YMCA Power of Peace Awards
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Conflict resolution, Travel
I was recently honoured by being nominated for and becoming a finalist for the International category of the YMCA Power of Peace awards.
See a YMCA Power of Peace clip here.
Nazanin Afshin-Jam, who has a name like liquid poetry, was the captivating keynote speaker and winner in the emerging leaders category. Nazanin is a human rights activist, as well as the co-founder and President of Stop Child Executions which she started when she realized there is a sobering 140 children on death row in Iran alone.
The crowd was entertained by performances by local artists including Kunaka Youth Marimba, Miyanda (African Drumming and Dance), and Joe Given (a local award winning teenage singer, songwriter, and performer). It’s a toss up which is more captivating, watching Joe perform with his shaggy mane of curls or listening to his lyrics (he sings about drawing a bigger circle to be more inclusive).
I brought my family to the celebration and the true indicator of what a great night it was was when my 12 year old turned to me and said ‘mom you should be nominated every year, this is so cool’.
Peace to me is more than the absence of conflict. It’s the space and freedom for significant individual and community similarities to shine as well as the space and freedom for differences that make a difference to be respected.
What does peace mean to you?
Tags: african drumming, awards, joe given, kunka youth marimba, miynada, nazanin afshin-jam, peace, power of peace, stop child executions, ymca
How old are your ideals?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Travel
Berber Imp
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind… Nobody grows old by merely a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
(Poet Samuel Ullman, from his poem ‘Youth’, as quoted in Gods and Soldiers, the Penguin Anthology of Contemporary African Writing.)
How old are your ideals?
For that matter how old is your faith?
Your vision?
Your self-image?
How old are you?
Tags: africa, gods and soldiers, questions, samuel ullman, youth
Questions are the lasers of illumination
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Communication, Creativity & innovation
Recently I attended a luncheon at the annual CSTD (Canadian Society for Trainingand Development) / IFTDO (International Federation of Training and Development Organizations) international conference. Around me were professional trainers of all sorts.
Being a born and bred trainer my antennae was up and my ears tuned. I’d listened to Peter Senge and Romeo Dallaire and been inspired.
This day the conversation around the lunch table was led by a conference delegate who was excited about having just learned a technique to get seats in bums after a break (e.g. how to ensure people return to your training on time following a break).
The technique involved shutting the door precisely when break was over. Starting on time no matter what.
It was heavy handed.
I tried to steer the conversation towards another focus. Perhaps we were asking the wrong question, not:
– How do we get participants back in their seats on time after a break?
But rather:
– How do we get participants to be motivated and engaged, with training content that is relevant and interesting, so they return ‘on time’ (a concept that has big cultural overtones) on their own accord?
The questions we ask are pointers. They illuminate some things and leave others in the dark.
I’m not interested in being a taskmaster as a trainer. Too much work.
Most of all it doesn’t result in good learning because our brains aren’t designed to learn if we’re not motivated.
I am interested in motivating participants so they choose to learn. And so that they come back from a break looking forward to more.
What’s your motivation to learn?
Tags: cstd, iftdo, learning, peter senge, question, romeo dallaire, training & development
Musings on Africa; cookie dough, screech owls, bumper cars & matatus
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Travel
Back in chilly, wet Vancouver. Remembering. Recent musings from Africa.
I watched some weaverbirds making nests while running on the treadmill the other morning. Picking up twigs from the children’s playground they industriously wove them together. I marvel that they make 5-6 nests for every one they use (better protection). I especially marvel that the entrance to the domed nests is at the bottom and when they lay their eggs they somehow stay inside.
I like that at the UN cafeteria there is food from all over the world. I especially like that the line up for African food is longest.
The brakes to the bus that took us to/from Naivasha sounded exactly like screech owls.
I withdrew 300,000 from the bank the other day. Ugandan shillings that is.
Traffic there is like bumper cars without the bumps. There is a discernible pattern but it’s very hard to find.
Confession time: I get a little (okay big) thrill when the UNDP driver, John picked me up in the UN vehicle. Makes me shiver.
To take a matatu (public transit van) when it’s raining costs double.
Seen on the back of a matatu (think wild and crazy drivers that trace modern art patterns through traffic): Pray for us
Made cookie dough the other night in Nairobi. There was no electricity so couldn’t bake (no problem, in my house cookie dough rarely makes it into the oven). I joked with a Honduran guest that this was how all Canadians ate cookies. Had to quickly correct myself when she believed me.
When bulls fight it’s the grass that gets hurt (Honduran saying from said guest.)
Tags: africa, bumper cars, kenya, tanzania, uganda, united nations, weaver bird
Lulled to sleep in a mosquito net
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Travel
Enroute home from Nairobi to Vancouver. I’ve switched one cocoon (mosquito net encased bed) for another (airplane).
