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!

Upon hearing about our upcoming silent auction, a lady who had purchased homemade flower presses from our Entrepreneur Son a couple of years ago, asked if there would be any more at the auction. Ever-the-Entrepreneur readily agreed to make more - not that he’d been planning on it. Word got round and within a few days orders were in for forty presses. Previous production runs have not exceeded a dozen, so this is Serious Business. Everyone big enough to hold a piece of sandpaper is pitching in - and the smaller ones are decorating Thank You Cards for the friends who have lent Proper Tools. If the banks don’t crash, and everyone pays up, these presses will signify two important milestones.

Firstly, the children will have achieved their savings goal to go to Disneyland! Their fund was boosted recently by the somewhat sacrificial decision to forgo Easter eggs (that one took a few days of negotiations amongst the kids to reach a consensus), and a few of them have opted to wear winter PJs that are too short so that they can contribute what we Would Have Spent on new ones to the greater goal. At that point the shortfall was $40.
And with orders for 40 presses, with “wages” being paid at a rate of $1 per press, Disneyland is in their sights.

Secondly, a book party is accomplished. After paying for wages, materials and contracting fees (they bought chocolate bars for the friends who lent them a drop saw and drill press), there ought to be a clear profit of More Than Enough for the book party….the remainder will go into the Book Publishing Fund (see tickers above).

But not wanting to count their chickens before they are hatched, nothing is being added to the tickers until the money actually appears in the bank!

Thanks to everyone who has placed orders:)
Here’s sneak preview of Mark II

Do you see our little tickers up there? They will track our progress at raising funds to support the work being done in Laos by the guys at Big Brother Mouse. Our first goal is to be able to [Continue reading this entry]

Backpacks. Our old green Macpac wedding present ones that will be eighteen years old this year. New blue Macpac ones for the kids who are big enough to carry them. And some other non-sponsor, but smaller than sponsored-by-Macpac ... [Continue reading this entry]

"Mama, there's a courier.....he's left a big box.....A Big Box Mum.....he needs you to sign for it.....it's from Macpac......it's a big box Mama....you've got to see it." Oh the excitement. I even managed to grab the camera, move ... [Continue reading this entry]

Sponsorship isn't just a big corporate affair. Some of our *sponsors* are people I feel fortunate enough to be able to call friends, people I met online, and have subsequently had the privilege of meeting face-to-face (with the exception of ... [Continue reading this entry]