Things I love about Kurdistan

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Ever since my Reasons why I love the Philippines post went ever-so-slightly viral earlier this year, I thought I ought to try something similar in the next country I visit.

So here are the things I love about Kurdistan so far. You may notice a fairly heavy bias towards comedy food items…

I’ll be adding to this list as I go along.

Continue reading →

Psst!

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Psst! 

Did you notice I’ve been updating things on my blog recently?

There’s an exciting new “View Topics” page where you can jump to different posts, sorted by year, country, city or tags.

Also I’ve updated some of the cover photos, so there are loads of new and exciting photos across the top of each page you look at.

Hope you enjoy all the exciting new things as much as I do, and do feel free to send me suggestions if you’d like to see any other improvements to the site!

The Arc of Fire…

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Phew! Time certainly does fly when you’re busy!

The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur, but I’m now here in Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. However, to backtrack slightly, (cos I like to keep things in chronological order….) here’s a little bit about my security training course before I left the UK.

I spent 4 days in a scout camp deep in the midlands on a Security training course, learning a lot about traumatic first aid in the field (how to cope with traumatic amputations and gunshot wounds in a place with no hospital or ambulance nearby). There were a lot of gory pictures and practice bandaging people with very lifelike wounds!

All very practical and useful.

It was freezing cold, so I had to nip to Asda to buy a new hat, gloves and an extra jumper for the outdoorsy bits,  Here’s me wrapped up in a tons of layers ready for the day!

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Home, Holidays and The Next Thing…

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Hello again my lovelies!

Well after all the excitement of leaving parties and lovely presents, in which I got given an amazing model fishing boat which is now my pride and joy, AND an umbrella hat which is the most awesome thing ever, I have now left the Philippines, and am at home, back in the UK.

The flight was fine, and I even had enough space to spread out and lie down across the empty seats. The excess baggage was expensive but in the end I only had 29 kilos, which frankly after being in the Philippines for 1 year, was not too shabby at all really!

Since being back home in the UK, I’ve had a lovely time hanging out with my mum, sister, and niblings, getting lots of cuddles, trips to the spa, arranging to see friends and other such lovely things. Continue reading →

The Gender Gap

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For those of you out there who might think that the the gender gap is a myth, here are some statistics from Oxfam’s websites to make you think again…

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Oxfam’s latest infographics also highlight the division of labour in households in 6 countries when you factorunpaid care work into the equation.

The fact is, women work longer hours than men, and get paid less, and that needs to stop.

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Coming to you live….

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I believe I mentioned in my previous post that I was roped into hosting/anchoring a live talkshow here in Tacloban covering the Haiyan Candlelight Memorial.

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I found out on Wednesday I was doing it, and so had very little time to practice for the 5-hour long live event on Saturday!

In spite of the nerves and jitters, we got there in the end, and it was actually really fun! During the rehearsals I had a large rat crawling across the beam in my eyeline, and I got somewhat frustrated by not having enough clear/straight answers to my questions. The producer was a lovely guy, but he has a tendency to sermonise everything and talk in riddles, which is not helpful when you have limited time…  I would ask things like “What order will the interviews and reports be in? Can I have a schedule in advance so I know what’s happening before I actually go live on-air?” and he would talk for 30 mins about humanity’s finest hour…. That was very frustrating! He also kept misunderstanding my frustration as nerves, and when I asked him to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do (like sit up, speak loudly, don’t turn your head etc) he asked me if I knew the difference between speaking and talking. I said no, not really, cos they’re synonyms, and he started singing “The Sound of Silence” to me. It was excruciating.

So as a result of that, right up to when we went live on-air, I had no idea what was happening next – there was no schedule to follow, it was more like them just waving bits of paper at me from behind a camera saying things like “Joe on the line” or “Go to Commercial” or “More energy!” Continue reading →

Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda – 1 year on…

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We are building up to the 1-year anniversary of Super-Typhoon Yolanda (also known as Haiyan), so all hands on deck, and a lot of activities going on, candlelight marches, memorial services, exhibitions, and so on.

Everyone is busy putting together summaries of our work in the last year, numbers of beneficiaries reached and support given, and advocacy messages for the coming year.

A few quick figures for you. My organisation has, in the last year, provided support to over 800,000 people, including:

  • Provided clean water, sanitation, and hygiene kits to over 500,000 people
  • Provided cash and income support to over 530,000 people
  • Distributed non-food items such as mosquito nets, tarpaulins, and mother and newborn kits to over 430,000 people
  • Supported the recovery of over 200 small businesses and micro-enterprises
  • Distributed over 8,000 sacks of rice seeds to support farmers

and many many more things as well. We’ve given out boats and cleared loads of agricultural land as well, but I don’t have the numbers handy…. Continue reading →