Sleeping within a mosquito net is like:
– going to bed in a fairy’s nest
– entering a butterfly’s silken home
– entering a den of cotton candy
– being free and cocooned simultaneously
Where are you free and cocooned at the same time?
Tags: africa, cocoon, free, kenya, mosquito net, united nations
I believe in hope
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Conflict resolution, Social Responsibility, Travel
Tomorrow I leave Nairobi for home. As I get ready for the 24 hour marathon journey a pause to think about my time here…….
I believe that hope has a home. It lives in small places, fanned by the winds of change.
I believe that hope is our compass. Without it we’re lost in the muddy quagmire of despair.
I believe that hope’s journey isn’t a straight line, that the twists and turns make it organic…. and that’s where surprises lie waiting to be discovered.
I believe that hope and change are inextricably linked, like chocolate and peanut butter.
I believe that hope has to be nurtured, sometimes one mere breath at a time.
I believe that cycles can be broken, that ties to the past that seemed forged in steel can be melted and that tomorrow can be better than we ever dared hope.
I believe that love is an elixir for hope.
I believe that the sun is stronger than the shadows.
I believe that it’s a long way down to the place that we started from.
Tags: africa, change management, kenya, nairobi, united nations
Change management: Alice in Wonderland with chicken legs or wings
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Travel
We had been working on designing a survey for youth who had taken part in training at the One Stop Youth Centre. I was working in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania last week doing follow-up to the program evaluation training I did in Naivasha for the United Nations.
Dar es Salaam means ‘haven of peace’ in Arabic. I found haven in a hotel right around the corner from the City Council where the OSYC is housed.
My room was on the 10th floor. The restaurant was on the 9th floor. Now in my world when I subtract 9 from 10 I get 1. As in walk one floor down and voila the restaurant.
Not so much.
I walked one floor down and got onto some in between floor. I was no longer in the hotel. I was on a floor that contained multiple small business offices. It wasn’t decorated the same.
Confused, I scratched my head and wondered if this is what Alice felt like when she fell down the rabbit hole.
I never did get the hang of the elevators or stairwells. Certain elevators went to some floors and not others. Certain elevators would be reached round corners, twisting this way and, after a 5 minute walk.
The sign that pointed to the gym was in vain. There was no gym.
Perhaps it was the humidity. As I write this the humidity level is 84%. My international weather website forecast for Dar actually has water dripping from the sun. Translation: eyes tell me I am walking through air but skin feels like I am swimming through water.
At any rate, one can only take so much survey design before the need for sustenance takes over. I suggested we go for Lebanese food.
My colleagues greeted me with blank looks. Lebanese? Huh?
“Sure’” I said, “it’s only two blocks away. Great food. The hummus and feta are tasty and the prices reasonable.”
To which followed a somewhat lengthy explanation as none of them knew the restaurant, despite it being 2 blocks from their workplace.
Welcome to my home, Tanzania, I joked with them.
When we arrived at the restaurant, two colleagues ordered the ubiquitous fries and chicken and two colleagues joined me in sampling the hummus, feta and pita.
When I ask if one of my colleagues wants to share our food, he replies that switching from chicken wings to chicken legs is enough of a change for him.
Point taken.
We all take our change in different paces and measures. What’s drastic change for me might be commonplace for you.
How do you like your chicken …. what’s small pocket change for you? What’s ‘hang onto your hat, we’re going for a roller coaster ride’ change for you?
Tags: africa, alice in wonderland, change management, chicken, naivasha, program evaluation, tanzania, united nations
Boda Bodas: from Oxfam to Razor Blades
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation, Travel
Kampala, Uganda. Christmas is coming and I decide to take a break from work to do some shopping. Kenneth and Patricia, youth from the One Stop Youth Centre, where I’ve been working, volunteer to take this mzungu (white person) to Owino Market.
First task is to get there. With a mix of trepidation and channeling Evel Knievel, I follow Kenneth. Both of us are on a boda boda (motorcycle taxi). No helmets. Up and down we race, Kampala being known as the city of 7 hills.
I pay more to go slower.
This was not a good day to wear a skirt.
A tad shaken (not stirred) we arrive at the market. I follow Kenneth and Patricia’s lead into the sprawling outdoor labyrinth. The aisles can barely contain one person walking through, let alone those folks bent almost in half carrying massive loads that threaten to take you and anyone else in the vicinity out.
Dodging dogs, piles of garbage, puddles and those mysterious large loads I bob and weave my way through, wondering what I will do if I loose my hosts.
Reminding myself that I was here to shop I snatch glances of the goods around me. Mountains of clothes. Clothes everywhere. Pants, tops, shirts, dresses, coats they’re all laid out from one stall to another.
What I am slow to realize is that the clothes are all second hand. In fact many of them still have tags from Value Village (or Savers if you’re American), my favourite shopping haunt at home. I buy a top that has an Oxfam tag on it.
