Tuesday, July 2nd-David Hatch Chatworth draping company mtg, clive ready

Tuesday, we got up early to take the Murdocks to the airport. She was still feeling pain in her stomach. She said it hurt when anyone touched her, but she was trying to keep positive and glad to be going back to the church doctor in Johannesburg.

Work of Vesta Creations for a wedding.

After we dropped them off at the airport, we went to the Youth Centre in Chatsworth to meet with Vesta Creations owner of a draping company. As you can see from the photo, they mostly do weddings. They had given us a bid based upon another bid's measurements, so we wanted to make sure she was not going to change the bid when she saw the place. She was a cute Indian gal and was very positive about our event. She measured and asked appropriate questions and said the bid would be pretty much the same as her original quote. Good news there. We then came back to the office and proceeded to put together a budget based upon the bids we received to drape, do lighting and sound and rent chairs and chair covers for the event. We also have to hire two pianos for the event. The area office wanted the budget by Wednesday, so we emailed it over. It's a lot more than Hatch's budget and so are the other venues, so not sure what the area office will do about that. We are convinced that there is no place available, so this is it minus cancelling the whole thing.

We are still hoping that we can sell some advertising in our program, or get sponsors that we will list in the program, but who knows how much time we will have to do that. Where there is a will, there is a way....I heard that somewhere...The Youth Centre put up a memorial to Mandela, because they think he is going to die soon. We hear that he is hooked to respirators and will die if they unplug, but that is his family's decision. There are many who fear what will happen if he dies, so perhaps that is why they are keeping him alive. They think people will come to the Centre because it was built due to Mandela's orders and many will want to pay their respects. There is a lot of history involving the youth centre, so hopefully we can do some good there giving away the rest of the wheelchairs and providing the community with a classical piano concert (Something most have never seen before). We are thinking of asking those who come to bring a can, bag or box of non-perishable food as entrance to the concert. We can then give the food brought to shelters or other charities. There are a lot of people here without food or proper shelter. The winters are hard on them, even though it is milder here than most places.

Clive Reddy - Public Affairs

We were supposed to meet up with Clive and Brother Rieckhoff at the Centre, but they didn't show. When we got back I emailed Brother Rieckhoff and he said that he thought we were meeting on Tuesday, because he didn't read his emails until Monday and I said tomorrow, so he thought we were going on Wednesday (even thought the email showed it was sent on Sunday afternoon). I guess there is some logic in there somewhere.

This photo is Clive Reddy. He doesn't smile because he has a gold front tooth, but looks very handsome when he smiles regardless. He is a financial planner, college graduate in business and owns his own financial planning business. He is our interfaith PA for Hillcrest and does a great job. He has all kinds of ideas, but his new business is keeping him very busy. Because we are doing this concert in an Indian community, we really need his involvement.