It's coming together

After a momentary lapse of self pity this morning, it became evident how pointless it is to allow the opinion of one person drag me down, when all around me are dozens of people pushing me onwards and upwards to succeed.  It was a reminder also that at 42 I should really pay less attention to the neigh sayers and more attention to those that have so much belief in me, including myself.

This morning as usual I woke before my alarm, so I flicked to the TED app on my phone, and randomly selected a video that looked worth investing twenty minutes of my life in.  Who knew that Brene Brown's - The Power of Vulnerability, talk would be so empowering and so relevant to my recent state of mind?

Things are also starting to really fall into place with regards to the Silent Auction, I'm awaiting confirmation on one more thing and then I will be able to do a BIG REVEAL.  Excited and motivated (and even a teeny bit confident) don't even begin to describe how good I'm feeling about this right now.  I just need one more piece of the puzzle to fall into place in the next day or so and then all I have to worry about is selling tickets and getting more goodies to auction off.

Last night I received a phone call from an elderly Dutch gentleman, he had read the article in the Western Leader about my project.  He explained that in the late 50's and early 60's he and his family had lived in Kenya, just north of Nairobi, but had moved to New Zealand when Kenya became to "Africanized" but during his time there he collected a number of traditional carved pieces and he generously offered to donate them to my auction.  I have yet to see the pieces he has so kindly donated, but the generosity of this simple gesture was very touching.

Over the past few weeks I've had a little bit of communication with Hurricanes and All Black Centre, Conrad Smith.  Early readers of abs-olutely may recall me mentioning, that Conrad and his partner spent some time after the Rugby World Cup traveling through Africa.  It was during their travels they visited the Aberdare Ranges School, and Conrad has since generously contributed towards the charity.  When I started planning the Silent Auction I put on my detective hat and found a way to make direct contact with Conrad, and cheekily I asked him to be my guest speaker, but due to prior commitments this wasn't possible.  Today I received an email from him generously offering to get a signed All Blacks item for me to auction off.

Only time will tell what the item is, but I'm sure somebody will want to purchase signed memorabilia from the reigning World Cup holders, the winning All Black team.

Asante
Jacq
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