In search of semolina...

As well as preparing the house the night before, Jinny and I had taken Poni's list of ingredients to the local supermarket and purchased the KILOs of onions and red kidney beans. The semolina was not looking so promising!

After tracking down a young lady working at the store and expecting to have to describe and explain exactly what semolina was, we were taken back to hear her laugh - having never been asked for it in her life, in the last 10 minutes 4 customers had asked her the same question! A cloud of concern crossed my mind - did this mean that the whole of Adelaide was holding some grand 'ugali' event and that ours was going to be rendered mission unsuccessful? As the shop assistant took us to exactly the right place in the correct aisle, there stood a couple of Indian guys with the last 2 packets in their hand!!! Also intrigued about the 'run' on the semolina we exchanged stories about our plans with the outcome being that they most certainly were prepared to go halves in the remaing supplies and cheerfully handed over our portion! An excellent start but i wasn't too sure how far 250g of semolina was going to go to feed 35 hungry Aussies!

It reminded me of the program that has been put in place in Makuluni village so that some of the children have at least got a tummy that is not rumbling during school. Mothers take it in turns to go to the school and prepare over fire the maize that has been donated for the children who attend the school so that they have food in their belly to concentrate. For some it is their only meal.

Another government initiative has been to reward the families who send their daughters to school with a portion of maize at the end of the week to supplement the family's food supply. this generates a sense of 'value' in sending the girls to school rather than sending them out to work in the fields or mountains. It is a strategy that feeds straight into a key public health principle that shows that if women can be retrieved from illiteracy, efforts to improve the overall health of the population become immediately more viable and likely to result in positive health outcomes for the whole community.

'twas the night before...

by the time bed time came on the night before the dinner, all i can say is that we felt pretty pleased with the result! The decorating had come together and our efforts to keep it simple seemed to have suited the overall impression which we hoped would give people arriving a sense of culture as well as simplicity and welcome.

Virginia and i had scoured the cheap retails stores and discovered green and gold netting ( left over from christmas time but suiting our 'earthy' colour scheme) - the gold was more a ochre brownish and the green was leafy and looked promising. it took a bit of trial and error to work out how best to use it for the table and a few efforts at creating a sense of 'movement' rather than 'flatness'. The result was a wave like production which extended down the centre of the table with intermittent raffia ribbons for anchoring.

We had also discovered 'lizards' which the boys had put dibs on as their 'job' after their chores were done in the morning. We had picked up some pretty realistic grass plants for around the room as well as disposable plates made of banana palm discovered at the Central Market. These plates meant we could get away with out too many dishes to wash up but still avoid the plastic waste of the usual disposable 'crockery'! Every candle karen and i had had been brought to create candle light for the meal - although apparently the purple ones wIth glittery spots didn't quite 'go' so they were returned to the box to go home for use in our next power failure!

final counting of the chairs - karen's ritual each night over the past 2 weeks- resulted in a plaintive cry of "how can this be? we are short on seats!". Not to worry - we were so tired, there was no doubt that by morning, the right number would again be around the table!

As the boys helped to tidy the servery area, M1 commented::

"We need to keep this area clear so that in the morning while i am having breakfast i will be able to see Africa."

our job was done!

oh what a night!

I have to say that the 'Feast for Feet' dinner event was just the best fun ever! The food was fantastic, the turn out was brilliant and the support was overwhelming!

When a person living down the street, after hearing what was going on, came down to knock on the door and give a donation toward the shoe freight in spite of being in arrears with rent themself, virginia and i were both moved and humbled.

The next few posts will fill in details for those who couldnt make it or who are just curious but the most important thing is that all who participated in whatever way appreciate just how much their hard work meant to Virginia and I. I know that Virginia was overwhelmed by the response of complete strangers to the people of Makuluni and we are now on our way to delivering our package of shoes, with love and hope for a better future.

Almost $1500 dollars was raised and again, we thank all those involved.

