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!

VSO Tanzania have confirmed my appointment. Yippee!! Now the countdown to July 3 really begins.

Stay Upright

My next hurdle is learning to ride a motor bike with a school reassuringly named "Stay Upright". I will have 4 days after Easter in Fitzroy acquiring some skills for working in a developing country and then 2 days in Hoppers Crossing hopefully staying upright and earning a Victorian Motorcycle Learner's Permit.

Any hints for staying upright gratefully accepted.

Love Jenny

Bukoba

Suddenly it's all happening!

Yesterday we had photos taken to begin the Visa and Work Permit application process. VSO-AVI are booking the plane tickets and we expect to be off on July 3rd.

I will be working training teacher mentors in inclusive teaching methods to improve the teaching of maths, Steve will be the 'house husband' shopping at the market to cook our meals and organising the washing and ironing. Who wants to run a sweep on how long that will last!

I have three more weeks at Baimbridge, then I'm planning on getting this adventure organised.

Comments please so I know who I'm talking to, love Jenny.

PS The photo is from a website all about Bukoba. You can see more of it here.

Tanzania

Jambo,

Finally things seem to be moving!

We had three days in Fitzroy doing some training with AVI-VSO. It was fascinating and thought provoking and exhausting! The HIV-AIDS situation in sub-Saharan Africa is overwhelming; it is a situation that we will be living in and aiming to change with awareness and education. We became more aware of what cultural assumptions we make and (hopefully) how to act more consciously. While at the training days Max (from AVI) hinted that he may have something to offer us soon in Tanzania.

On Friday an email arrived offering me a placement at Bukoba in NW Tanzania working with the District Education Office of the Bukoba Rural Council. Bukoba is on the banks of Lake Victoria and quite close to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. It has a temperate climate - never too hot or cold - and is on the equator but 1200m above sea level. The major crops are coffee and bananas. VSO Volunteers currently there tell us it is a wonderful place to be.

We will spend the next week doing more research before making a decision whether to accept this offer - the only down-side is there is nothing there for Steve.

More soon,

Love Jenny

PS Jambo is Swahili for G'day!