Day One of a New Year

Well, it is the end of the first day of 2006. Mostly I hid inside from the massive rains we've been having here in California this week. 2005 was a good year for me, a whole year mostly devoted to working on Zambian Forge, though I worked on some other projects and moved to a new home for the first time in 9 years as well. A year ago odell came from NYC to start working on the project, and it led to him moving as well. A lot has happened with FORGE this year too..

So far I've gotten some useful feedback and mostly positive reactions to my initial screeners that went out to the 2004 FORGE team for the holidays. I also left my first messages with Angelina's people. I've gotten a lead for a title / graphics person that sounds perfect. At this point, everyone I'm showing to is confirming my suspicion that the editing is drawing to close, and it's time to head towards the distribution side of things. Unfortunately, I have yet to get a response from Kjerstin & FORGE's official endorsement. I hope that will come soon, but an unforseen tragedy hit the organization last week.

One brave student - whom I only met through email - arrived in Meheba about a month after I left to spend 6 months there on her own overseeing the sustainability of the programs in a similar fashion to Arianna staying in 2004. This young woman is Holly Hickling.
Though FORGE is not a religious organization, Holly came from a religious family and her father Thom decided to come to Zambia to spend Christmas with her. Holly came to meet her father in Lusaka, and on December 27th they got a car and began heading north to Meheba with donations for the settlement. Not far out of Lusaka, they were involved in a head-on collision passing a truck on the road. Thom was killed, and Holly was injured. She has since returned to Pittsburgh. Below is a link to a more detailed article published in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05363/629384.stm

Accidents and tragedy are part of life, but I find it especially sad that in this case, the tragedy hit a family involved in a goodwill mission. As 2006 begins, a moment of silence for the Hickling Family.

David