Monthly Archives: March 2013

Hot Cross Buns, Chocolate Eggs and Dr Who!

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YES, after weeks of no chocolate, cakes or anything sweet the day has finally arrived when I can fill my boots with it all! Lent530146_10151493446282978_2003355974_n is over and the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend brings tasty treats (including my first attempt at Hot Cross Buns: recipe below), a long weekend and the return of the popular tv series Dr Who.

So what does Easter mean for you?

Unlike Christmas, Easter, I find is not as commercially hyped. However the reason for it all still seems to be drowned out by the eggs and the long weekend which brings relaxation and new tv programmes.

As a Christian the important bit for me is remembering a sacrifice of the highest order. A sacrifice 7345_7351_5which tells me I am loved. It is a message I have been fed every year through Sunday School and Youth groups. This sacrifice and great gift of Love inspires me to try to live my day-to-day life in a way that reflects that Love.

None of us are perfect but in our imperfect world we can make a difference. This was my encouragement for travelling 6,000 miles to Chennai. To show that love to others through a smile, a helping hand, an engilsh lesson, a gift.

This year I and many before and after me have the anticipation at looking back at the past amazing 7 years of Chennai Challenge celebrating the experiences we had, the friendships we made and the change it made in our lives.

So this Easter lets indulge in a bit of Love as well as the usual Hot Cross Buns, Eggs and T.V.

As promised here is the recipe I used for my Hot Cross Buns, perfect for any time of year. Enjoy!

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Ingredients

For The Buns

  • 300ml full-fat milk, plus 2 tbsp more
  • 50g butter
  • 500g strong bread flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 7g sachet fast-action or easy-blend yeast
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 75g sultanas
  • 50g mixed peel
  • zest 1 orange
  • 1 apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon

For The Cross

  • 75g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

For The Glaze

  • 3 tbsp apricot jam

Method

  • Bring the milk to the boil, then remove from the heat and add the butter. Leave to cool until it reaches hand temperature. Put the flour, salt, sugar and yeast into a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Pour in the warm milk and butter mixture, then add the egg. Using a wooden spoon, mix well, then bring everything together with your hands until you have a sticky dough.
  • Tip on to a lightly floured surface and knead by holding the dough with one hand and stretching it with the heel of the other hand, then folding it back on itself. Repeat for 5 mins until smooth and elastic. Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hr or until doubled in size and a finger pressed into it leaves a dent.
  • With the dough still in the bowl, tip in the sultanas, mixed peel, orange zest, apple and cinnamon. Knead into the dough, making sure everything is well distributed. Leave to rise for 1 hr more, or until doubled in size, again covered by some well-oiled cling film to stop the dough getting a crust.
  • Divide the dough into 15 even pieces (about 75g per piece). Roll each piece into a smooth ball on a lightly floured work surface. Arrange the buns on one or two baking trays lined with parchment, leaving enough space for the dough to expand. Cover (but don’t wrap) with more oiled cling film, or a clean tea towel, then set aside to prove for 1 hr more.
  • Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Mix the flour with about 5 tbsp water to make the paste for the cross – add the water 1 tbsp at a time, so you add just enough for a thick paste. Spoon into a piping bag with a small nozzle. Pipe a line along each row of buns, then repeat in the other direction to create crosses. Bake for 20 mins on the middle shelf of the oven, until golden brown.
  • Gently heat the apricot jam to melt, then sieve to get rid of any chunks. While the jam is still warm, brush over the top of the warm buns and leave to cool.

Born to be a leader….

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LeadershipIconLeadership – this month has seen global changes in leadership; a new pope, a new archbishop of Canterbury and not to be left behind, we at Chennai Challenge are developing our leadership and management structure.  This got me thinking about the phrase commonly heard, ‘born to be a leader.’   Some people believe that leaders are born with the necessary qualities that make them successful as leaders. Others believe leadership can be learned and developed through life. For me, I think it depends on how you see leadership.

What is leadership?

Some believe it is the ability to inspire and influence others. John Quincy Adams states; “ If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and  become more, you are a leader.” For others leadership means being courageous and willing to speak out on an issue they are passionate about.  Many define leadership as a typical intelligence / behaviour which would bring us back to believing it is a trait which we are born with but can develop and enhance through life. So what does this mean?

Anyone can be a leader!

