Glitter Cat

Zuba made me a lovely birthday card.

It's a portrait of her cat.

It's made of glitter.

There is glitter all over everything I own. My bag. My phone. My makeup. My hands. My face. Everything.

It was pretty in the club.

Now it is slightly regrettable.

Ho hum.

Still, I shall treasure it always.

Well, what a few days it's been.

In the face of Damascene's misfortune, I felt I really had to do something to try to help. So I launched a fundraising campaign amongst friends and family. You'll be glad to know we've made back all the money he lost, and enough for him to re-build in one go, plus a roof so it doesn't flood again, and a compound wall and garden.

Still a few donations trickling in but I transferred the main bulk today. He's taken it back to his village to give to his wife to manage. I'm definitely moving house on Thursday, as it's the only day my friend can lend me her car. It still doesn't feel like a reality yet because I haven't started packing. But Damascene has made the brave decision to come with me. So, we're moving as a family. 

I'm very glad about this. I would have employed him even if he wanted to stay at this address, but logistically it makes things a lot easier. Plus, I do feel safe when he's around. I caught him doing martial arts on the lawn once, and the guy has a solid twelve pack. I wouldn't mess with him.

Really glad I could help out. So grateful to everybody (sixteen people) who reached into their pockets and their hearts to donate. Going to go and take some pictures of the new house when it's all done.

It scares me sometimes how easy it is to fix things with a little bit of money, and how many people in the world don't have access to that little bit of money. 

Things at the moment are hectic. I'm in a state of denial about moving. I need to pack, but I haven't started yet. Mostly because work happened.

I am now officially the Country Director for a small human rights programme based in New York, Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda. I handle Rwanda. Or, at least, I'm about to. It's a youth program in post-genocide countries. It takes paying international students and subsidises local students. Lady Luck (LL) was one of them a while back. Young people who are committed to human rights, including refugees from Congo. 

I'm determined to do a good job, but it's a lot of work and responsibility. Lot of logistics to figure out. But it all begins with interviewing potential participants. I'm up to my eyeballs in CVs and we're starting the first interviews on Wednesday night (9pm my time as there's a seven hour difference between here and New York), then I'm flying solo on the second batch next week. 

Had a couple of UK clients with issues they need resolving, plus I am still beavering away at this three-year strategy I'm developing for a local organisation. Meant to finish it today, but haven't.

Electricity went out 7pm last Friday and didn't come back on until 4pm Sunday. Then went out a couple of hours later. It's been like a disco - lights on, lights off, lights on, lights off.

Analogy for my love life right now, but I'm not even going into that. 

I am fairly stressed at the moment, but I've decided to see how things are after the move. Reckon it'll settle down a bit once the interviews are over and the housing situation sorted out. Hopefully get some time to write again.

Deep breath. Time marches forward, you can't halt it. Just gotta loosen them shoulders and roll with it.