I wish it could speak to me and tell me of its travels. It’s probably journeyed farther than most people. Made in China, shipped to the U.K. and then donated to wend its way to Uganda. Purchased by me its next home will be Canada.
I have fun bargaining and end up with some great goods. My hosts help me get the non-mzungu price.
Taking a break Kenneth takes me up some narrow stairs. We have a great view of the busy hive below us. What catches my attention more however is the row of people hard at in front of us.
Razor blades flash as rows of people use them to quickly slash through seams and take apart entire garments before my eyes. Next stop and large pairs of scissors held by capable hands cut and shape. Passing off to people powering sewing machines by their feet, the bits are re-sewn into something entirely new. Last stop before reentering the bustle below for sale, is being ironed like new. Old fashioned irons, made hot by coals, make any wrinkles give up the fight and submit.
I’m impressed and, being in Kampala to do evaluation training for the United Nations, I can’t help but wonder what criteria folks use in deciding whether to sell a garment as is or to reinvent it.
What have you reinvented and made new lately?
Tags: boda boda, Kampala, oxfam, rps, sewing, shopping, value village
Polite notice: am naked and waiting
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation, Humor & comedy, Travel
No, this isn’t a porn email, rather some overall musings on Kenya and Uganda.
You often see public notices here start with ‘Polite notice….’ as in ‘polite notice; please check out by 10 am’. I like that, it’s poetic.
Time runs thicker here. Am measuring time not in seconds or minutes but rather in hours and days.
The air in Kampala (Uganda) is full-bodied and humid, like someone recently cooked a meal and the scent lingers
They’ve skipped phone landlines all together and hopped on the cell phone craze. Even saw an ad to submit your college application via cell phone.
Am trying, without much luck, to resist my natural impulse of which direction to look when crossing the street. As they drive on the other side of the street, I’m always looking in the wrong direction. As a result I must look like a maribou stork, bobbing my head every which way as I weave through traffic.
Speaking of Maribou storks saw no less than 5 up in a tree, supervising the morning rush hour while I was out exercising this morning. Think stork on steriods. They are some 3 or 4 feet tall.
I like that I can give up knowing here. Not only do I not know the answers but sometimes I don’t even get the question. When waiting to board my flight for Kampala for example they announced three times that boarding was to proceed. When I got to the gate however, they politely said, oh not yet. Huh?
Questions and queries are flung about my day; they form a thick tapestry above my head.
I arrived very late in Kampala (flight was delayed 2 1/2 hrs) and felt heavy with fatigue. Got ready to take a shower, debating how I would do that when the shower head was broken. Stripped down to my birthday suit and just then the power went out. Sat on bed naked wondering what do I do now?
Polite notice: how do you take shower in the pitch dark?
Sometimes the best thing to do is realize you don’t know. Stop. And wait. What have you waited for lately? What’s worth waiting for?
Tags: Kampala, maribou stork, questions, rps, shower, time, uganda
Hippos and Irish Drinking Songs
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation, Humor & comedy, Travel
During my recent five days of doing intensive program evaluation training in Kenya for the United Nations,, we created a bit of a spectacle with our training. To keep the content interesting I constantly did games and activities that were frequently very loud. The wait staff always hung around to watch. We play and learn and play and learn.
A retired English couple staying at the lodge was very interested in what we’re doing. They asked for a ‘performance’.
Skip ahead to that evening when we hired a boat to take us to look at the hippos. We bought some fish which our guide then whistled loudly three times and threw into the water. Fish eagles (think large bald eagles) heard him and swooped down to snatch and eat the fish. Very cool.
Later, as we watched hippos, flamingos, pelicans, an Egyptian goose, and weaver birds the group wanted another song. Now even though I push the envelope quite a bit with my corporate clients, singing is not something I tend to do. So was scratching my head trying to remember more songs (had already taught them a bunch of interactive songs, that they sing random phrases of during the training much to my delight) and lit upon the Irish Rovers ‘Unicorn’ song, to which I used to sing along to in bars at Expo and learned hand motions to.
Sure enough there we were a boatload of folks belting our hearts out and rocking the boat to our hand movements, singing to the hippos.
Fast forward to that night. Turns out it was the British couple’s 46th wedding anniversary, so after a cake procession, which all 12 wait staff and cooks brought out and accompanied with drums and ululations we went over and performed for the couple. The irony of singing an Irish drinking song to an English couple with Ugandans, Rwandans, Tanzanians and Kenyans was not lost on me. Insert big goofy grin here.
When was the last time you combined diverse and divergent elements to come up with something new and fresh? Tell me about it, I’d love to hear from you.
Tags: hippo, irish, kenya, naivasha, program evaluation, rps, tanzania, uganda, unicorn, united nations