The job has been done!!!The skydive went amazingly well!!! Everyone is safe and happy. Although we felt a bit icky afterward... The craziest fun ride ever! All that swinging, up and down and around... :)

The fall itself.. what can I say... Scary! Exillarating! Manic! When you are in the mercy of the wind... you just give and enjoy literally every second! The speed was 130 miles per hour... Rather slow, don't you think? hehe

Thank you everyone who's supported me! You helped me raise £130!!! How wonderful is that?!
If someone would still like to add a pound or two I'd very much appreciate it!! It's not too late! It would help Grace Children's Village project speed up building classrooms.
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserPage.action?userUrl=GiedreVasiljevaite&pageUrl=2

An update about the fund raising!

Dear Friends!

So far £50 or £62 including Gift Aid has been raised! Thank you to those who visited my blog, read about the cause and got touched! Your gifts are truly appreciated!! :-)
I'm excited that people are joining Grace Children's Village into this amazing project in Uganda!

7 DAYS LEFT TILL TANDEM JUMP!!!

I'm determined to raise £500! Every donation will go straight to the charity and will be used to extend the school with three more classrooms. Don't be shy, help buy windows, doors and bricks by donating on http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserPage.action?userUrl=GiedreVasiljevaite&pageUrl=2

Thank you and all the blessings!! 

Giedre xx

The school!!

Action Dave in action!

Grace Children's Village! Brickwork Windows Doors

Hello Dear Friends!!

It’s been awhile I’ve raised money for a special cause!

This time I’m doing something different, something scary, something exhilarating, something crazy and something I’ll have to take a life insurance for! J

Tandem Skydive was my dream when I was a child and has been one of my biggest nightmares since the day I've realised I’m terrified of heights!

I’ve known Action Dave for some time now and have learned the important work he does in Uganda! He is a co-founder of the Grace Children’s Village http://www.gracechildrensvillage.org/ project that focuses on poverty alleviation and opportunity creation! All of the workers in Uganda are locals and earn their own salary. How life changing is that?!

Since February 2012 around 150 children are being educated in the school and 16 adults are employed at the project. A plan to build THREE more ground floor classrooms is being executed: the roof slab of the ground floor is drying and I am fundraising for the brickwork, windows and doors!

Let’s build walls brick by brick! 

Let’s install doors so children can study in peace and quiet! 

Let’s put windows in so the birds don’t snatch their exercise books!  

Let’s give a gift of knowledge!  

I will create an event on Virgin Money Giving website so you can easily donate money for this awesome cause! 

An article about me on Oasis Global website :)

I was not expecting to find it there!! I didn't know that someone was writing about the trip to South Africa thus it was a pleasant surprise ;-)

By the way, the title accurately represents my true feelings :-) 

http://www.oasisglobal.org/announcements/passion-for-africa

Bake Sale Success!!!

What a blessing to have great friends and sweet tooth colleagues! :-)

A special Thank You to Anna, my wonderful colleague and friend, Amy, my lovely housemate, who baked delicious cupcakes and Debbie, my colleague from Oasis, who offered her services as a baker! Thank you to everybody, who has supported the idea by purchasing the lovely cakes!

We raised £130 in total!!! 30% more than planned!!!

“He opened the rock, and the water gushed out; it flowed like a river in the desert” Psalm 105:41

I feel this verse fits here perfectly... People as a community, as this tight circle of wholeness, helped me to make my dream/prophesy come true.

We had enough money to pay for fuel, to get tasty snacks, to buy a lovely photo frame and develop a few pictures for Elna and Charl Theron, who generously gave their time for us. The Thaba Lodge that we visited is a private safari park and not available for public, thus we feel very blessed to have had this exclusive opportunity to thoroughly enjoy South Africa’s wild life!

We saw elegant giraffes, fast kudus, Impalas and friendly Nialas, also springbok and massive, slightly scary looking blue wildebeests. Stripy zebras looked chilled in the bush minding their own business. The biggest surprise and amazement was to see two rhinos 15 meters away from our safari van! People were wonderfully amused!  

Absolutely brilliant day!

Thank You all for making this happen!!!!

Bake sale success ! ! !

4 cakes- £27!!!

A special thank you to Anna Teschendorf for her generous heart and devoted time!!!

Thank you Oasis staff for buying cakes and thus supporting this cause! You are all very cool people!!

