Fundraising is going well.

Firstly, from now every update will include our progressive tally for our fund raising. You can see that our tally so far is $1,597 … a great result. However, we do have our sights set on $10,000 ($5,000 for each of our charities).
Tally so far:
13 Nov 2006 Craig Hopkins $100
13 Nov 2006 Robbie Hunt $20
16 Nov 2006 Howqua Girls $1,227
20 Nov 2006 Unknown $200
28 Nov 2006 Annabel Marshall-Roth $50
Total $1,597
This leads me on to my next point. We are asking for people to put their hand in their pockets to donate to our charities. It is not in our nature to make such a request, but we are committed to achieving our target and supporting the charities which we have chosen. It will only be a few months before we visit the Tumaini Training Centre in Northern Tanzania, and we would like to present them with the money that we have raised. We realise that now is a difficult time financially for many people as Christmas and holidays fast approach, but we feel that this is all the more reason to donate. Australians spend so much money on presents in a society that already lives comfortably and already has so much. While we are stressing about what to buy and how much to spend, many people around the world go without. I am proposing that you buy one less present, or spend a little less on presents this year and donate the remaining money. A friend of mine said to me that he had only raised $35. I said to him that although $35 may not be much to us in Australia, $35 to our charities means a great deal. EVERY CENT COUNTS and it all adds up and it all makes a positive difference.
Please, if you do donate into the nominated bank account, leave your name or send an email so we can acknowledge your contribution on the website. You can see from our progressive tally table that we have some unknown donators. Please forward this update on to people who may be interested, and direct them to the website where they can subscribe to receive our updates from Africa.
Below is a recent article in the Mansfield Courier Newspaper. It is nice to have this article in the paper just to give the locals an idea of what we’re setting off to do. We have got to know many people in Mansfield through our sporting commitments and it is a place we are very fond of. There is something about life in small country towns that is friendly and relaxing. Mansfield is definitely that.

As the bushfires ravage through North Eastern Victoria, we hope that people, properties and animals come out at the end of it all still intact. Where we live at Howqua is still at risk. It is scary to think about what could happen, but being the optimists that we are, we are confident that all our belongings will be OK as we store them for next year.
We have finished school now and our departure is fast approaching. It was sad to finish school and farewell the students. We love working at Howqua and the nature of the job means we become quite close to many of the students. It is hard to leave some of the girls when we spend all year being their teacher, outdoor leader and tutor (which is like being a parent in many ways). It is so rewarding to watch the girls grow and develop over the year and we definitely had a fantastic 2006 Howqua year. Howqua really is a magical place and we will certainly miss it next year.
We recently visited the Ethiopian Consulate in Melbourne to get our Ethiopia Visa. We started to get excited as we sat and read books and looked at maps. It is shaping to be a challenging country. Water, food, accommodation, roads and people are all going to be “interesting” aspects of the country. At this stage we plan to cycle a route through a less visited area of Ethiopia which is going to make it a tough start to our trip. But we are ready!!
All our preparations are coming together and we are as prepared as we’ll ever be. The next few weeks we will be enjoying some time with family and friends, as well as completing our final preparations. We will also be eating as much nice food as possible because a variety of delicious food is something that we certainly won’t have for the next 10 months or so.
Our next update will be from somewhere in the crazy and wild place that is Ethiopia.
Merry Christmas,
Ross and Christine