We all have passions in our lives where our talents lie and where we can succeed. These passions lead to qualities that we may not use in other areas of our life. Therefore whilst we may not be a natural leader, we can overcome obstacles and develop a desire and an ability to lead through our inspiration.crossword 14

Developing Leadership

Here at Chennai Challenge we invite people of all ages and backgrounds to join our projects and they in turn bring differing experiences and characteristics. However they all have a common desire to make a difference which in turn brings out unknown qualities which we encourage and develop whilst they are on project.

For example we endeavour to encourage team members to develop their leadership skills by;

  • Taking risk and living outside their comfort zone.
  • Improving their communication skills especially their ability to listen.
  • With support make decisions in planning sessions and organising resources.
  • Being confident in themselves and their ability.
  • Being reflective, knowing their strengths and seeking support in areas they find difficult.
  • Thinking positively and committing to reach their aims for the project.
  • Supporting and mentoring other team members.
  • Influencing others.

So what do you think? Are leaders born or made? Comment below. Or why not look at applying for our next project to develop yourself as a leader.

Lent, generosity and choice

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It’s lent and so a time where many people decide to give something up. Favourites seem to be chocolate, biscuits, cake or coffee. Some people do all of them! There are also those who will give up a particular activity, such as Facebook or watching TV. However my favourite lent activity is not giving up, but trying to be more generous. The 40 acts campaign has been run for a few years and has excellent ideas and things to do in order to be generous. A couple of years ago I blogged about their hospitality idea. Today though, I was thinking about generosity in general.

I find that I quite enjoy being generous. Those times when you feel that you can freely give to others, maybe beyond their expectations, do make you feel good. These generous acts don’t all need to be about money, time, skills and effort can make a huge impact as well. I will again recommend 40 acts  to get you thinking about this. Small acts, giving someone a lift, spending time to have a chat, buying someone a drink or having people over for dinner can have a positive effect on us, as well as others. At Chennai Challenge we have been blessed with generosity from many places. Many people have been generous with their money in donating to us, others have used their time and skills to raise money for us, others, the generosity of venues being given for free. That is not even everywhere we have been fortunate, every team member has been generous with their time and skills in coming on the project and in India we have had huge generosity shown to us in terms hospitality. So a big thank you to everyone who has been generous towards us, it is greatly appreciated.

Back to 40 acts. Today’s challenge is all about choice, and letting someone else make a choice about what to do in your leisure time. The idea of choice is really central to what we do at Chennai Challenge. One of the hallmarks of poverty is a lack of choice. We are trying to increase the choice that people have. One big way we try to do this is by supporting education. Both Oasis and the YMCA run education programs, the YMCA with 2 schools and Oasis working in communities. Giving people an education starts to give people choices. The choice or career rather than being forced into one. The choice of how they live their life. I think that that is important.

So once again thank you for your generosity, please continue to be so, and lets help increase the choice that people have.

 

It’s my birthday

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Today, ladies and gentleman, is my birthday. I suppose I could therefore write a blog entry about myself, my birthday and all the things that I want. If I’m honest I don’t think that would be very difficult.  But let’s face it a list of the things I want would be boring for you and frankly disappointing for me when it turned out I’m not getting all those very expensive things.  So, rather more in keeping with the ethos of this blog I shall instead write about birthdays in general.

Firstly, please enjoy the following list of my favourite birthday facts (which I have just researched on the internet – source of all accurate knowledge):

  1. The tradition of candles on the birthday cake apparently stretches back to the ancient Greeks (what doesn’t?).  They would make round cakes and put candles on the top to represent the moon in an act of offering to Artemis – Goddess of the Moon, Hunting, Animals, the Forest and many more things (greedy).  Although what this has to do with birthdays I am not entirely sure…
  2. The Romans would celebrate birthdays with hedonistic parties, which led to the Christians rather frowning on the practise of celebrating the anniversary of one’s birth.  In fact the ancient theologian Origen declared that “Christians should not only refrain from celebrating their birthdays, but should look on them with disgust.” I shan’t be following his advice.
  3. In some countries with an Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic heritage, people celebrate a name day or Saints Day rather than the anniversary of their birth.  It seems likely that they did this because of the dirty pagan celebrations I mentioned above.
  4. In North Korea nobody is allowed to celebrate a birthday on July 8th or December 17th as these are the days that Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il died.  If you are lucky enough to born on one of these days you have to push your birthday 1 day later to July 9th or December 18th.
  5. I have just done a bit of research into who I share a birthday with…turns out that not very many famous people were born on 9th March – these were the best I could find: first man into Space – Yuri Gagarin and all round impossibly proportioned doll Barbie.  What a hall of fame!
  6. Check out this website for some FASCINATING facts about your birthday. http://www.dayofbirth.co.uk/
  7. International Children’s Day is on 20th November, but in India they celebrate 14th November as Children’s Day in honour of the birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru – first president of the Indian state.

