Author Archives: Rob Short

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Tales of the unexpected.

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One aspect of being involved in Chennai Challenge is the unexpected. Many times in India we have had an unexpected situation that we have had to deal with, some positive and some not, all of which have added to the experience. This weekend is a little unexpected. Well not the weekend itself, but the fact that I am NOT training a team to go to Chennai. As part of the training for Chennai Challenge we normally use the early May bank holiday to take the team to a camp site a practise the activities they will be leading in Chennai, to fill in visa forms, to make sure they know the kit list and look at what it is like in Chennai. However, this year we are not taking a team, but doing a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ work to make sure the Charity is running efficiently and continue to help both volunteers from the UK and people in Chennai.  If you had asked me 18 months ago, I would not have expected this to happen.

I would like to share with you a few ‘unexpected’ stories from my experiences and encourage you to embrace the chance to have some unexpected experiences of your own.

My first trip to Chennai was rather unexpected. All the way back in 2000 I was still studying Chemistry at university. Without really expecting it, I had the chance to get involved with a project run by Guildford YMCA, to go and help in Chennai. A slightly random connection as I was studying in York, but my then girlfriend (now wife) was in Guildford. I didn’t really expect that I would go to India to try and help, but some how I did.

When I arrived in Chennai, it was not what I had expected. Even with people who had been before telling me what to expect, my mental picture was different to the reality. The thing that I found to most unexpected however was the way in which we were welcomed. On the same evening as we had arrived we were taken out to dinner by Madras YMCA. At this point in time I was tired after spending so long travelling and still trying to adjust to being in India. I, and others on the team, bumbled out to dinner wearing what we had travelled in. We arrived at a very nice restaurant. Far nicer than the sort of place I would normally go to in the UK. I felt completely under dressed and quite bemused at why our host were taking us to somewhere so nice, when we had done nothing for them and they didn’t even know most of us. It was totally unexpected by me and a very generous offer of hospitality.  Later I could see the benefits it had, we had no local currency, so would not have been able to buy a meal ourselves on the first night, also the Madras YMCA were thankful for the fact that we had gone there, even before we had started to do work.

I hadn’t expected it, but by the end of the trip I did not have to decide if I wanted  to go to Chennai again, I knew that I had to. So I did, twice more under Guildford YMCA. During those projects so many unexpected things happened, quite often to do with where we we gong and at what time, that just gave a great character to the experience I had.

There is one conversation that I can remember, and I certainly was not expecting at the time. On my last trip with the YMCA I was talking to the head of Madras YMCA (the Late Dr. G. Ebinesan), who told me that I should bring a team of people out. This was a bolt from the blue for me as I expected to keep being a team member more than a leader. Initially this didn’t really change much, however within a few years I would be leading teams out to Chennai with Chennai Challenge.

I didn’t expect that Guildford YMCA would have to stop taking a project to India. This, and the words from Dr G. Ebinesan, were a huge motivation for me in being part of setting up Chennai Challenge with Cathy and Isaac. We didn’t expect to set up a charity, but it has been a hugely rewarding thing to do. Through it we have been able to help people in ways we had not imagined, both people in India and the UK in visible tangible ways and in unseen and personal ways. Our expectations of what a particular team would be like have often been wrong and we have seen people surprise us and themselves with the things they are capable of.

Through these unexpected things I have seen in myself and others things that have developed character, strength and many other qualities. Have you got space for the unexpected in your life? Can you risk it, not knowing what will happen? It might not end badly, it could be rather good. Why not get involved in our 2014 project and see where that will take you. Or you could just comment below on an unexpected event of your own

Who’s up for a challenge?

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There seem to be a lot of challenges around in life at the moment. When I say this I am not thinking of all of the problems of the world, recession  and the like, I am more thinking about things that are offered and advertised as a challenge for our entertainment. Just to think of some of them it seems a little odd to see how they would be fun to do. A marathon has always been seen as a challenge and people are often sponsored as they push themselves through this challenge. However it seems that that is not extreme enough for some people as there is a rise in triathlons  iron man competitions and events such as tough guy. Some go as far as going on TV to do a silly challenge with shows like wipeout, or the slightly more extreme Ninja Warrior. As strange as it may seem to some people that you would want to put yourself through a whole load of pain, many people do and then feel the warm glow of having achieved something.

You may get a slightly different feeling from doing a food challenge, far more popular in America than the UK and brought to the fore by Man Vs Food.

Man v. Food

Man v. Food (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The gargantuan meals that are served to people seem to be able to give you the proud feeling of eating far more than you need to and the likelihood of indigestion. That is if you finish them, as more often than not the size of theses challenges really shouldn’t be possible for a normal human being. They are spreading and it is possible to find a good number of challenges in the UK now, with my local pub offering the 1 kg burger challenge as well as the Flaming wings challenge.

