13/8/2003

I have packed the suitcase- unpacked the suitcase and no matter how I do it - it will still be overweight. When you have three rolls of HOPE for the children of the world, gifts for people and framed certificates for the Joy foundation as well as a items from the North Arm school, there is not much weight allowance left for clothes, less alone makeup and things.

Next Monday I fly out to Taiwan, again I could have flown business class, but decided to say to the foundation, that if it was okay with them I would fly tourist class and use the extra money on things for the project.

Thinking that with my back it is best if I don't lie back on a weird angle anyway and as I don't drink, bottled water will taste the same in any class and I don't need the silver ware to eat airline food. I also decided I won't be sleeping will be too busy learning my speech for the press conference on the 21st. Which all seemed a good idea at the time, until I weighed the suitcase.

To top this off, I was sent a photo of the award that will be presented to me at the press conference, it is huge and made of glass. It is also very artistic and very beautiful and beats the Order of Australia medal, I returned to our government in protest to Australia's involvement in the Iraqi war. So I already know it will not be going in the cargo bay on the way back.

Who would have thought even a year ago, that this would be the problems facing me at right at this moment.

This time last year, I was an unemployed grandmother in Cairns, trying to get a website ready by the 11th September launch, because I knew in my heart that the little film being made from my One Mind One Voice message to the world poem, by Yayha in Pakistan, along with the beautiful music by Ofir in Israel- was going to make a difference. I just didn't know how. Listening to the war talk and knowing Australia was heading down the path of a journey, I didn't want for Caitlin or any child. With a frozen left arm so bad that I couldn't even do up my bra, or put my pants on without sitting on the bed. A bad back made far worse by the arm injury caused by treatment at the hospital.

At 5am each morning I would work as best I could, the thought of what our government was going to do and knowing what Yayha and Ofir were doing, somehow lifted me to be able to be ready for our planned web site launch.

I was also working with a great group of people in Cairns on the One Mind One Voice poem being made into a song. The song while very beautiful, I stopped from continuing to the next stage of production - airplay. As the person putting it together, decided without tell me, to change one word in the poem now song. I almost gave in, not because I wanted to but because I knew the amazing work, lots of people had put into it.

What made me pull the plug, was the arrival from across the world, from Yayha someone who I have never meet, someone who has seen a lifetime of wars, a rough draft of the film, the word in question NO FAITH, not changed. In fact the line No faith, no race, no hate was made a feature on the credit page. I cried as I watched and listened to the film, then went and picked up the phone and pulled the plug on the song, because someone had let his faith get in the way of humanity. I cried again when I got off the phone.

I then worked flat out and the website evolved and built itself. Because a person on the other side of the world, Christopher in England had given his time to teach me how to be a webmaster (drongo) over the 15 months before.

See the problem facing me now is. Taiwan is the trial run for the trips next year. I intend travelling two months at a time, visiting many countries, then return home for a month, work on the projects here - then leave again. I am trying to work out, if I have extra things to carry from each place, where will I put them. Think I will have to write into HOPE documents, that people only give me a promise or pledge to work for a better world for all children - not gifts and awards.

Well my friends, this is the last newsletter till after I return on the 4th of September. I decided not to try to get a sponsor for a laptop or a video camera, as I want this trip to be a learning experience for me, ready for the next adventure.

Don't worry you will hear and see all about it after I return, or maybe even before, who knows what can happen when you are game to dream and do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do.

Can anyone tell me why suitcases weigh so much before you even put anything in them?

Can anyone tell me how little a promise or a pledge weighs.

I can't wait to see what has been planned for me, over my two weeks in Taiwan, All I know is a lot of people are working to make a granma's promise come true.

Have a nice day, I will thinking about Yayha, Ofir, Christopher, who I would like to pack into my suitcase. Never mind, they know they are etched in my heart along with many others who are travelled the same route as me. You allow me to travel first class no matter were I sit.

Kerry Bowden
Global Strategic Alliance for the New Humanity,
One Mind One Voice.
A Famility of Humanity
PS: Caitlin say