Workshopping

I was drafted in by colleagues to deputise at some internal training on travel planning, as someone had to travel to Kenya last minute. I am a good example of someone who has been converted to the value of detailed travel planning as it's essential in South Sudan to be prepared.

In times gone by I often stepped onto planes to Africa and Asia with not much more than flip flops and a book and with very little consideration of risk management. I am extremely far from being a paranoid traveller but there is huge value in at least having contact details for medical facilities, consular help, in-country colleagues etc. The workshop was good and it was useful that even the most seasoned among us were happy to throw ideas around on the nuts and bolts of travel.

Another session I attended today was about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the suite of global development targets following on from the Millennium Development Goals. There is much value in centralising development efforts by all organisations, agencies and governments, but it remains to be seen whether interest in them will be taken up by enough stakeholders so that they can be tracked. It can't just be, for example, a UK hunger charity tracking its impact to reduce food insecurity. Governments around the world have to centralise their own data to make the whole thing worthwhile. There are huge challenges to making this work.

We had a celebratory gathering around our office 'champagne bar' (a satirical name we use for a long white counter suitable for plonking down snacks) to mark the largest grant we've ever received as an organisation in our 114-year history. Much excitement about the support new and existing projects will receive in the coming years. I normally am pretty teetotal in the week but I partook in some Bucks Fizz as it was a special occasion.

To continue in the spirit I then had an excellent gin-in-hand chat with my colleague Nic about her approach to parenthood, family, domestication and work. She's just turned forty, has two young kids and only rarely gets to partake in her favourite hobbies of snowboarding and mountain biking. She struggles with the setting aside of independence and adventure for the fire-fighting of kids' needs such as holding hair back as they vomit into the sink all night. How parents can function enough to work after most of their nights at home, is very much beyond me.

This is the delightful quote on the side of the building I live in, reminding us all to be aspirational and to reach for the stars. When Steph looked around the building last week we realised one of the potential flat windows was directly adjacent to the lettering. It made us chuckle.