a precious mystery gift

Last Friday I travelled with Karen in convoy to collect the final donation of shoes from Mt Barker (St Marks Lutheran School). The students were fantastic helping to load the two vehicles and the count is underway in our shed - no final tally but already up to 260 pairs and not half way through the boxes yet.

3 SRC reps were interviewed regarding the process and their insight to the significance of the programme was heartwarming, as well as their compassion and determination to engage with the experiences of others.

The curiosity was a small clear plastic envelope awaiting my collection. It simply had a girls name on it as well as the word MALAWI and contained $25 dollars.

After a few emails, i discovered the source:

A small group of grade 4 girls ( ages around 9 ) had decided to do their own fundraising and baked goods for sale. Their efforts raised $25 dollars and were deliberately and specifically to put toward the costs of the chimwemwe footprints venture. My heart sang and when Virginia heard the news she too was touched beyond belief.

These are the seeds we so hoped would be planted and will grow into the compassionate trees and hearts of the future. I do not know these children, they will likely never meet the recipients of the shoes, but their hearts are firmly in the right place it is a delight to the soul.

there are indeed earthly angels.

Virginia is home

The other news is that Virginia is home and reunited with her beautiful children and family. Her mother, uncle and children were at the airport to experience the joy of her return and Virginia returned with them to the village for a month to recoup and restore her heart!

There have been a couple of emails from her but access is to her computer is limited in view of power supply issues etc - the big news is that the boys have apparently grown! there's a surprise!!

Virginia has however been in touch with the Malawi Revenue Office and we now have a time frame within which the shoes must be freighted so the pressure is building a bit. We have 3 months to get them to her to ensure additional duties and taxes are not incurred.

We have decision to make regarding format for freight and transport both to Malawi and to the village. Any ideas will be gratefully received!

the pointy end of the project...

i cannot believe how time is flying. I have missed sharing the progress of the project with the task of living,funnily enough, creating significant time constraints to the luxury of sharing this adventure!

We are now so close to the completion of the project it is a bit overwhelming. This point has always been the stage we were most concerned about - the actual transfer of such a significant number of articles, so many many more than we had ever initially anticipated.

The team of the Global Dialogue Foundation continue to support us with their encouragement and advice and have lead us down another track - that of video footage and representation of the project.

In preparation for an event in Melbourne, we have been invited to share the project on a larger scale, via pictures and video footage of interviews and the path the project has travelled. It is a fine time line and Karen has been working so hard it is overwhelming to watch. With far more techno knowing than I have, Karen has attempted into the early hours of many mornings to create footage that is able to be used, along the way striking gremlin after gremlin regarding distortion and misbehaviour of the footage as it was shifted from place to place ie computer, usb, movie making mode etc. It will be in the mail today by fast post to global dialogue foundation to see if it is what they are looking for.

If it isn't, it does mean that we still have archival, significant information regarding the path we have travelled and no doubt there will be a place for it somewhere some how.

But how great would it be if our story was viewed at Federation Square in Melbourne?????

the definition of success...

To laugh often and much,
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children,
To earn the respect of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends,
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others,
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived,
This is to have succeeded.

Often attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, it is apparently an adaption of a poem published in 1905 by a lady called Bessie Stanley and no version has ever been found in Emerson's writings and I apologise to Ms Stanley because I have always attributed it to him!

Whoever wrote it, I read it about 20 years ago and knew straight away that it summed success up for me, succinctly and humbly. In our endeavour - our very small endeavour- i hope that others will be inspired to do even a small bit to try to make the world a better place.

At the moment we are being supported with incredible energy and enthusiasm by the CEO of Global Dialogue Foundation, Mr Peter Gorgievski and we thank him and his team for their efforts regarding freight logistics.

http://www.globaldialoguefoundation.org

more to come...

it looks like i have been able to work my way around the 'glitch' - for the moment!

Somehow (remember the Tardis?) we fitted close to 60 people into the house with room to spare. it was rowdy, raucous and the black happy-happy was flowing as well as fabulous food and an overwhelming energy as people 'meeted and greeted' so many others with a heart for world change.

The goat, again, was a no show...very sad, was I! having foundthe recommended butcher at the Central market, i discovered the quantity i needed to purchase was along the lines of 'half a beast' rather than ' a few diced kilograms', so beef it was - morroccan kebabs! i have now found a butcher at the Central market who has exactly what we need - for next time!

The Shoe-pals had been busily making fridge magnets with our motto on them and sharing those around for donations of 'loose change' - a brilliant effort and a big contribution towards the cost of, wait for it...15 football tops (PORT POWER-AAUUGH) which are going back to the village of Makuluni for the football team! mark Williams, this deserves, at the least, an autographed photo of ADELAIDE team for the wall of the school house! We found the shirts going out on special last season and grabbed them, they were such a bargain and hopefully will fill the children with pride and and a sense of team spirit - of course, the PRIDE OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA would be the MIGHTY ADELAIDE CROWS but it is going to be Port Power who are the Pride of Makuluni!

We are now in a position to finalise our freight arrangements and with Virginia heading home next week, the timing is perfect. Stay posted - the ride's far from over, i suspect!

not sure how i did this or if it can be repeated...

i am back into the site again...have been so sad as so many people are asking how the dinner went and how progress is travelling and i have not been able to access the page - others could but not me! for now, things look ok so i will do as much as i can while the going is good! would love to be able to get some photos up soon also!

The Feast for Feet (South) was a wonderful success and a tribute to everyone who so willingly supported the night! At this point in time we are looking at having raised close to $3,500 dollars as a result.

As well as the generosity of those who attended, which raised close to $2,ooo, we have been overwhelmed by the additional donations by SIRDAR Adelaide ($1000) and Hamish White (The White Group, $500) who having heard about the evening and our project, contributed toward the freight costs with extraordinary compassion and goodwill.

All i can say is that the past few months have brought such extraordinary experiences, including sleepless nights, tears ( happy and tired) but above all a determination to ensure that the lessons learned will not be wasted and will go on to be the foundation for so many more 'adventures' as Virginia and I have now termed them!!!

i close this post with trepidation and fingers crossed that i will be back in a few minutes - am off to find the photos!

the blue screen of death...

the past weeks have held days of fun and frustration - the ultimate frustration has been the demise of our computer to the terminal condition ' the blue screen of death'. What has been wonderful has been the fact that so many people have contacted me asking why the blog has not been updated since the dinner!!!!!!!!

before too long, the details will be live... it was a wonderful, wonderful night and when the postings begin, the news they contain will be worth the wait!!