Wonderful Couple of Weeks!

Zambian visa stamps!

First the not so pleasant (for me) work which has been getting the new garden contract typed up and ready to be signed with the contractor, and tomorrow at the most unseemly time of 9:30 am a meeting with the financial committee to go over my new proposed budget for the 2010 - 2012 Garden Budget. It will be a fight to the finish to get as much as I can, to get these gardens looking to their best this year.
Last week I met with an old and wonderful friend (old friend, not old person) that I hadn't seen for a very long time who has graciously decided to sponsor my child Jane. There is absolutely nothing that makes me feel more fulfilled than to find a child sponsor, so that absolutely made my day! We had a wonderful lunch and caught up on old times.


Most of the week I spent preparing a Power Point presentation (with the help of Angela) for a school group of Grade 3's who, a along with their teacher, will be following the blogs of our trip. I even managed to get a day out in the gardens, doing some hard digging and rotor-tilling in a neighbours garden that we had promised to get done last year and hadn't had the funds to do. So was glad to get a start before I leave. Hopefully our weather is going to get a bit nicer and I'll be able to get most of it finished before then. With 72 units in the complex there is always something major that needs doing.
So on Monday afternoon, I made my way to Sooke and the Grade 3 class. I've only ever given one other presentation and that was to a small ladies church group (the one where the old dear fell asleep), so was feeling pretty nervous, as public speaking, even to school kids is not high on my list of calming things to do. But all in all I think it went really well, and the teacher told me after that she could tell the kids were really interested. I did find out, I will certainly have to brush up on AIDS/HIV info, as when one little guy said he understood how to get AIDS, but what does it actually do to your body. I stood there rather dumbfound for a minute, before the teacher helped me out. Then again, it could have just been a senior moment! Anyway, I felt quite pleased with myself and am finding the more I do these, the more confidence I am getting.
Tuesday I had my CT scan that Dr. Noel ordered, and feel confident there will be nothing untoward show up. Especially now that the whole cold/sinus/infection thing has cleared up and my voice sounds the same to me as it always has. If the vocal chord is paralyzed, it must have happened eons ago, so I doubt there are any tumors or such causing it. Today I visited my travel Doctor, a fine gentleman here in Victoria, called Dr. Johnson, who helped me out last year with a couple of free shots to keep my expenses down, because of my volunteering with World Vision and said this year I would only need my Malaria pills and the Ducloral. Mind the Malaria pills work out to $5.00 a day, but in the grand skeam (sp) of things, I'm much happier to be safe than sorry. He also doesn't charge me for the office visits, which is so nice of him. At the end of the session he has decided to sponsor one of my Zambia children as well, so again an immense sense of satisfaction for me! I think it's so special that I'll be able to meet these children and be able to come back and show their sponsors pictures and tell them about their children. And the joy of being able to take small gifts to these families and children, watch the looks of amazement on their faces to receive gifts, but to also know that someone on the other side of the world cares about them is almost more than I can handle!
My bedroom is starting to look like I'm moving out, instead of going on a trip. I found out from another volunteer that when traveling with British Airways, if you can prove you are going on a humanitarian mission, they allow you an extra bag of luggage! Yeah! More things I can take for the children! And these pictures don't even have clothes packed yet, this is just a collection of 'needed' things to take, and there's more 'stuff' spread around the room. Oh my!