ICS Global Workshop, Nairobi

At the beginning of June we held our fourth Global ICS Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. Attended by 10 of our 11 agencies, including our two new ICS Entrepreneur agencies - Balloon Ventures and Challenges Worldwide - we totalled 35 participants including our facilitation team from the ICS Hub - our biggest global workshop yet!

Unlike previous global workshops which have covered a wide range of topics from community integration to monitoring and evaluation of projects, this week focused on two aspects of ICS programming in much more detail, so I led the first half on volunteer learning and my colleague Phil led the second half on supervising and supporting diverse intercultural groups of volunteers. Being able to dig into the detail of the challenges and opportunities that these topics present led to some really interesting discussions and outputs/action plans from the week. 

The other main difference between this and previous workshops was that nearly all ICS agencies were represented through a combination of UK and in-country staff. Working in a consortium of different agencies all delivering the same programme comes with its challenges at times, as anyone trying to work across multiple stakeholders with differing perspectives can testify, but it also brings a richness of opportunity for sharing and learning from different experiences, and a reassuring sense of "we're in this together".

My two volunteer learning days included how to support volunteers to set (and achieve) individual learning goals and how to support them to take their learning forward beyond their ICS placement (whether that be into the job market, further education or enterprise). We also looked at how to motivate volunteers by enabling them to see the bigger picture of ICS and how they, as one of 14,000 other young volunteers from a total of 30 countries are able to have a real impact. It was great to have Lattitude Global Volunteering and Raleigh International facilitate some of these sessions during the two days. As well as providing a welcome break from me(!), the power of agency-agency learning is immense as it's an opportunity to share from personal experience what works and what doesn't. Finally we did some sessions on writing strong volunteer development case studies, where the participants actually interviewed some ICS alumni from the UK and Kenya in order to write case studies. 

Writing up flipcharts for sessions

Recapping the volunteer learning journey

Chisomo from Lattitude Malawi sharing a case study on setting volunteer learning goals

Nana from Lattitude Ghana presenting on supporting ongoing volunteer learning

Introducing the session on linking volunteer learning to impact and monitoring/evaluation

Ruth, a VSO Kenya ICS alumnus from Kenya sharing her volunteer story

Hamish, a Skillshare Botswana ICS alumnus from the UK (now working at Lattitude) sharing his volunteer story

And with the case study the group designed to represent his story

In the second half of the week, my colleague Phil took the lead on sessions around supervising and supporting a diverse group of volunteers. One of the things I'm most proud of in ICS is that we're not a gap year programme only open to the most privileged young people. We actively support and encourage applications from all different backgrounds, including those that are more challenging. But with this comes the need for strong supervision and support so that volunteers are able to work well as a team during their placement. The mental health of volunteers is just as important as ensuring they've got the right vaccinations and are drinking enough water for differing climates, so we also had an external facilitator from Interhealth Kenya lead a session on  recognising and supporting volunteers with mental health issues.

Team leader role plays

Interhealth Kenya session on supporting volunteers with mental health issues

I'm only putting this in because it looks like I'm the only one in Phil's session and it makes me laugh!

Small group discussions on the role of team leaders and staff in supervision and support

On our penultimate evening in Nairobi we headed out to a local Ethiopian restaurant for food - a welcome break from the cabin fever of the hotel (due to the current security situation in Kenya we were advised not to go out alone). Then, as my flight home at the end of the workshop wasn't till the early hours of Saturday morning, I also squeezed in a quick visit downtown for an obligatory Tusker beer with some of the agency staff and an even quicker trip out to the local giraffe centre as they're my favourite animals in the whole world (and didn't disappoint). 

Dinner out at the Ethiopian restaurant

Speedy last evening Tuskers in downtown Nairobi before heading to the airport

The downtown chaos below from the bar

Best animals EVER

Come on - aren't they!

Eye to Eiffel 2014

Last week, seven guys and one girl filled their backpacks with energy bars and jelly beans and peddled over to the London Eye to begin the nearly 200 mile bike ride to the Eiffel Tower. This is the story of our journey....

Day One. Wednesday 14th May. London Eye to Newhaven. 57 miles.

After the continuous rain on Tuesday - which led to a rather unspectacular slow motion fall off my bike at traffic lights on the way home from work (forgetting about the toe clips on my new bike) - the weather couldn't have been more perfect for our first day of the trip!

