A Walk in the Park

This is the bit they don't mention in the glossy brochures, at least the brochures that I read.

The volunteer day happens at the end of orientation week. It is an opportunity for teams of MBAs to be let loose in  the local community, to provide a service that will benefit the local people or environment.

My group travelled to Bushy Park, which is one of London's numerous Royal Parks and forms part of the Hampton Court estate. It was a great opportunity to get to know some new classmates, whilst doing some manual labour.

Our task was to clear a section of river and as you can see I wasted no time in getting stuck into the task in-hand. Thankfully, I had a supervisor (Peter) and a lifeguard (Christophe) on the river bank to ensure my safety and generally watch over proceedings.

I was also grateful that the park manager (Mark) recognised that we were not used to physical labour and didn't push us too hard. Afterwards, we all went for a well deserved drink in the local pub.

Obviously, not all the teams had such a tough job. When I was standing in the river, I would have given anything to swap with the team mucking out the pig pen at the city farm. But I did get to see a new part of London and it was a great day out.