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!!!!