When opportunity presents itself, you take it. It doesn’t matter if it’s an offer for coffee, a day off work, or an all expense paid weekend at a 5 star waterfront hotel. When you’re given the chance to do something, do it!
A couple months ago I received an out of the blue e-mail from the NGO I used to work for. They asked me if I was interested in working at their recruitment booth at the Mission Central conference in Vancouver. As a bit of background, Mission Central is a faith-based event with numerous speakers and sessions over a three-day weekend. And as part of this weekend, there's a massive hall full of exhibitors where every exhibitor is a different organization that participates in “missions” work in some regard - whether it's medical-related, school-related, or anywhere else in-between. Not all that different from normal trade shows, I imagined. But, I’d never worked at a recruitment booth before, nor had I ever been to a faith-based conference. I also wasn't entirely sure how I'd be able to answer any questions, since I had no idea what I might be asked. But, the NGO said I’d be working alongside recruitment staff from their HQ, so knowing I'd have the assurance of backup made the decision a no-brainer! Although it's been a few years since I was last in the field with them, their HQ staff had not yet had the opportunity to deploy to the field in any capacity, which made my knowledge and first-hand experience of what things are really like out there, invaluable. (Hence my invitation.)
The opportunity was especially appealing because I still really want to be involved in the humanitarian community. Right now that’s not entirely possible, but any chance I can get to stay involved and stay connected is something I definitely want to do. And if right now that means standing at a booth for 3 days, then so be it.
A few days before I was due to fly out I was scheduled to attend an online briefing with HR and the recruitment staff I’d be working with. It was an early morning meeting (due to the time difference) so I’d arrived to work early and got all set up in my office. But as luck would have it, that was also the day there was a provincial-wide crash on AHS online services. The wifi wasn’t working throughout the entire hospital, so I couldn’t get on my Teams account; and on top of that, the entire hospital is pretty well a dead zone for cell phone service. Most days I'm lucky if I can get one bar of service. Usually I'm met with "SOS" in the top righthand corner of my screen. The meeting was supposed to be a briefing on what to expect, a review of the common questions that are asked about our organization (and how to answer them), and any other logistical concerns that needed to be addressed. So, I was left feeling a bit ill-prepared when I finally managed to get on the call 20 minutes late (while sitting out in my car in the far parking lot) and really only had a chance to say hello and ask what the expected attire was. But that’s ok, the girls said they would fill me in when we got there. I’m sure I had nothing to stress about.
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A few days after that phone call, I left for Vancouver. I was excited for a weekend away and the chance to hang out on the coast. I knew there wasn't likely to be much down time, but the change of scenery was much-welcomed. And the scenery was indeed going to be nice. We were staying at The Pan Pacific Hotel - a 5 star waterfront hotel atop the Canada Place convention centre and cruise ship terminal, with stunning views of both the waterfront and mountains. I opted for a carry-on only trip this time, as I didn't want to risk the airline somehow losing my luggage (which they'd been notorious for as of late), and so far things were looking good. But as my brand new pink roll-y suitcase and I rocked up to the front of the hotel, I was a little taken aback. I'm not accustomed to elegant, fancy hotels, and was suddenly feeling really out of place. But at least this time I didn't show up with dirty backpacking bags and looking a little worse for the wear, such as I did when I showed up to the Goodwood Park hotel in Singapore (see chapter 7 in my book for the whole story). I'd also decided it was time to own more "adult" luggage, so had bought my brand new carry-on roll-y suitcase for the occasion. (Of course I let my 3 year old pick out the colour though - so, it was baby pink.)
I was sharing a room with the two other girls I'd briefly met over Teams a couple days prior. Since they'd traveled from Switzerland, they had already been there for a couple days. They weren't in the room when I arrived, but it was nice to have a couple minutes alone to sort myself out and get out all my giddiness. The room was pretty standard (as far as hotel rooms go), but big, and the bathroom was beautiful. Oh how I love beautiful bathrooms! The large floor to ceiling windows mostly looked over towards downtown Vancouver and the Fairmont Waterfront hotel, but you could also see the rolling greens along the waterfront, the boats in the harbour, and the mountains just a short distance away.