• Thank you Karen and Scott for opening your home for the event and helping to carry trestle tables and chairs, decorate, light candles,print menus etc
  
• Thankyou karen for staying upright for the whole evening and helping so willingly despite feeling so utterly wretched! (NOT from the food, i hasten to add!)
• Thank you boys for helping to laminate the menus and arranging the lizards so well on the tables - and for helping to clean up the next day when mummy felt so awful
  
• Thank you Poni, Belinda and Carly for brilliant food and its preparation
• Thanks Hosanna (and Milgo) for the videoing of the event (yet to be edited!!!!)
• Thanks Mum for the fantastic moroccan orange and almond cakes we had for dessert
  
• Thanks mum and liz for extra pots and pans at the last minute and the man at the Afghani supermarket on Prospect Road for giving us a good deal on an enormous cooking pot which we needed urgently
• Thanks Sykes for...well...keeping the kids entertained and 'supervising' the preparations???
  

Photos and more details will follow soon - maybe even some video footage?????

a shoe collection worth 50,000 dollars???

tonight on TV a young man was proudly interviewed regarding his shoe collection. he has 200 pairs of shoes - designer brand, never worn. The most recent pair he paid $250 for and the next day was offered $2000 for them. His collection is valued at over $50,000 (AUS)

another woman was interviewed who has a house that has somewhere between 23 and 26 bathrooms - she isnt sure. it even has a 'gift wrapping' room. The woman is 'downsizing' to a modest condominium worth $70 million (US).

I wonder if she would mind using her 'gift wrapping ' room to wrap the $50,000 dollar shoe collection and freight it ( plus the other 2000 pairs) to Makuluni for us!

message from Jack McConnell, the British Prime Minister's Peace Envoy to Africa

" This week the world is at a crossroads. We have a simple if stark choice. The rich countries can huddle together, protecting only their own, or we can use this crisis as a catalyst to begin building a new economic order, one where all humans are equal".

('Seize this opportunity to start treating Africans as equals', http://nyasatimes.com, accessed 29th March 2009)

President Obama talks about the effect of the 'global financial crisis on developing countries

last week in Adelaide's Advertiser newspaper was printed a comment by President Obama regarding the global impact of the financial crisis. He reminded us that whilst the financial squeeze affects those of us in the developed world, developing countries as a result are also being squeezed. It is hard to imagine how much squeezing can go on when human beings are already so affected. No doubt it will be the poorest of the poor who again miss out as governments battle through the international impact.

The cost of freight of the shoes is undoubtedly our biggest challenge and there is also no doubt in my mind that as belts are tightened around the world, many who would usually be able and prepared to share that little bit of 'extra cash' are seeing that extra cash vanish to prop up their own survival. A work colleague of mine told the story of having collected a number of goods for donation to 3rd world countries but in the end had to give up on the plan as the costs were 'too expensive'. i wonder how much 'goodwill' is being kept on Australian shores becuase the cost is just too great? For me, this sad fact heightens the imperative that those who can, MUST now keep to our conviction that human life is valuable no matter where destiny dictated the place of birth. The global community has a serious responsibility to ensure that wherever we are, we continue to reach out to others less fortunately situated, to support and embrace our fellow humanity.

google earth locates the village of Makuluni

this is unbelievable! the other day virginia and i headed down to marion to look for table decorations, room decorations etc for the dinner - now only 5 sleeps away. Mid conversation over coffee (again! Seems this is when our best work is done) virginia tells me that she has been able to locate and see not only the village of Makuluni but her mother's and uncle's houses also using Google Earth! Although not 'listed', after locating the Mulanje district and aware of the direction to travel, the village appeared! So if the coordinates are possible to locate, i will put those details here as well. This just reinforces how close we actually are - the children of Makuluni would be astonished to know that their little village can actually be 'seen' by children on the opposite side of the world!!! They are well and truly on the map, not just of our hearts and minds but via satellite!