So, the last nails were hammered in and, as is traditional, the roofers have to be thrown a chicken to mark their achievement in bringing the building to this stage.
Last nails going in
Fred throws the chicken up to the builders
They have to catch it and bring it down to be cooked and shared with everyone as part of the celebrations of the fact that the building has reached a definitive stage.
Nearly there
Safely caught – let the celebrations begin
Fred sends his sincere gratitude to all who have helped to get the school to this stage. Wish I could have been there to share in the celebrations. Settled for a glass of wine instead.
While this is a significant achievement there is still much to do, but for now we can all give ourselves a pat on the back for getting this far.
What a great move?. We got the money and did not get to the office. We passed straight through the building material shop and bought one and half bundle of zinc which is now completing the roof. It wonderfully appreciated and a surprise to many.
The roofs will be completed today and we will throw a Chicken up to the carpenter as a tradition before he would come down from the roof. This is a sort of celebrating an achievement of the roof being completed. The chicken will be eaten at the site. I am sending you the progress pictures and will send to you the completed one later.
All filled in!!!
I am just very excited as I cannot wait until it is finished this afternoon before I get to you. You are really a star. God has given you a wonderful gift for fund raising. I cannot imagine that only three of you raised that huge sum of money. If you did not come to Cameroon who would have done this to us? God alone knows why he really directed you to SeReP.
I will use the other 5000frs to buy the ceiling to cover the veranda, as you can see from the stair way in front of the office. The one which you supported to be put into use last time. We really thank you so much for what you have done. I hope others will follow and get on with the ceiling, plastering, fitting of the windows and doors, painting and so.
The students will have to welcome you at the bus stop if you will be coming in November in the morning. May you really be blessed.
Boy working outside the building soon he will be working inside
Tuesday 19th February 2014
I’m very excited and bowled over by the way this project has touched people. I was able to send a donation of £450 to the SEREP (Self Reliance Promotors NGO) yesterday – thanks to some very generous donations. Thanks a million CH for stepping at the last minute.
I’m reliably informed by Fred the director that this should be sufficient to complete zincking the roof.
They will also be able to provide a kind of awning that will protect the roof from gusts of winds which could take the zinc off from underneath. (I am no builder but some of you may understand what I’m trying to say).
I was able to speak briefly to one of the pupils at the school. She said they’re very excited by the progress. Soon there will be no risk of the rain coming into their classrooms.
It’s not time to break out the champagne yet, but I did have a wee glass of wine. Thanks again to all who are supporting this project.
I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to post these pictures that Fred, the director of SEREP (Self Reliance Promoters NGO) sent me a couple of weeks ago. The progress has been very rapid, but they need another £350 to finish the roof. It would be great to achieve that before the rainy season returns.
Shiney new roof
Hei Predencia,
It is my pleasure to update you again. You can now see that the upper front has been roofed and then part of the upper back part almost half way gone.
Only a bit more to go
Yesterday we had a staff social and send off for Niki and I passed your greetings and all what you have done to make the roofing go up to this level. They were all happy and send you greetings to extend their appreciation to the donors.
Your efforts has given us a lot of hope and bright future for this project.
As soon as we get more zinc to continue, I will still get back to you with the progress.
Yours sincere.
Wirkom Fred
Please let me know if you would like to contribute to this phase. To nick a well know supermarket’s phrase… every little helps.
I received some pictures today from the director of SEREP showing that the work on zincking the roof has already started. Below is an extract from Fred’s email.
Roofing has begun
I am very very delighted to inform you that the roofing proper started yesterday with the zinc we bought using the donations. We can boast that 1/2 of it will be soon be roofed in the next few days and you will be able to see the pictures of the completed back part.
He also sent pictures of one of the newer volunteer (Niki) who is teaching in one of the older classrooms, and one of Charlott who was there when I was there. She’s teaching in one of the newer classrooms.
Niki in class 1
Charlott in one of the new classrooms
It looks like they are experiencing warmer weather as there is no evidence of jackets or jumpers.
I was extremely happy to forward a donation of £400 to the Self Reliance NGO project in Cameroon (Kumbo) this morning. Thank you to all who gave so generously, Karl, Keisha and Jason. Fred, the project director was ecstatic this morning when I spoke to him.
‘I’m going to order the zinc right now,’ he said. ‘Please thank all your friends and wish them God’s blessings.’
Self Reliance School in Kumbo Cameroon -waiting for the zinc
Self Reliance School in Kumbo Cameroon – nearly there with the roof now
One year ago today (10th January 2013) I started this blog to share with others the strange phenomena that had happened with my second novel, (i.e. things I’d written about started to happen in real life) see below and also see about. I wanted to see whether engaging in psychic development would have any noticeable effect on my future writing.
It has been an amazing year.
Crystal ball
Circles – I began going to psychic development circles on Mondays and Thursdays. The Monday classes were focused more on using tools such as cards, crystal balls etc to give messages. The Thursday classes focused more on connecting directly with spirit (mediumship) in order to give messages.
I had many fantastic experiences. I realised that I could give messages using just about anything from cards, crystal balls, photographs, coloured ribbon, to plant leaves, flowers and scrunched up bits of paper. I learned that these things are just props, something to focus on until the connection with spirit is so strong that you don’t need them anymore. In the Thursday sessions I built my connection and learned how to do it without the props.
