Life after KUJENGA

This is soooo not how I imagined it. Imagined what? Life after Kujenga, of course.

Firstly, I thought I'd be writing this blog the day after the event (as opposed to two and a half weeks after). I thought I'd be on a high, blissed out with the relief of having got through it alive, buzzing from the fundraising success. Little did I know, 20 days later, I'd still be swimming in a sea of African artwork that needs delivering all over Sydney, that I'd still be paying off invoices (not many, mind!) and that I'd be only just coming to the end of writing approximately 7,498,407 thank-you letters, with an ache in the pit of my stomach that I've forgotten somebody (x5). Which of course, I will have. Do the thank-you letters ever end? How can they? It's not even possible. Every night I go to bed and think of more people to email. Now that I've supposedly finishing thanking the people who donated stuff (time, expertise, prizes, advice), I've started thinking I should email people to thank them for attending. I'm even starting to think I should email people to thank them for NEARLY attending. I've got a thank-you fixation.






Why is that? I guess it's because I'm so extremely grateful to everyone who did something-anything to contribute to kujenga, that I can't imagine how it would be possible to tick off the last thank-you name and know that it really, truly was the last. So many people. So much help...the list can't possibly have a finish.




But let's get back to that grateful bit. Yes, I'm grateful. (Grateful it's over for a start! Man, what an organising frenzy that was) and grateful that all our organising was worthwhile - it was a huge success. In six weeks, we pulled together a first-big-event-in-Sydders that was truly tops. I'm not telling you how much we raised - that's a suprise for the Gimme Shelter newsletter...but I will say this: Daz and I leave for Tanzanian in 10 days.










And that's another thing that is soooo not how I imagined it. Do you think I'm over-the-moon-can't-sleep excited about goign to Tanzania to being building? Well, strangely I can't say I am. I get flashes of it - yesterday when I started packing my Kujenga paperwork into a box and could, once again, see my 'normal FWS stuff' pile of papers, I felt excited. I felt excited when I rang and spoke to Nolasco our village elder who is negotiating the land purchase for us. I felt excited when Daz advised he'd found a potentially awesome solarpower expert. I felt excited when I emailed the Green WiFi guys in Cali-Forn-Eye-Ay about coming and setting up their clever IT stuff at Kesho (no response yet, but still, there was excitement as that was an email Kujenga shenanigans postponed for 8 weeks). So yes, splashes of excitement. Not an overwhelming waterfall of "pure excitement" water though. Pure excitement water. I wonder when I will take a shower in pure excitement water. I think it will be when I pack up little 192 Albany Street into the container that arrived out the front this morning (Yes, that was pretty excitementing too). Yes, it's about jobs. Once I do these jobs, I will be showered by pure excitement water:





* pack entire contents of 192 Albany into looking-smallish 20ft container
* buy some tshirts for Tz (they no like the singlets and in aussie, i live in sin(glet). So singlie shopping required)
* launch new website (oh you have no idea how close we are. we've seen it, it's divine, we've played with it, it works... now it's just a little bit of tweaking here and there and we'll be on in two weeks i reckon...maybe even before I go!)
* sort last of Kujenga prizes (die kujenga, die!)
* speak to J9 Moodley about corporate sponsorships ("let's get some" will be the angle of that convo) and speak to Ciggy about media (similar theme) and speak to Joe Ward about "when are you coming to Tanzania, Mr Busy CEO Person?"... and that might be enough jobs for a still-kinda-recovering girl, I reckon.






Oh, and there's a bit of a handover to do with Kelsinator, ShonyPony and Wedding Belle (Anne O'Donoghue is getting married did you hear?). But we've been slowly handing-over for a while now, so it's just last double-triple checks we're talking about tying up. It's actually a pretty embarassing process because it just involves me palming jobs off to other people. Consequently, Delegating Delforce is how I've come to be known, which isn't particularly flattering, but is surely highly fitting.



Hey, we've got our Tarmac in Tanzania Timeline sorted. Here's what it looks like:
Daz & Beck - July 24
Shona & Daniel (Daz's son) - Sept 1
Jai & Blair (volunteer carpenter legends) - Sept 1
Corky (direct from Cambodia) - Oct 14
Kels & Ben - Dec 20
Anne & Pip - Dec 20ish - to be confirmed.



I tried to make photographer Luke Burgess commit to coming and snapping it all again, but he said not this time. I said, "Get I'll do it myself," (or something as equally sassy), and then Daz and I had a great convo about how one of my key jobs will be to do the documenting of this project. Cannot wait! I get to be a photo-journalist...on location. Assigned to a story I REAAAAALLY like, in a country I REAAAALLY like. It's like when Phoebe In Charmed got to cover internet dating and her date was her sexy boss Jason. Some journo jobs are better than others, that's for sure. And this is the job I've been waiting for all my life. Woohoo...

Hey, was that a shower of pure exictement water?