I met up with Elisabeth and Victorie shortly after my arrival. After a quick round of introductions we decided to go for a walk down to Stanley Park. It was a bit chilly out, but they were keen on some sightseeing. It was also a great chance to get to know them and share our stories. But unfortunately I also found out, not so surprisingly, that one of their bags had been lost. Somewhere between Montreal and Vancouver there was a large bag full of promotional material, their toiletries, make-up, and most of their personal items. It wasn't the end of the world, but the whole point of this weekend was to chat with people about the NGO, get the word out about what we did, and recruit new staff. It was a tad unfortunate when promo papers were nowhere to be found. But these girls were resourceful and already on top of a backup plan. And after a trip to Staples, a coffee at 49th Parallel, and then another trip to Staples, we left with an envelope full of stuff. After all was said and done, we had just enough time to don our bright red comfy hoodies and head to the exhibit hall with our new promo materials in hand.
I let the girls take the lead for the first few questions, but then it all fell into place. As it turns out, I LOVE talking about something I’m crazy passionate about. I normally hate small talk and randomly engaging people in conversations, but I absolutely LOVED chatting to people about Medair and the work they do. I was tired, but managed to find all this suppressed energy to talk to people in a very animated fashion. I was loving it. I wanted everyone to feel as excited about the work they could be doing abroad as I did.
We were on the floor at our booth for 4 hours, but it flew by. Next thing I knew it was 10pm and we were walking upstairs to our room... then asleep minutes after my head hit the pillow.
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I started out Saturday morning with a crisp sunrise run along the seawall. Just a nice, easy 5km to wake me up. We were due to be in the hall from 9am-10pm on Saturday, so I wanted to make sure I started the day with a work out, in case I didn’t get a chance later on. Since Boxing Day I’d been making an effort to get in at least a little bit of exercise every day. So far I’d been pretty successful - 34 straight days of at least 20 minutes of physical activity. And it had been doing wonders for my energy and mental health, so I didn’t want to let that slide. The girls even offered me a late start that day. So, I took the opportunity... and after my run I went for a solid sit-down breakfast at DeDutch (complete with gorgeous early morning views of the harbour). I was in my own little world there, just catching up on the news and with friends, so I didn’t really notice anyone else in the restaurant. Then when I went to pay, my server informed me that someone who had been in earlier saw me and recognized me from the conference yesterday. They said they were so happy with the conversation they’d had with me at the booth the previous day that they wanted to pay for my breakfast! I mean, seriously! How amazing is that?! I was floored; and incredibly grateful.
I was supposed to arrive in hall at 11:00am but couldn’t wait that long to get back to chatting. I was there by 10:00am, ready to go. It was a long day, but we did take a few breaks here and there. Some of the conversations I had with people were a bit of a struggle, due to very strong opinions about quite controversial matters, but most of the time it was a blast. I felt like I was able to share my passion and excite others about a career I was also excited about.
Although the hours were long, those few days flew by! But it wasn't all work. We took time to check out some cool local areas and restaurants: One afternoon it was some down time chilling out with a delicious coffee and pastry from Breka; one evening it was a walkabout on Granville Island for some Mexican food; then a morning stroll down some sketchy back alleyways in search of Jam Cafe for breakfast... all super delicious, and all (thankfully) covered as a business expense. We also had rooftop beers in the hot tub. Because, honestly, why wouldn't you have rooftop beers in a hot tub overlooking the sea and mountains?!
It was such a fun experience, and incredible to have the opportunity to relive some of my most cherished experiences with people who were interested in doing the same kind of work. Plus, meeting Elisabeth and Victorie was awesome. They're both French expats living in Switzerland and were just super cool, chill girls. We had a blast together, and I was excited to chat with them about Canada and all things humanitarian. AND, as an added bonus, their luggage arrived just in time for the last day, so not only did we go to town handing out all the other fun promo stuff, but their ski clothes arrived as well! Which meant they got to finish out their business trip with a little vacay time up at Whistler.
While I made my way back to Edmonton, reflecting on the weekend, it made me realize just how passionate I still am about being a humanitarian. And it further spurred my drive to finally get my book done and published.... which, did you know I did?!
Shameless self-promotion here: www.terynwarnke.wixsite.com/adaybehind
If you haven't already done it yet, check it out!! Now available worldwide as paperback or e-book. (Although, apologies to all my Aussie friends... because there are amazing colour photos in it, your amazon.com.au marketplace won't let me publish a paperback there... just an e-book.)
Now all I have to do is wait for the next humanitarian adventure to pop up...
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