March 22, 2008
Just drove pass the little cafe on the corner and it is opened. It is full, people everywhere. Coffee is on special ……..$2 a takeaway cup. We are going to have breakfast there in the morning so I will take some photos. It adds a little life to the neighborhood.
Kylie a big thank you, I had a lovely surprise waiting for me when I got home from work. The bunny is ever so beautiful, here is a photo of my grand-daughter Abby and my friend Sue looking at the bunny. Hopefully mine will be there early next week.
I went to a library in-service last Thursday on networking and use of web 2.00 tools. The networking part was great but the web 2.00 did not live up to expectations. A very young girl who obliviously has a lot of knowledge about the web and how to use it was the speaker. Her audience was a great deal older than her and I don’t think that she felt that comfortable but if she had only realised that the major of us love the computer as much as her and just wanted to learn. She breezed through the interesting and I felt the relevant parts far too fast. I was sad as it could have been great but she did give me some interesting ideas to follow and develop.
For those of you that are following Pen’s adventure, here is part of her last e-mail……
‘I went to my first demolition on Friday. It was two huge pits of about 700 mortars, rockets and projectiles. We got a great briefing, then walked in single file down to the pits to see them before they were blown. We left the site and drove 1.5km to the safe area. The donors stayed closer to where the button to the demolition gets pushed, it is like a bunker under the ground. I heard a little pop and thought it was it. When it actually went, I jumped so high and landed in the arms of some of the de-miners - it was really very funny. It was great to see the work of the teams though, it is incredible. ‘
Now I really should go and sew my bunny.
March 9, 2008
I loved the weekend but this weekend it is a bit quiet with Pen gone. She has arrived safely and moved into her tent, she says that she did not really understand how isolated it was going to be, she compares it to the Australian outback. I think that Graham understood as he spend a lot of his childhood school holidays near Bourke on his uncle’s family farm. It was miles from nowhere; barren and dry country.
School is busy, World Maths Day was on Thursday and four of our classes took part. It was exciting to see children charged by maths, they logged in and then played against other children from different parts of the world and they also played against the clock. I think that the modern child is at a disadvantage in this situation as they have to be really fast at number operations, similar to how we used to rote learn our number facts years ago. Still it was a lot of fun. Also five of our classes blog and two of them are taking part in on-line projects. So that means that their computer time is very precious to them, trying to find extra time for them is difficult. But I love this job, it has all the elements that keep me motivated and interested; once again I am on a steep learning curve. I have started a library blog which I will use mainly for new resources and to keep people informed on what some of the classes are doing.
We saw the two little girls yesterday, they are both changing rapidly, mainly due to them both going to school. Abby is talking non-stop and is very confident; her teacher describes her as “No shrinking violet”. She has always know her mind and really can’t be talked into something if she doesn’t want to do it.
March 4, 2008
Pen left yesterday to start her new job, she has a lot of travelling in front of her and will not get to her final destination until Thursday we think. She was very excited and full of anticipation to be starting in a new country. It was hard for us and her to say ‘goodbye’ but I have come to the realisation that she loves her work and doing that kind of work is where she wants to be. She says that the aid workers world is a small world and she goes already knowing other workers in the area. That will help her feel at home quicker.
I love this story I hope that her life is not really going to be like this.
Now my other big news is that Sarah, Arthi and Riya leave this week for Vanuatu. Their house was packed up today and they are staying with some friends until Saturday. They had their farewell party last Saturday which started early in the afternoon and went late into the night. I remember those wonderful Canberra parties where people drop in. We will miss them but will be able to keep in contact by Skype and hopefully Ses is going to start a blog.
March 2, 2008
My daughter leaves tomorrow to work in Sudan. While I am extremely proud of her, I am nervous and frighten at the same time. However, I know that she is a very professional young lady and that she will be sensible and that she will do a very good job. So this is my illustration for this week -leap in faith, leap into a different culture, leap into a different world……I think that the title could be any of those.
