Pilgrims’ Progress

We’re in full swing getting ready for the Silent Auction.
Local church hall is booked.
Junk Items For Sale are gathered
(read: piled up in the bedroom).
Handmade cards are nearing completion.
Local newspaper interview has been given.
Fizzing Sherbet production line is in action.
Not wanting to use plastic bags, we’re making our own colourful card envelopes…and then using plastic straws - oh the irony!)
Homemade jams and chutneys need to be repackaged in smaller jars.
Fantastic Friend has offered to man a BBQ, so there’ll be a sausage sizzle as well (and one fewer pairs of roller blades for sale - we’ll keep them aside to thank him for his kindness).

Any locals wanting to come along…here are the details:

6-7pm Friday 23rd May 2008
Titirangi Baptist Church Hall
32 Kaurilands Road

All the items for the auction will be on display and you will be invited to write your name and bid on the accompanying piece of paper. If your name is last on the paper when the bell rings at 7pm, you win. It’s that simple. Better chance than Lotto $1 reserve on all items, which include: homemade preserves, stroller, power rider, roller blades, bicycle, teddy bears, dress-up set, wooden bead number lines (great educational stocking stuffers - be ready for Christmas!), cards, sleeping bags, portacot, classic books, clothing, balls, moonhopper, craft kits, dollshouse, kitchen gear, duvet sets….and much much more (including, of course, the fizzing sherbet stand and sausage sizzle).
If you’re feeling particularly philanthropic (as in you get absolutely nothing out of this option…..not even some sherbet to rot your teeth or a pre-loved well-thumbed book)….you might like to sign up at the Coast-To-Coast-Walk sponsorship table. We’ll be taking details of anyone who would be willing to sponsor our family walk across town to be undertaken the weekend of the auction (weather dependent)

What’s all this for again?
It’s NOT to finance our trip!!! No way.
It’s part of the kids’ effort to raise money to sponsor the printing of a book in Laos. They’ve already raised enough money to sponsor a book party (a huge flower press run secured that goal) and can hardly wait to go and meet the children who are going to benefit from their efforts. They’ve boosted the book-printing-fund by adding the birthday money just given to them by grandparents……..hopefully Auction Night will see the total rise even higher. 
We cannot imagine it happening, but IF we passed the book total, the excess would go to Chumkriel Language School in Cambodia where we’ll be volunteering for a few weeks - even the older children will be helping out with language classes. Of all the places in the world, this one caught our attention largely due to the whole-community-efforts being made. Many of the organisations are working together instead of all independently doing their own thing. At least, that’s how it looks through our computer screen! We’ll see when we get there. We were advised not to bother going to Kampot “because the beach isn’t nice and there’s nothing there.” There may not be a famous temple or market or Disneyland, but there are people.

In this town there is an orphanage for children who have lost their parents to AIDS.

There are people involved in a Recycled Plastic Bag Project.

There’s a Provincial Training Centre, where students  learn how to dye cotton using extracts from local plants, and then they weave the thread and make clothing to sell.

There’s an Epic Arts Cafe, which offers employment to deaf and disabled members of the community (as well as a workshop and exhibition space in addition - obviously - to the cafe).

There’s the Cambodia Children’s Advocacy Foundation helping support children in the areas of education, intervention and the prevention of child labor, trafficking and oppression. They are attempting to upgrade the nutrition and health of these children and give parents skills to enable them to generate an income for their families.

And there are not just people…..there’s also  Save Cambodia’s Wildlife.

There are some good reasons to visit Kampot.
If only we could raise a million dollars!

A well-organised site
Content-rich
Stunning photography
Superbly written stories
(with promise of more to come)

They have what we were dreaming of!

They being a family consisting of mum, dad, a boy and a girl, who are about to take a year off school/the Office Desk and go round the world. Right round the world.
The Wide Wide World.

Their website was planned to make its debut on Pilgrims’ Progress next week, but opening night has been brought forward. Why? Because I commented on their latest post today and within a few hours they had replied. That’s pretty friendly, don’t you think? Well, I *was* offering them pavlova when they make it to New Zealand, but as it turns out we’ll already be on our own adventure by the time they get here. But maybe we’ll meet them in South East Asia. Over a bowl of noodles. I hope we’ll be able to discuss how unfounded our fears were - for now, it’s been encouraging to see there are others who have little panic attacks in the middle of the night too! Others who are a wee bit scared to talk about their trip! Others who have hit the 196 Days To Go mark (actually, we’ve hit that one too. In fact, our children started the numbered countdown on the calendar in the kitchen at 194 days…and that was 43 days ago now).
It would be fun to meet this family - and we just might - isn’t that a bizarre thought?
I just hope they get an authentic kiwi family experience when they hit New Zealand!

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Few words, lots of photos from this family after two decades of travel. Be inspired. India Peru Thailand Greece NZ Alaska Chile Tonga Norway Hawaii Borneo Morocco Malaysia Spain Cambodia....obviously not in that order