Living the life of Riley

Breakfast for a queen

I have a lovely lifestyle at the moment. I am able to do a whole lot of enjoyable activities since I am not working - choir with my mother, book club, sign language lessons with Luka, Rai's school assembly every Friday, walks on the hills, play dates for Rai, teaching private students and lots of reading, reading, reading. I just finished re-reading a childhood favourite - the Borrowers (the first one, and ...Afield, ...Afloat and ...Aloft - I need to get the Borrowers Avenged to have the full set). Such a beautiful set of stories.

I'm also enjoying slowing down and relaxing a bit. Having said that, I keep busy with various projects. We were looking into setting up a cafe but changed our minds at the last minute; and I applied for a job this week - haven't found out the result yet.

I'm living the life of Riley, really.



In contrast, I got a message from a friend, Sue, who is working for the Red Cross in East Timor (Timor Leste). She is doing important work training local people so they can manage their own development projects. She had mentioned that her driver died suddenly, leaving his widow and six children without any salary. I offered to give them NZ$100 (probably about 2 weeks' salary) and Sue took it to them for me. Her heart-rending message below:

"I delivered the money to Abilio's widow. It was very sad. Although they live in Dili the road to their house is a rough, rutted dirt one. Their house is a simple concrete block...The floors are bare concrete, the living room had 4 plasic chairs, a sort of desk with a TV and... a couple of photos on the wall.

 

I explained that my friend in NZ had sent this money for her and gave it to her. She cried for a little while. Then she talked a bit - I can't understand Tetun much (although I can speak a bit) but the driver who had taken me there talked with her. It seems there has been a hitch in her receiving severance pay from Cruz Vermelha so now the driver and I can try to get that sorted out. She said to say thank you to you.

 I asked if I could take a photo and she said yes, and suddenly four children appeared. Two have had to drop out of university because they can't afford it now. I'm attaching photos."

 

If I get the job I applied for, I hope to be able to send some regular donations to this family.