Nightingale to Papa Bear, come in, over...

Got back from New World Alive late last night - it didn't finish till this lunchtime but I wasn't on duty this morning so I got permission to leave after I finished my shift at 6pm yesterday. My parents are arriving on Monday night and I need to strip the paper off the walls in the hall, stairs and landing before they get here, so I need all the time I can get my hands on.

I had a great time volunteering as a steward - although the weather was lovely all week; I might have had a different experience if it had been pouring down. I worked the same venue each afternoon between 13:00 and 17:30, then Tuesday and Wednesday I worked the late night shift between 21:00 and midnight, and Thursday I was in the main marquee for the early evening session. I particularly enjoyed it when it was my turn to have the radio - Jonny took it upon himself to give everyone code names. His was Papa Bear, Stef was Black Bear, Becs was African Savannah, so I styled myself 'Nightingale'. Well, why not? It was my choice... :)

Seriously, though, I felt like I was making a difference - my contribution, however small and insignificant, was enabling the attendees to get the most out of their week. I also got to hear some fantastic speakers while I was there - the two sessions in my venue each afternoon were on medical ethics and social justice and I got to hear most of the content, which was really thought-provoking. I was particularly struck by two statements I heard on Thursday - in the medical ethics talk, we learned that the western world has made massive leaps forward in the area of stem cell research over the last 6 months, to the extent that the legislation surrounding stem cell research passed late last year is already as good as redundant, then in the social justice talk we heard that 900 million people in the world have no access to clean water, and 2.5 billion don't have a decent toilet. That's crazy - almost half the world has no sanitation, while the other half is making scientific strides quicker than its own legislature can keep up.

So, despite the fact that I was at least a decade older than most of the other stewards (almost all of them were recent graduates), and that I had to wear a fetching yellow jacket all week, I had a really good time and I'd definitely be up for stewarding again.