My Winnipeg Diary

My Winnipeg Diary

I had read up a lot on Winnipeg and everything they intend to do when it comes to child development. As a matter of fact I found a 2017 259 page document online that chronicled their reality and future plans for child and youth development.

I had also prepared myself for the cold because Manitoba with a land mass that is almost bigger than Nigeria but with a population of 1.4million already instructed me what the wind chill may feel like but trust me my preparation was useless once i landed and emerged from the airport because the cold that greeted me can't be described; you can only experience it even though the people there would tell you what i experienced was nothing compared to their minus 40.

Anyway my body instructed me immediately that something had gone wrong as my host picked me up on Friday morning and as he drove me around the city I couldn't but marvel at how human beings could create an orderly environment in a space that had extreme cold while my land with no cold has not been able to even deal with ordinary traffic management.

I decided to enjoy the city and my protocol was a young Nigerian married to a Chinese lady and together they treated me to a lovely Chinese Cuisine that calmed my 'born again' body down a bit before they drove me to my hotel from where i could view the entire city.

My first session was same day and it was a session on Out of the Box Parenting with a very intense audience for a Friday night event.

Never met a more hungry audience because i held the mic from 7pm till 10pm yet no one moved. Of course it was one of the best parenting sessions we ever had and one counsel i'd give to any intellectual property owner is never to create a solution that can't scale because you'd be exposed once you step into a new culture.

My second session was the next day which was a 7 hour Junior Church Strategic Systems training for 68 teachers drawn from various churches across Winnipeg. It was such a joy to see something we researched and created which we had struggled to deploy in Africa find amazing expression elsewhere. The energy in the room was nothing i had ever experienced as people shared how the template was the missing link in their entire junior church experience. One thing churches must understand is that their competition is not the next church; your real competition as a junior church are cartoon channels and content from Disney and if you don't design your curriculum with that in mind you have lost the plot.

I took them through creative curriculum development and watched with tears in my eyes as they presented their group work. I shared the 21st century junior church structures and systems and it some of the leaders told me that was the best session they ever had.

My final session was a 2hour session on Sunday on Creating a systems based marriage and for the first time i broke down while speaking because my voice and body was gone and rebelled for the first time ever. I was totally dehydrated because the weather finally took its toll on my body. I managed to finish the session because i had to leave town that same day back to Brampton. I was totally exhausted and it took me a whole week to recover.

I'd share 7 lessons that can help any content provider tomorrow but one thing i'd leave with you is the best time to think global is not when you travel. Your environment must never determine your content; you must design your content with the world in view and while your immediate environment may struggle with your solutions there is a culture elsewhere waiting for you.

I am grateful for the gift of friends and families who showed up to lend their support. You guys are my ultimate VIP and to my host Pst & Pst Mrs Olukoju I am super proud of you for the incredible work you do with the government and the churches all over Manitoba.

To be continued.

#mywinipegexperience

#scale

#think

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Tosin Praise-Fowowe, Modupe Ehirim and 103 others

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