Where life takes you...

^{The kids made me a message :) Veria Refugee Camp | Greece}

My goal on #steemit is to talk about my past experiences in humanitarian work, share some How tos. Maybe even write some thought pieces and to help surface and bring value to decent content, while of course having the bonus option of making some money for myself too!

I joined a little over a week ago, this isn't a milestone post, I'm not trying to "thank those that helped me through my tough first week", but I'm definitely having a reflective moment :P

image source

At the time I signed up to Steemit due to a combination of things.

A post I read with an accompanying video from an excitable man claiming that Steem would rise in value exponentially. I began to recall the week previously I had read another article mentioning Steem but hadn't watched the video. Turns out it was the same guy. It was interesting and some of the things he said made a lot of sense. Other bits seemed a little perhaps exaggerated or dramatic...or maybe just out of my comprehending.

The articles were by @jerrybanfield, since being on here I have found a constant stream of his(/your if you're reading this) content, usually well written and well presented (thanks). Whether the I agree with his points or not, he provides interesting content to consider. His topics are current and relevant, as with mainly other author's content on here. Good, or popular, content ranks high in Google searches, which in turn attracts new users. #SMTs will hopefully just become a huge extension of this, from my understanding.

^{image source (hope you don't mind me using your pic!)}

The other reason - I've been financial spread betting for a while. For those that don't know about it or just don't know the term, it's when you bet on whether the value of something will go up or go down.

It's part investing part gambling.
Mainly gambling.

You can "speculate" (or bet) on indices, shares, currency pairs, commodities and treasuries...there's a huge amount of money to be made. There's also a huge amount to be lost. Here I started to become interested in the different types of crypto and seeing just how volatile they were to bet on. Yep, super volatile. Which was pretty fun.

So I'd seen Jerry's videos, I had started to explore articles on crypto and a large majority happened to be on Steemit. My curiosity was growing so I joined the site. None of the people I know use this (yet!) so it was very much a game of discovery filled with doubt.

To be honest, I still have doubt. But this doubt is natural.

^{image source}

And there's another big but. It's what keeps me interested in creating content, wanting to be involved in what's happening and to tell others...A person can just invest money and see what happens holding the currency. Or it offers a chance for those without money to invest, to build capital. Perhaps large capital if they do the work, but it also offers a motivation to output. To practise. So that in itself could be perceived as a bonus to involvement and generation of content; improvement of your own skills or perhaps just an outlet.

I'm sitting in a café in Barcelona, as I sit down and start writing some new content I suddenly found myself reflecting on the past handful years and where they've taken me. 4 years ago in May I was in a wheelchair following a motorbike accident in London. Double fracture/dislocated wrist and a fractured knee cap. Metal plate was inserted into my wrist.

I only had the motorbike for 3 months! I had also just quit my job as Technical Manager of The Electric nightclub in Brixton and started to intern with a great advertising agency (I say great, I'm more of a manual labour job kinda guy, not being in an office, but the agency is very well respected all the same). So I was a bit mangled up, my wrist would take nearly a year to heal as I required a couple surgeries and recovery of my knee was slow due to the fact I couldn't use crutches to ease myself in. I lost my job, it wasn't really a job anyway...but it was a good opportunity. Having left school at 16 and spent a lot of time doing different jobs, this seemed like it could have been a good chance for me to get myself a "decent job". I worried about my fitness, blah blah. It was a slow year to say the least.

Fast forward to the same time the next year and I was finally healed. I had even got my job back and was fighting to get a promotion and a raise. I spent the end of the year (2014) and the start of 2015 in Brazil, life was looking good.

That year (2015) I received about 20k compensation for my injuries as the accident wasn't my fault. I've lost a fair range of movement in my wrist which I won't recover and sometimes I walk like a pirate so it's not a huge amount of money, but it could have been different so I'm thankful for that.

I digress, the earthquake happened in Nepal and I headed straight out with my mother's charity, Bridge2. That kinda solidified I was not doing the right thing for me currently.

^{Destruction in Kathmandu | Nepal}

End of the year I headed out to Calais and Dunkirk, with mum again, to help refugees stranded in "the Jungles", purchased a car and started heading over on the channel tunnel to deliver supplies on the weekends when I could. I continued this into 2017, right up until I injured my arm - bursitis. So time was needed to rest and heal.

^{Kid carrying his brother to our medical clinic - Dunkirk | France}

^{Bursitis in my elbow. Hurt like a biiiitch!}

Same time of year as my accident had been, same time of the year that I had headed to Nepal, I get a phonecall from my mother. She wanted me to join her in Greece to help on a refugee camp. I have been known to be handy with a drill and some pieces of wood, maybe a forklift, some other things...they needed some storage spaces and a warehouse reordered first and foremost. I booked for two weeks and headed out. By this time I had setup my own limited company and was a freelance Project Manager making a nice day rate. I had a girlfriend and lived in a nice warehouse community in North London. Life was, dare I say it, pretty easy. I had money in my savings and a holiday booked to Croatia which I would go to straight after Greece.

^{First day, Greece, this little guy clung to my leg and wouldm't let go! - Alexandreia | Greece}

After spending a week in Greece I decided to stay. Maybe just month or so. Fast forward to a year later and I was still in Greece. Spent all my savings, the girlfriend was long gone, the holiday cancelled, the room I had in the nice community was emptied and rented to another. In the past year I had worked on many different camps including some in Serbia and the islands, helped refugees on the streets and tried to create links with funding not only to our operation but to other projects. But I was tired and I needed to leave.

By August I left for Barcelona to learn Spanish and train mixed martial arts full time, and in the next couple weeks I'll become an Uncle! I still feel guilty for leaving, I feel almost like I abandoned the people on the camp. I keep reminding myself that I did my best, it's important to rest (not just body but mind too) and figure out what's next.

^{Kids on the Refugee Camp, colouring me in. Their favourite past time! - Veria Refugee Camp | Greece}

^{The conditions for refugees - Belgrade Barracks | Serbia}

In conclusion. Life is full of ups and downs of different shapes and sizes. The important thing is to stay positive, take the time to help others; if it's as little as to consider them or to extend a hand of kindness, keep an open heart and an open mind. Life is short, it's rarely perfect, but it's always full of surprises.

^{"...you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others"
Audrey Hepburn}

^{One of our medics takes a woman's blood pressure - Dolakha| Nepal.}

As mentioned I intend to write more about the humanitarian work I've done and share the images I've captured - I've written a few already, they have a word limit so they won't be as long as this I promise! Hopefully the stories help bring and strengthen awareness on the subjects and serve to inform people of the effort that goes into aid work.

Feel free to share your experiences over the past years in the comments below, I'd love to hear them.

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If you'd like to find out more see below - I'll be writing about Calais, Dunkirk and Serbia soon.

Stories
Nepal | Earthquake | Part 1
Nepal | Earthquake | Part 2
Nepal | Earthquake | Part 3

Links
My mum's charity
My photography website
Instagram