This is what has been happening… Plus an apology

Quite a few things have happened since the last blog where I was stuck at Kembu Campsite waiting for new shocks for the Landrover and had no access to the internet. I’ve finally read emails and one of the things I realised was that while I don’t hear from a soul while I travel, it doesn’t mean that things aren’t going on all the across the oceans in various directions. In the USA my friend from high school has given birth to a baby boy. My Mexican friend in Oz is pregnant with her second baby. My brother took his wife on holiday to Zanzibar and my cousin Jono got engaged to a pretty blonde girl which has delighted my Aunt in Tasmania. And my parents, in my home town, have proven to be the most reliable support team you could imagine.

Back at my old company in London some of the people there were going to have a fund raising day for Stand Up For Africa (SUFA) but it all went pear-shaped when someone or people read my blog and found a comment posted when I resigned along the lines of: I was pleased to have the left the wierdos. This caused great offence and the worst bit was that they complained to the charity.

It’s important that I clarify a few points: Firstly, these are my comments and have no reflection on the charity at all. The nature of blogs is that they are personal diaries for individuals, available to any and everybody to use and express themselves freely through them. Secondly, there were only a little handful of people that I was pleased to see the back of. Most of my ex-colleagues are okay people and I apologise if any of them mistakenly thought I was referring to them. As for the handful, I don’t think that weirdo adequately describes these people. A simple demonstration would be that these people would rather spend their working day reading a personal blogsite and then creating as much trouble as possible… all during work hours using company resources. The point is I’m a grown woman and can take quite a lot of shit so this really is of no consequence to me. By cancelling the charity day, the people they are picking on are vulnerable kids between the age of 2 and 24, some who live on the streets or find themselves in desperate situations, and any little bit of funding will go a long way to improve their lives and give them the opportunity to get access to help and education. I won’t use any words to describe them but I leave my readers to make their own minds up.

In the meantime, the small scale charity, Stand Up For Africa was still able to raise the money to send to Safe Alternative for Youth (SAFY) here in Kampala and on Saturday 11th December 2006 the founders of the NGO proudly held a ground breaking celebration. A little tree was planted and I’m sure in years to come I’ll come back to see a busy centre and kids enjoying the shade of this tree. I was delighted to hear that off the back of the fund raising that enabled the building of the centre, SAFY has received more sponsorship that will help them over the next two years to run HIV education programmes and offer training. Within the next few weeks the first grading will take place and foundations will be laid – and I can’t help feeling overwhelmed that my little effort, with SUFA’s help, has made an impact on so many young people’s lives.