Left to right: Francois, Ali, me, Rash, Olly, Michael, Bill and Graham

And it wasn't long before the next (just as unspectacular) fall, this time by Rash - when we were still in front of the London Eye. Without a support vehicle or medical professional among us (unless you count my brownie guide first aid badge), two falls before we'd even started didn't bode well, but we set off in the rough direction of the route we'd taken to Brighton a couple of months ago and managed to get some good miles under our belt before stopping for lunch at the Cowdray Arms in Balcombe, Sussex.

Rash celebrating his fall

Sweet potato fries at the Cowdray Arms

Post lunch stretching

Setting off after lunch, we picked up the speed a bit (must have been the sweet potato fries) and kept peddling south. Just outside Haywards Heath we had the third (far more spectacular) fall of the group and an opportunity for me to dust off my first aid badge (-; Must add there were no more falls after Day One though! Keeping a group of 8 together isn't easy so we often needed to look behind each other to check if everyone was still there. It's quite tricky to keep the wheels straight when you're looking back, and for poor Michael (aka the incredible powerhouse packhorse of the group with double panniers) it meant his wheels clipped the side of the road and threw him off balance. But legend that he is he just jumped back on and it wasn't long before we found a very friendly Boots the Chemist who let us use some of their first aid box rather than buying up half the shop. 

Day One was quite hilly so the long daylight hours really worked in our favour meaning we could stop and rest, stretch or refuel when we needed, finally getting to Newhaven around 9pm. 

Making the most of the sunshine

Road side stretching

Ali and enough energy gels to light up the London Eye

Day One. Done.

Day Two. Thursday 15th May. Dieppe to Gournay En Bray. 47 miles.

Day Two started with a 4 hour ferry crossing from Newhaven to Dieppe, eating croissants, checking the routes and catching some rays. So it was a bit of a shock to the system when, at about 3:30pm French time, we had to get back on the bikes and cycle another nearly 50 miles to Gournay En Bray.

About to check in

Newhaven port

Croissants and sunbathing on deck

Checking the route

On board yoga class 

Approaching Dieppe

The majority of the route for Day Two followed a disused railway track (called Avenue Verte) which meant we avoided roads and went through some really beautiful countryside. With the extra hour of light we made it to Gournay En Bray just before sunset and just in time to eat at a nearby restaurant. Steak-frites x 8!!

Rash, Michael and Olly at the start of the Avenue Verte

Team t-shirt day with Francois

The old fuels are the best

Our hotel for the night...

Just kidding. But the little restaurant next to where we DID stay had great steak-frites

Day Three. Friday 16th May. Gournay En Bray to Paris. 84 miles.

At the end of Day Two, Rash realised that one of his wheels had lost a spoke and wasn't properly aligned so in the absence of a bike repair shop we tracked down a MOTORbike repair shop. They couldn't replace the spoke (obviously) but did manage to realign the wheel so we set off just after 10am.

Rash outside the motorbike repair shop

It was a long loooooooooooong day with lots of hills but beautiful scenery again. Francois managed to get some action shots which really showcase northern France in a way I've never appreciated before.

We had lunch sitting on a wall in the sun outside a little boulangerie before doing the last push into Paris. Michael, Bill and Graham took the lead in map reading (never my strong point) as we approached the outskirts of the city - I wouldn't have had a clue!

Which way?!

Who knows?!

The first sighting of the Eiffel Tower was amazing (and such a relief), even if it was very far into the distance. But we finally arrived, exhausted but elated at 9pm. And by 10pm we were already talking about where to go on our next trip. Addictive, this long distance cycling mallarky!

A teeny tiny Eiffel Tower in the distance

Made it! Love this one - think Bill just spotted his wife who'd come to Paris to meet him!

Day Four. Saturday 17th May. Paris. 0 miles (unless you count cycling to Gare du Nord to get the Eurostar home!)

After 3 days of cycling it was great to spend a sunny Saturday with my Mexican friend Rebeca who I met when I lived in Morocco. She now lives in Paris with her husband Porfirio, son Mathias and gorgeous pointer Petra. It was so relaxing not to rush anywhere and just enjoy catching up, watching Mathi play in the park playground near their apartment. Throw a lovely lunch into the mix and it was the perfect antidote to 3 days of cycling.

On the way to the station I managed to snap my new bike in front of some of the other famous Paris sights before heading home on the Eurostar and cycling back to Balham from Kings Cross St Pancras. Crossing  Lambeth Bridge I had a great view of the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye. Hard to believe it was only 4 days before that we'd set off on our journey!

Invalides

Grand palais

Arc de Triomphe

Full circle. Overlooking the London Eye from Lambeth Bridge.