

We arrived at the canyon shortly after 2pm and the initial reaction was that it was a scene out of an Indiana Jones film. Steep cliffs surrounding a calm green lake, with a peaceful echo of people having fun. As we squeezed our belongings in to a locker and headed towards the cliff edge we pondered at who was going to be first to get rather soggy. We had hardly come to a conclusion before Emma from Adelaide YMCA was stripped off ready to take the plunge. I refer back to my aforementioned “just say yes” attitude I had earlier in the day and there I was next to her in front of 40 or so eyes running towards the edge. And down we went.

It wasn’t until my trailing foot left land did I realise that perhaps this wasn’t the brightest idea but it was too late to reconsider. The instant moment felt like an age as gravity had its course before hitting the water. Another life experience and for the time being I have the bruises to show it. Elegant it was not.

After several hours enjoying the lake and returning home, we were back out in town at the Chiang Mai Sunday evening market with more people from Australia, Ashleigh and Isak from Iceland. 

You ‘couldn’t swing a cat’ as tourists and locals alike scuttled along the narrow streets, admiring the outstanding array of handmade crafts and artworks. Should anyone have any tips of getting a 3x4 elephant canvas print home to Wales in one piece before next weeks’ market please don’t be shy! A flavour of the many food stalls was concluded by a couple of Singha beers, to look back at a day where although the programme has yet to start, the adventure has already surpassed lift-off.

Today wasn’t quite as adventurous as we neutralise the jet-lag. As I sit here now the bulk of participants are flooding in and young people are being re-united in most cases for the first time since departing Singapore 12 months ago.

Tomorrow morning will begin with a programme catch up and introduction before we go in to a session on One Million Voices; a global research initiative to gather the views and to better understand the needs of young people. This is something that YMCA’s in Wales contributed to and is just one example of how the global YMCA reaches out to its 58 million members and beneficiaries worldwide.

The programme runs from 8am to 11pm each day so which proves the banter off friends of it being a ‘jolly’ is rather unjustified (although I’m sure they’re just winding me up!). What am I most looking forward to? Probably that over the weekend we split in to working groups that will be volunteering in the community. The one I have chosen consists of visiting a village in the mountains that has a population of just 347 people. After learning about their community, we will help other local young people preserve the dam built to provide water to the inhabitants. The current vagueness of the project only adds to the anticipation but there will be a lot to cover before then.

Apologies that this initial blog is ten times longer than intended, I’ll be in touch either tomorrow or Wednesday with a – hopefully shorter – update to how the programme progresses.

Chris