For a far less physical challenge there are always challenges on computer games. It seems that every games has to have a series of challenges to keep you interested, whatever you are playing it on. It could be that you are trying to win one of the weekly challenges set on Halo 4, or just trying to unlock all the achievements on it as you play on your Xbox 360, your reward is being able to show people you have done well and scoring lots of points. This week I have been hooked in to completing challenges on Temple run 2 on my phone. Not all week of course, but a little bit of time each day, because if I complete the challenges I earn coins, which then makes Temple Run 2 easier for me to play. I am not sure why but I felt like I should complete the challenges to show my prowess at this pointless and silly game.

You can even just spend your time watching people doing challenging things on TV, especially by watching the channel ‘Challenge’

It would be foolish of me not to mention Chennai Challenge and of course to focus this time on the ‘challenge’ part. Way back in 2005 Chennai Challenge started, and between Cathy, Isaac and myself we had a clear idea of what we wanted to do initially and that was to take people to Chennai to help out with the charitable works of Madras YMCA. We had got this vision after being involved in Guildford YMCA’s “India project” which had been doing the very same thing and we saw the opportunity to go out for longer and with a wider age range. We then get the the problem of a name for our charity.  Mainly from the fact that I like a bit of alliteration, ‘Chennai Challenge’ was put forward as a name and is what we became. We liked the name because it does give a very quick idea of what we are and what we do. We were thinking at the time that the challenge is for all those who are team members, the experience of being in Chennai will be challenging to them in terms of being away from home, being in a different culture, eating different food, seeing extreme poverty first hand and many other things. That all comes after the challenge of having to raise money in the first place. As challenges go, I think that these are worthwhile challenges which people can feel proud that they have overcome.

So after a little extra history of Chennai Challenge, what are the challenges for today? Well there is always the challenge of getting involved with us, by supporting us, reading the blog regularly or volunteering to be part of a team that goes to Chennai. You may want to take up the challenge of posting a reply to the blog. Or you may simply want to take the challenge of counting how many times challenge is written in this blog! (And that does include this challenge and the one where I gave you the challenge counting challenge)

feel free to post your answer in the reply section below

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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.

 

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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Anticipation and memories

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So we have now got to the start of February after what seems to have been a long hard slog through January. So many people just seem to be finding this time of year bleak and depressing, the days are still short, the weather is cold, windy and wet. The excitement of snow was very quickly replaced by annoyance as wet and slippy roads and paths were the reality as you had this cold, slushy inconvenience in the way of every day life. Many people are now also having the financial reality of Christmas catch up with them, as bank accounts seem worryingly empty so soon after pay day and credit card bills for presents, and then those little treats from the sales, start to mount up. You can add to this the fact that you may have made a new year resolution which by now could well be annoying you, or you have failed at, so another reason to feel bad.

The start of February certainly seems grim. If only it were the start of December again, now there was a good time. At the start of December we don’t mind about the short days, because it is nearly Christmas. There is joy in the air, advent calenders to open, presents to buy, drink to be drunk, food to be eaten, fun to be had! The anticipation of Christmas and the excitement is not confined to children and many wait eagerly to see the reaction as people open their presents and hope for that special gift that they hoped for. that pre-Christmas excitement, the thought of what could be, seems so much better than the now, the post-Christmas blues when all the fun and excitement has gone.

Why on earth has it gone? Surely we still have those wonderful gifts we wanted? Those special things that would make our lives better in every way? Or have we already got bored of them, the shine has come off and our ‘happily ever after’ has turned into dull monotony. Surely we had great times over Christmas, with family and friends, what about those laughs that were had and those ‘you had to be there’ moments you can never really explain to someone else, are they all forgotten?
It certainly seems as though we just value the now, and the future, the past is dead to us all. I heard an account of someone asking a boy about Christmas “It was rubbish!” he exclaimed, “I had no presents”, and on pushing this point, as he was living in an affluent area with well off parents he replied “Well I did get a quad bike, but I crashed it on boxing day and it broke”. This child seemed to feel genuinely as if he was hard done to in this situation, and maybe we have something of this ourselves.

I think that it is time we started to put some value on those things we have done, time to start celebrating our memories, rather than just pushing on relentlessly to the next thing, whatever that may be. The memories we have can be powerful, and often serve as a way to help move on to a meaningful future to anticipate.

We can share memories with people to help in difficult times, recall a shared memory with a friend who is going through a hard time, to remind them things can be better. Sharing the memory of a similar time to show empathy. In good times too, sharing memories with each other can be fun and help bring us together. Or maybe sharing a life story just to show another side of yourself.

One of the most important things that Chennai Challenge does is create memories. For people from the UK it can give them powerful memories of seeing poverty first hand, up close and personal. Hopefully these memories can influence people to remember how lucky they are, and to help others in need. they also get the memories of being part of a team, having fun and experiencing so many good things in India. The strongest memory is often that of those we go to help. The joy on their faces when we arrive, and the thankfulness for anything we give. For many of those we help in Chennai they get memories that do help to inspire them throughout their lives. the memory of fun times had, the memory of gifts given and most importantly the memory that some cares for them, and cares enough to go to them and spend time with them.

So don’t be depressed by the start of February, but remember that spring and summer will come again, remember that you have good gifts, and try to make some new, good memories to cherish.

 

If you feel like it, why not post a favourite memory in the reply section below.