Another £73 need to be raised! Ideas spinning, ideas swirling, ideas boiling...

Any ideas? haha

South Africa trip!

Heyyyy!!! What’s baking today???

Well I’ll tell you what!

Carrot Cake, some sort of Chocolate Cake, Banana Bread and Cup Cakes!!!

I’m trying to choose a chocolate cake from a “The chocolate and coffee bible” book and IT IS overwhelming!!! I’m guessing it’s nearly a thousand cakes to choose from!

Dilemma-should be on a safe side and make a simple chocolate cake, since my experience in this is zero?! Or something special and risk messing is up? (Unlikely, to be honest! Oh yes! Cos I’m that good! Haha)  

Anna, a friend of mine, is joining me in the baking day! I appreciate it SO much!!! She will show her expertise in making banana bread and cup cakes. Anna, better protect those cup cakes from my teeth as they are one of my favourites!!

OK, someone who knows me well might ask, why on earth is Giedre baking? It’s not exactly my favourite venture and I’m not an expert in this field! But there is a reason behind it!

Story

I’m going on a work trip to South Africa in less than 3 weeks. It is extremely exciting as I will get to see and be part of the projects they run! You can read more about their work http://www.oasisza.org/  or http://www.facebook.com/#!/OasisSouthAfrica 

I was blessed enough to be able to arrange a Game Park trip for some of the young adults who receive support from Oasis South Africa! They have never been to any game parks even though they live in SA! They never had an opportunity to see the real beauty of SA that it is! The hosts of the game park we will be going to are incredibly kind and they are not charging us a penny!!!  It is their contribution to the projects. However, we need fuel to get there and back and snacks. Also, I thought it would be fantastic to give the hosts a present- a framed picture with all of us, them including, at the game park as an appreciation token! Usually these trips cost a fortune, so this is the least we can do!

I’m raising £100 or more!

If you have any fundraising ideas to add to this one - please do share with me! I’m keeping my mind open to any suggestions! Another idea of mine is to organise a South African bbq in two weeks. What do you think? Would you come to a meaty bbq? nom nom!

A bit late update but later better than never!

I just wanted to say a massive THANK YOU to all of you who made my run fun! I had a pleasure giving £277 to CCAT!!! Absolutely brilliant and uplifting! You have been great in so many ways! Thank you!

An update!!!

We have more lovely people that donated to CCAT!!! Check out the new names! What an awesome support has been given to me! What an inspiration and motivation to carry on training and running. Soon all of the gifts will be collected and a cheque presented to the CCAT organisation! I'm eager myself to find out the total!

Also, just to add, I've been running and not falling asleep on the newest achievement. I think I'm getting a bit better and whenever I will book myself for a new challenge I will surely let you all know!

Bless you all!

Thank you very much!

Goal achieved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First and foremost I would like to say a big thank you to all of you who supported me! Whether you generously made gifts or sent me encouraging emails, Facebook and text messages! I truly and sincerely appreciate any and every effort you’ve made! Your presence has been motivating me to go for a run after work, when I was hungry, tired, it was dark and cold. Thank You!

It means you care for people, for those fragile women who are being abused and used; and desire to bring goodness in their lives, change their awful tormenting nonexistent living so they would Believe in people again, so they would regain Hope and their Hearts would See the light in the nearest future.

About the Half marathon.

Oh my goodness how much I enjoyed running it! Seriously! I couldn’t erase the smile of my freezing face for 12 miles! Huh? Did I say 12? Did you know that Half marathon is 13,1 mile? Oh yes!!! The last mile was tough! But somehow I managed to speed up! Curious about my time? I did it in 2:06:42!!! Did I hear someone cringe just now?? Rude! Haha My first and last half marathon was Dirt Half marathon (in 2010) and I did it in 2:15, so I’m well pleased!!!! I met great people! So smiley and friendly. I guess it helped that I was walking with a smirk too! I made a little friend too, perhaps she was 10 months J We kept looking at each other and laughing J

So.. I met two bunnies (they didn’t have white puffy tails!! How sad!), donkey, dogs (real ones) and... I think that’s it.

My dear friend Steve who I was running this race with came 24^th! He finished it in 1:26! I saw him run- without realising what I was doing I increased my speed and then suddenly got a grip that soon I will have to unzip my small pocket and get an energy gel! So I was wise and slowed down! A big well done to Steve!

