The last week has been a comfortable and comforting settling of the dust. The last few weeks in Connaught have been – as ever – hectic and packed with action.
For anyone lucky enough to chance upon this blog or have been redirected by a Nigerian email promising the riches of the late Prince Oleku. Sorry, this is another bike trip blog and the subject and content of the next few weeks is going to be just that – the journey and a few other bits.
As I sit on the dock of Fulford Harbour, waiting for a ferry to take me to Victoria with a hippy couple who are perhaps getting a deeper appreciation of the beautiful deepening greens and blues of the evening than me, I’m wondering how did I come to do this trip? I can think of a few reasons.
Firstly, I bloody love cycling trips. In fact, i’m a bike holiday evangeslist and if I get as far as this bible belt, those guys and girls are more likely to leave on a bike than I am with God. And the West Coast of the US is somewhere that’s long been on my list – amazing views and iconic cities – and not to mention now a few friendly faces along with way.
Secondly, less than 48 hours after leaving Sierra Leone I was cycling (on the wrong side of the road – thanks the guy in the jeep for pointing in the right direction) out of the airport. I want to experience the extremes, the differences from a country a notch off the bottom of the World Bank Human Development Index to (arguably) the most developed and affluent in the world. As Saloneans would call me, I want to be the “JC” “just come” fresh of the boat and wide-eyed with wonder. And so far – maybe obviously – the contrasts are stark and all pervasive. They exist in the accuracy, efficiency and safety of systems – I don’t think I’ve been on a ferry in 5 that has run late yet - and the scale of investment and quality of products and industry – as Ron and I cycled home from Seattle city centre, we docked at Pier 52, 20 mins cycling and 1 beer later we were at Pier 91 and still hadn’t reached the end.
There are similarities as well as differences, people are people and they remain kind, cheerful and welcoming – the world is a better place than you think it is. Leaving Vancouver airport, a fellow cyclist and I took a bonding trip to the nearest bike shop, she has lost her bearings and I had forgotten my nuts. The area of Richmond we cycled through was entirely bilingually signed in Chinese, even down to the many decade old businesses – “Doug’s Collision Centre” had a Chinese version sign, huge development plots were owned by Chinese investment vehicles. This was an unexpected similarity to Sierra Leone, where acres of beach frontage are now Chinese owned and Chinese businesses pepper the busy Wilkinson road.
The night before I left Vancouver, I sat in a bar chatting with an Aussie and a Canadian. They probed into these differences and the experiences. I found it difficult to verbalise what Sierra Leone is like and some of the challenges and lack of freedom of opportunity of average person, without making it sound like I was making it up or some kind of deliberate act of trying to shame them. On reflection though, that’s just what it is – unbelievable, unjust and… unacceptable. And this leads me to the third reason I’m cycling: I am raising money for the King’s Sierra Leone Partnership (KSLP). KSLP are the London-based health partnership for whom I’ve been working for the past almost 18 months. If you want to find out a bit more about the great work they do, then please check out the website. If I was to try and summarise why I think they are worth supporting, I would say this:
At their worst, but also in my limited experience relatively commonly, developed and developing country collaborations can be relatively extractive and with an unhelpful emphasis on a research focus. I think KSLP is different and to an extent novel as the focus is much broader, with aims to help our Sierra Leonean partners to directly improve services for patients, education for doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals and create an enabling environment and system to work in. Research is, of course, key but only in way that supports these other aspects of KSLP’s work. If we are looking for evidence about why this broad and systemic approach is important, I think we need look no further than the Ebola outbreak, which highlighted that it’s the system that needs improving, rather than one specific area. In the past year, I’ve also come to learn a little about funding and how challenging it is to find – especially when it is for something new and different. And how important it is to have money, which KSLP can decide (wisely) how to spend it best, rather than funds that come with tight donor restrictions. So for these reasons, I want to support KSLP and I hope that you can help me do this. The link to the just giving site is here.
(For anyone who wants to get involved, there will a Kilometer Competition - for each 20 pound donation you get one guess for how many kilometers the journey will be. There will be special 1,2 and 3rd prizes!)
The final, and obviously most important reason, is that my buddy Matt beat me on a bike ride in April, for the first time in to many years. Its time to do some training.
