That Wasn't It for 2008
So, recently in the last session we have been doing one to one interviews. With a large group of 16 the youth workers get little time to chat to us personally and discuss how our fundraising is going and what the project means to us. In the talks we discussed our strengths, our weaknesses and our fears, among others; a fear of the bugs in Ghana coming up more than once. Our support and effort for fundraising were also discussed each going over individually what they’ve been up to the past month and how our numerous family and friends have been pitching in to help them out. I think it has been mentioned how terrifying our previous interview process was, and this was a walk in the park in comparison. (And by walk in the park, I don’t mean 500 mile hike through the wood, but no doubt there will be more about that later...)
But more importantly, at least to a bunch of starved teens, is the Christmas party. Unfortunately a few of our group were away for the holidays and so this tragically left more food for us to painstakingly devour. What a shame! However, as the one to one interviews took place, the rest of us were left to try and fill our hunger with small talk and Gareth’s dancing, whilst we waited to begin eating. Enis, completely unprovoked, began stroking people’s hands, which no one was entirely comfortable with until he explained it was a special way of giving electric shocks. He wasn’t joking. Strangely enough though, despite these distractions, it seemed that as time went on chairs slipped closer and closer to the food, and we decided that opening the drinks was a fair compromise for having to wait for the interviews to finish. However, the youth workers were not too pleased when they returned to find the Shloer empty as we rushed to hide forks of potato salad behind our backs. But when we finally began eating, trust me the food was good – although a few of us had to nip out for more drinks (Oreos included) – with Shadi’s chocolate muffins, Melissa’s amazing cake and a large variety of exotic food we all had our fill. Just think, this time next year we’ll be able to add the Ghanaian cooking skills we’ll pick up to the mix.
But that wasn’t it for 2008, no, no, the trust group met up this week to begin work on applying to funds and trusts for money for the trip. When Michael produced his 300 page £200 book on the issue, however, we all realised we had our work packed in for us. As we each separately work through the trusts searching for the ones which will accept our application, for example the one for Fan museums Kate found probably wouldn’t be a great idea. I look forward to my bedtime reading of the trusts. But pouring over photocopied pages is not all we’re up to, those of us in the trust group are also planning to create an eBay store where donated items, or those for a commission, are sold by us to help fund the trip. The plan will be to distribute flyers to shops and acquaintances looking for that rare Barbie doll or coveted baseball card which will grab us 10 000 big ones! Then again, if we didn’t reach our target amount and got caught turning to burglary there was a trust for prisoners families, perhaps we’ll qualify – the horizon (and our loved ones pockets) is endless.
In the next session, in the New Year, we’ll finally discover who the 12 definites to go on the trip are and who will be one of the 4 reserves. But with a little bit of determination, and a lot of begging (harassment), we could make up the money to take us all, and this time next year we will have all gone to Ghana. Either way next term the whole group will begin by handing in their personal fundraising of £500 but look forward to the even more exhausting, cough, fantastically fun group fundraising of an Auction of Promises – stay tuned to find out what exactly these promises are, and our hints about the inappropriate ones. None as inappropriate as the infamous game of truth or dare on the residential – which NONE of us were involved in, of course.