Running on the beach was great! We were warned about the ice, but what I found was mud. Such fun!     

I had a few running buddies but either they stayed behind (which means I was faster haha!) or I stayed behind.. (didn’t happen too often.. I think... ). It was very warm to run, in fact, perfect weather for that!

Anyhow, here are some pictures! My photographer Amy was ill, therefore instead of the professional photos we have iPhone photos!

Bless you all!!!!

t-shirt with names!!

I'm so pleased with people generosity! Here is the t-shirt as promised with your names on it!!! I hope you like your colour! If not- there's not much I can do about it :p My fingers ended up being pretty and colourful too! :D Going to get some sleep, early morning tomorrow- leaving at 6:30am sharp! Ouch!!

The ones that still would like to sponsor me- please please do so! I will write more names on the t-shirt and take another picture!
God bless you all!

Running in London is fun!

Heyyy :-)
The newest update is that I ran a couple of times during this freezing weather. Rather enjoyed the cold side of it, not the icy one. Still feels too dangerous to jog in Forestdale as blocks of the road are covered in icy snow. I'm a bit cautious about breaking my neck before the race... 
The last jog took place in London- Waterloo, passing St. James park, Trafalgar Square (I was following, not leading, therefore can't give you the precise details of the route), crossing a couple of bridges, the graffiti painted tunnel and back to the office. We jogged 44:50mins and did approximately 4,8miles. I was pleased ;)

Have a lovely Saturday everybody! Keep warm! :)

Run Update!

I had a massive dilemma yesterday. I was arguing with myself and both of us (me and me) gave rather strong reasoning to run and then why I should avoid running in this lovely crisp weather. First of all, haven't seen anyone running on the streets! Second of all, I was hungry. Third of all, Siberian! I got used to the darkness already, so it's not an issue.
The ultimate reason that pushed me to jump into my running gear and strap my Garmin onto the wrist was... CCAT! If I can support their priceless work in any way- I want/need to do it!

Not the best time but I was freezing my face off! Here you go: 6,2km in 40:26 mins

Donation page!!

http://www.ycaht.com/donate.html

Still awaiting for Just Giving website registration but we have only two weeks left till The Day! Therefore I'm directing you to the CCAT website where you can make your contribution, however, please email me at giedre.vasiljevaite@gmail.com  indicating your gift and your name. I would love to know the total I've raised as you wouldn't be able to specify why you're inspired to donate and also I would love love to have your name on the t-shirt!

I will bring the contribution form to the PBC on Sunday too! :)

THANK YOU!

Love to all!

New Update!!!!!!

Perfect weather for running this evening! Ran 5,43km (3.4miles) in 35mins. Not the best, but I felt it is becoming easier to run, less comfortable pain or non at all, which gives me great hope for a successful finale crossing the finish line!

                        I got a new t-shirt!!!!

Peter Cox and others generously donated t-shirt with CCAT logo on it!

WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR NAME TO BE ON IT???? IF I CATCH YOU BEFORE THE RACE YOU CAN WRITE IT YOURSELF AND SIGN IT!!! OTHERWISE I WILL DO IT FOR YOU!
SOON YOU WILL BE ABLE TO USE JUSTGIVING FOR YOUR DONATIONS!

New Update from today!!!!!!!

I managed to run 7miles!!!! Oh yeah! I must admit, it wasn't easy, because I didn't run for four days! :( I blame work load.. However, I'm not slowing down! I will be running four days in a row (that's the plan) and will be updating you!
Today: 11,27km in 1:11:58 (bare in mind many uphills!) Oh our beautiful forestdale... :)

My first half marathon- Dirt half marathon! Not the best picture, I know, but I'm not suppose to look pretty after completing 13.1 miles! :)

Previous 10k race!

Half Marathon!!

Ahhhh half marathon is sooo close! 4 weeks and 2 days left!!! I've been training nearly every day ( for two weeks)! But I have two jobs and I get tired, therefore I need you to inspire and motivate me! :) It would helpful to receive supportive messages, or perhaps run with me?? Could be an option... Also, maybe sharing your own experience? And, of course, donating to CCAT! The more you donate, the more I'll feel obliged to make you proud of my hard work! :)

Photos of me training to be uploaded in the nearest future as my proof of sweating for your support! :)