RJHughes

The Art of Dropping The Rope

I have worked in a special needs and mental health setting for some time now, and one of our key tools for avoiding conflict with traumatised young people is to “drop the rope”. I have found it to be extremely effective, and now practice the art daily in my personal life. Tug of war canContinue reading “The Art of Dropping The Rope”

Haunted Away From Home

Two months in. I’m lying in bed wrapped in two blankets and a duvet. I slide the balcony door open , kangaroo jump to the bathroom and dump the duvet and blankets on the dusty, tiled floor. Soap in hand, I flick on the shower. It’s freezing. It has been freezing for a week andContinue reading “Haunted Away From Home”

Going Away to Get Lost

I’ll never live abroad, he said. Twenty-two years old and passing through baggage checks at Heathrow as quickly as I’d accepted the job. The chess pieces wrapped in boxer shorts suddenly feel ridiculous. One half space-saving-piece-protecting-masterstroke, one half inconvenient-lunatic-blunder. I am on my way to Chongqing, China. The city’s name almost sounds racist. Teaching inContinue reading “Going Away to Get Lost”