I was given many amazing messages from others in these sessions. I also learned that a trained and experienced circle leader can see inside your meditation. It was in one of these sessions that I was directed to look more closely at the Maroons in Jamaica. Several messages from different people lead me to push past my fear and explore shamanism. I first met one of my animal teachers at a Thursday circle.
The Amadeus Centre, West London
Shamanism – My exploration of shamanism took me to a workshop at the Amadeus in London in June. It was called The Way of the Shaman. It was incredibly intense and I came away knowing that shamanism was the spiritual path for me. It lead to a new category of the blog by the same name.
Earl Purdy and me at A Course in Miracles Conference – awesome man
Workshops – In between the circles and the shamanic workshop I attended a number of other developmental workshop. These are recorded under Developmental Events.
Dreams – Once I began the circles my dreams became much more active and in some cases predictive. Many of these are recorded under Dreams. I was incredibly grateful to everyone who made suggestions on how to interpret them.
Graves at Brompton Cemetry
Stepping stones – Sometimes things would happen that didn’t fit into any of the categories. Things like seeing things flash before my eyes, or hearing voices that instructed me to do certain things (am I scaring you now?) like when I was told about Tom Seligman. The information lead me to more information for the research for the book I was writing. Another lead me to West Brompton Cemetery in London.
Countdown to Cameroon – From the research I developed a curiosity about my African ancestry. I took a DNA test which showed that my ancestors were from Cameroon. In October I set off to find them and had an adventure that surpassed all my expectation.
African Ancestry DNA kit
Writing – And what about the writing? As well as the many thousands of words of blogging I wrote two more books.
The first, Never on Sunday was published as an ebook in August and in December in hard copy. Both are available from Amazon.
Never on Sunday by Penny Dixon
The second book, Love is Not a Reward is current out to readers for comment. The ones I’ve received so far are favourable. This is the one that’s linked to the parenting course that I’ve been writing for the polytechnic in Barbados. It’s due out in about three months time.
It wasn’t all hard work in Barbados
So has the experiment worked? Did the psychic development influence my writing? The only evidence I have is that things I’ve written in both Never on Sunday and Love is Not a Reward have happened in real life. I’m still a little spooked by it because I never know which things are going to manifest in real life. Maybe that would be true prediction, true prophecy.
Where to now? – Well, the writing continues. I have at least eight books in my head waiting to come out. Spiritually I will be focusing more on shamanic practices and will write about these as much as I can.
Dancing with the juju man in Cameroon
Back to Cameroon – I’ll be going back to Cameroon later this year so will be writing about that too, along with anything interesting that happens in my spiritual, ancestral and writing world. I hope you will continue to drop in from time to time.
I’m happy to report that I’ve just received a donation of 100 US dollars for the Self Reliance Promotors NGO project that I worked with as a volunteer in Cameroon. The work of the project touched a friend of mine in Barbados who is a teacher and wants to contribute to the completion of the school. And I didn’t even have to show him the pictures. Just the story of what they’re trying to achieve moved him.
I’d be happy to hear from anyone who would like to made a contribution. Please have a look at SEREP’s website of you want to know more.
After a really challenging week I received the email below from a friend. It’s at times like this when I am reminded of how fortunate I am to be blessed with amazing friends. Thank you so very much Simon.
As it comes to the end of another day, as you kick back and recline on your sofa. You ask yourself that question,’ Was I really 5000 miles away just the other day? Were you really changing lives, building schools, changing the world?
Then you hear the rain singing your name. Rain drops like small feet stomping a rhythm and your intuition knows the rain echoes the voices of the lives you’ve touched. Staff, parents and children are singing your name right now and for a long time to come, it goes without question. It’s amazing how dreams, praise and happiness travels great distances – listen can you hear them?
It’s a grey day Predencia but you put the sun in the sky for a lot or people. I’m not even thinking of the ones that you saw, but the ones that will be there in the future…. generations. Wow!!! What a legacy. How are you going to trump that then? I’m also wondering how to emulate that. I’ve done what you’ve done but I haven’t built a class room or a school.
It’s the end of a long day and I thought on the whim to send you an email that I hope would bring a smile to your face whatever the type of day you’ve had.
This last week I’ve taken to my bed more than usual, the result of being exhausted after my Cameroon experience.
When I wasn’t actually sleeping, (which I’ve done a lot of), I’ve been reflecting on the way my blog has been dominated by this ancestral search in the past few months.
Blogging has become a significant part of my writing. I’ve been reminding myself that I originally began the blog to try and trace whether my spiritual development would have any discernible effect on my creative writing.
At the moment I seem to be doing less and less creative writing. I’m trying to regain the drive and passion for the purely creative.
I’ve never seen myself as a journalist, yet I have spent many hours and many thousands of words journaling, both publicly and privately.
If there are any creative writers who also blog I’d be interested to know how you manage the split.
I head out to Barbados in a few week’s time. It’s the place that inspirited my first novel Dare to Love. I’m hoping that I will reconnect with that purely creative energy when I’m there.
Writing Creatively With Spirit 