Suddenly it is 'next month' that we are leaving and the farewell functions are starting.  It seems we have been 'going' for so long!  Yesterday a teacher at my school asked me, when I was collecting some packing boxes, was I back already!
It is time to get serious about what to take and what to store and what to put in the rubbish skip.  I have to cut down on the first two and increase the last.
I've been home now, getting organised, for 4 weeks and have piles of things in every room waiting to be sorted.  The lovely autumn sunshine keeps drawing me outside but luckily I have an enforcer, my friend Amelia, who comes around and keeps me on track.  Also it's winter now so maybe it will be too cold and wet to go outside!  Now I'll just go and see what is happening in the garden....


31 days to go.

The motorbike riding "thing" has been overshadowing all the other learning I should be doing before we leave for Bukoba. So last week, in addition to some more time confusing Mary & Phillip's dogs by riding pointessly around and around a paddock where there were no sheep, and arranging all the fiction books we own in piles alphabetically by author, I put some time into KiSwahali.

We have several different "teach yourself Swahili" resources and have covered Greetings and Being Polite. Steve has a phrase list that includes (under the general heading of "Flirting") such gems as "You are very beautiful", "I am a marine biologist" and "I am not a stalker". I think he needs to work on "That's too expensive" and "How do I cook that?"

I have been working on more prosaic vocabulary. I have learned how to count into the millions. What I need now is to know how language is used in mathematics. How do I translate two and one are three? I'll let you know what I can discover using the magic of the internet.

In the meantime if you'd like to learn some Swahili the picture below has the words of the Lord's Prayer = how many words can you translate?

ps. 7 weeks to go

Honda CB250 - today's vehicle of choice.

Back to Hopper’s Crossing today to do the motor bike Learner’s Permit practical test and after several hours intensive training, a PASS! Hooray!!

I still have the Road Craft course to do , hopefully in Ballarat in a fortnight or so.

Definitely a red letter day!

More bike practice today, and I think more improvement - thanks Mary & Phillip! Today's victim was a Yamaha 200. I went round and round the paddock doing emergency stops next to selected thistles.

I sit the Learner's Test on May 5th.

10 weeks until we leave (provided I pass the test) and like Cale Morton (MFC) we're "itching at the bit"!

Cricket Award

The cricket association I play for - Southern Grampians CC - gave out the end of season awards this week and they gave me one! I was the proud recipient of the award for most ducks for the season in Ladies B Grade. I am now the owner of a dear little rubber duck.

I have promised my team I will set it free on Lake Victoria & photograph it there for them. The morning tea for the awards ceremony was lovely too - thanks team mates!

An excellent day!

Thanks to Janna and her dad Heardy for letting me practice on their Suzuki 185 ag bike. I have been up and down their driveway and around and around their house this weekend while Fergus (oldish black labrador) lay in the sun watching me do laps and thinking the helmet was probably over-kill at the speeds I was doing. Today I feel a lot more confident about the whole motorbike riding thing. Janna has been very good getting it started for me ( the kick-start defeated me when it was cold) then seemingly ignoring my tentative efforts while still listening out for any potential disasters. I can now go up to 3rd gear and "look & lean" in corners rather than trying to wrench the handle bars around while going walking pace in 1st. Progress is being made!

On another front, progress is being made with the Red and the Blue. Consecutive wins for Melbourne Demons will be celebrated with red wine and blue cheese.

Go Dees!

Further study needed ...

We had another intense study period in Fitzroy after Easter. There is so much to know about cultural differences, conflict and corruption. VSO has a system of continual learning for volunteers - their web-site has online courses on many and varied topics. Over the next 15 months we will keep learning on very many fronts.

Motor bike riding is a learning that can't all be done in the classroom! The written VicRoads test and the safety seminars were the easy part. The good news was I only fell off once - a graceful, slo-mo topple sideways, and I was able to resist the temptation to speed even with all those 250 ccs available to me. The bad news was that demonstrating the cornering and stopping skills at walking pace wasn't enough - an emergency stop from 2 km/hr doesn't count!

I am committed to this!! I have bought a helmet. (Can you see the look of terror from just wearing the gear!) and I have organised to practice on a local farm this weekend. I will let you know how it goes.

Tutaonana, Jenny

79 days to go!