So the title of the blog – Small, small to big, Big… In Krio “small, small” is a turn of phrase, “you have to start somewhere/little by little”. And that’s where we start with the bike ride, for the fundraising and for KSLP itself. My experience of Canada so far is BIG* – big cars and trucks (pic), big roads, big ideas, portions and people. Now as Ed joins the road in Seattle, lets see how much bigger it gets…
*Big in the Howlett family dictionary can be used for any form of exaggeration. A big car/horse – “that’s an awful big yoke”. An important event/ - “this is big stuff”
For anyone lucky enough to chance upon this blog or have been redirected by a Nigerian email promising the riches of the late Prince Oleku. Sorry, this is another bike trip blog and the subject and content of the next few weeks is going to be just that – the journey and a few other bits.
As I sit on the dock of Fulford Harbour, waiting for a ferry to take me to Victoria with a hippy couple who are perhaps getting a deeper appreciation of the beautiful deepening greens and blues of the evening than me, I’m wondering how did I come to do this trip? I can think of a few reasons.
 |
| Fulford Harbour |
Firstly, I bloody love cycling trips. In fact, i’m a bike holiday evangeslist and if I get as far as this bible belt, those guys and girls are more likely to leave on a bike than I am with God. And the West Coast of the US is somewhere that’s long been on my list – amazing views and iconic cities – and not to mention now a few friendly faces along with way.
 |
| Ron: A familiar face |
There are similarities as well as differences, people are people and they remain kind, cheerful and welcoming – the world is a better place than you think it is. Leaving Vancouver airport, a fellow cyclist and I took a bonding trip to the nearest bike shop, she has lost her bearings and I had forgotten my nuts. The area of Richmond we cycled through was entirely bilingually signed in Chinese, even down to the many decade old businesses – “Doug’s Collision Centre” had a Chinese version sign, huge development plots were owned by Chinese investment vehicles. This was an unexpected similarity to Sierra Leone, where acres of beach frontage are now Chinese owned and Chinese businesses pepper the busy Wilkinson road.
The night before I left Vancouver, I sat in a bar chatting with an Aussie and a Canadian. They probed into these differences and the experiences. I found it difficult to verbalise what Sierra Leone is like and some of the challenges and lack of freedom of opportunity of average person, without making it sound like I was making it up or some kind of deliberate act of trying to shame them. On reflection though, that’s just what it is – unbelievable, unjust and… unacceptable. And this leads me to the third reason I’m cycling: I am raising money for the King’s Sierra Leone Partnership (KSLP). KSLP are the London-based health partnership for whom I’ve been working for the past almost 18 months. If you want to find out a bit more about the great work they do, then please check out the website. If I was to try and summarise why I think they are worth supporting, I would say this:
At their worst, but also in my limited experience relatively commonly, developed and developing country collaborations can be relatively extractive and with an unhelpful emphasis on a research focus. I think KSLP is different and to an extent novel as the focus is much broader, with aims to help our Sierra Leonean partners to directly improve services for patients, education for doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals and create an enabling environment and system to work in. Research is, of course, key but only in way that supports these other aspects of KSLP’s work. If we are looking for evidence about why this broad and systemic approach is important, I think we need look no further than the Ebola outbreak, which highlighted that it’s the system that needs improving, rather than one specific area. In the past year, I’ve also come to learn a little about funding and how challenging it is to find – especially when it is for something new and different. And how important it is to have money, which KSLP can decide (wisely) how to spend it best, rather than funds that come with tight donor restrictions. So for these reasons, I want to support KSLP and I hope that you can help me do this. The link to the just giving site is here.
(For anyone who wants to get involved, there will a Kilometer Competition - for each 20 pound donation you get one guess for how many kilometers the journey will be. There will be special 1,2 and 3rd prizes!)
The final, and obviously most important reason, is that my buddy Matt beat me on a bike ride in April, for the first time in to many years. Its time to do some training.
So the title of the blog – Small, small to big, Big… In Krio “small, small” is a turn of phrase, “you have to start somewhere/little by little”. And that’s where we start with the bike ride, for the fundraising and for KSLP itself. My experience of Canada so far is BIG* – big cars and trucks (pic), big roads, big ideas, portions and people. Now as Ed joins the road in Seattle, lets see how much bigger it gets…
 |
| A big yoke |
