There have apparently been a large number of funerals lately amongst the gogos’ friends and relatives, which typically occur on Saturdays. Many of the gogos are frequently involved in helping with funeral preparations on Fridays, and therefore not much happening at the Centre yesterday. So Joy Burton invited me to her home for a lovely lunch to bring me up to speed on all the goings-on with Sitabogogo. Bonus – I met Vicky and Myriam in person for the first time and the four of us spent a chin-wagging two and a half hours enjoying Joy’s scrumptious salad, breads, spreads and fruits.

Now, a word of explanation about these three ladies. For those who were not at the Grannies à Gogo Annual Open Meeting in September, there have been some significant changes within the administration of Sitabogogo. As mentioned in my previous blog, our highly-regarded volunteer administrator, Rev. Ginny Cormack, moved away in July. We were sad to see her go and, while this could have been worrisome news, the transition was remarkably smooth. There is a new Board of Directors which now spreads the workload more evenly amongst additional people.

Joy Burton has been involved all along as Ginny’s right hand. She is now secretary of the new Board and wife to Rev. Lawrence Burton, Chair of the Board. Vicky and Myriam moved to Sabie from Belgium eight months ago. Vicky, a retired English teacher, and Myriam, a librarian, are totally dedicated to working with the gogos and spending volunteer time with them each day. Vicky has taken on Ginny’s former role as volunteer administrator. There is a wonderful back-story to these two ladies and I will be writing an article for the Vernon Morning Star about them. It will also be posted later on our Personal Connections page of this website. And no doubt bits and pieces of it will emerge in the upcoming blogs.

In between bites I learned that there is some discord and more challenges than I was anticipating. We discussed a number of strategies for dealing with these various issues. There’s no cause to itemize these at this point as it’s just the start for me. I don’t really have my finger on the pulse yet and need to understand everything better. On Monday I meet with the gogos and look forward to their songs and activities and giving lots of hugs!