So, there you go. 7 moderately interesting facts about birthdays.  My favourite is that I share a birthday with Barbie.  On a more serious note I would like to talk a bit about how birthdays are important when we visit India.  Every year when we visit the Boys Town the team are inundated with requests for their names, their families names and their birthdays.  They make a list of these birthdays and ask the team to sign their note pads.  The next time we visit they will greet team members by reciting their family members and their birthdays back to them.  I think there are two reasons for this.  First of all there is great value in them being able to practise their spoken English with native speakers.  By having the chance to speak English like this they increase their confidence using the language, which is so important in modern India.

Secondly it demonstrates the value they find in our visit.  It is quite touching to arrive at the Boys Town for only the second time and have a young boy recite personal information about you.  That they have spent time memorising something about you is quite humbling.

This was only emphasised for me last year when we received an email into the Chennai Challenge account addressed to one of our team members on her birthday.  It was from a boy named Vignesh, who had made the effort to remember her birthday (over 10 months since her visit) and request the use of his carer’s email account as he didn’t have access to one himself in order to let her know that he had remembered her:

Hope and wish you remember me. I am so glad to wish you a very happy BirthDay Maria. May our Lord Bless you Abundantly

I find this quite amazing, and it reminds me again of the great worth in our visits to Chennai.

So there we go – here is a picture of a birthday cake for your enjoyment.  If you fancy buying me a present how about going here and making a donation towards our work and our future. Many happy returns to you all – even though it’s not your birthday!

A Birthday Cake...because it is my birthday.

A Birthday Cake…because it is my birthday.

What’s in it for me?

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For a lot of people, motivation is hard to come by. In order for them to do something, anything, there has to be a very obvious benefit or reward for them, or why bother? As a society we try to use rewards and punishments to keep our society working as we what it to, in order to have people behaving in a way we see as correct.

A school is a microcosm of this. There are clear rules to follow, and if you break those rules then you are punished in some way.This might be a severe talking to,  being kept behind at the end of  the lesson, writing lines or something else.  However if you behave in the correct way, doing your work, being polite or helpful, you get a reward. it may be a simple well done or acknowledgement from the teacher, a sticker, a merit or even a certificate! This works really in well in many schools, and generally speaking primary schools are much better at giving rewards than secondary schools. Sixth form colleges are worse than secondary schools. There are very few people studying their A-levels who will ever get merit for doing good work.

I am sure that teachers are not trying to be discouraging, but the rewards are starting to change as people mature. Once students start GCSE or A-level courses, then the reward they are working toward in a good grade, and surely they don’t need those silly little rewards for doing the simple things we all expect? the one problem with this is that the reward can seem so far away, a two year course feels like a life time to a 15 year old. It is easy to lose motivation, and forget the reward that you are working towards.

In a similar fashion the punishment can seem much further away as well. Whereas a primary school student may be scared stiff about breaking the rules, a sixth former may be more relaxed about it and not really fear the repercussions. The motivation to behave well, or to fit in with the rules can fade away, especially if you can see other people getting away with things.

Trying to keep young people motivated and engaged in education can be difficult, in a country such as the UK many young people will lose motivation and rely on help from the benefits system, taking advantage of the welfare state. The young people that Chennai Challenge works with in Chennai do not have the back up plan of unemployment benefits. Many can struggle with confidence, feeling that they will be destined to live a life of poverty or seek relief through drink and drugs. This is why we are so happy to work with Madras YMCA and Oasis India.

Both of these charities are working in Chennai all the time and helping young people to have the chance of success. The YMCA runs two schools offering a free education for over 1500 slum children. They house a small number of boys who don’t have anyone else to look after them properly. Oasis run a number of programs, working in schools and communities which have previously had poor reputations.

When a team from Chennai Challenge visits it can be a motivation for the young people and encouragement for the staff who are working there. The money we raise and spend goes towards trying to help people see the rewards they can get, and to help them achieve success. That is what we are trying to do, why not help us?

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