On Saturday the 2nd May this year, Richard and I were escaping the extreme African heat, surfing the intermittent internet, while wondering where in the world we would be when Richard’s contract finished in August. Up until this point I had lived for 13 years in Mozambique coming to grips with marriage, motherhood and malaria. Richard had managed three different development projects working with subsistence farmers. It was time for a change. On this Saturday in question, while surfing the web, we came across an advert to rent Le Coty, a 17th Century Farmhouse, with about 25 acres of land, starting September 2009. The land came with numerous livestock, a poly tunnel, a well stocked vegetable garden, and an extensive raspberry patch. Plus a wooden summer house to move into if we chose to use the 17th Century farmhouse as a gite (holiday accommodation)during the summer. “I want it, I want it, I want it” consumed my entire being. I could not recall feeling so strongly about wanting something/someone since first going back to Richard’s house, with a group of fellow post-graduate students, after a blustery, freezing, walk along the North Norfolk coast 15 years before. So we sent off an e-mail, after hours of deliberating over each word, to express our interest in renting Le Coty for the year.
Then we noticed with dismay that the advert had been placed in February and so we convinced ourselves that Le Coty would no longer be available. It was disappointing and I was briefly gutted but then fell back on my faith that my life is in bigger hands.
At 7.15am on Monday morning, 4th May 2009, Richard phoned from the office to say he had an e-mail from Le Coty saying that sixty people had responded to their advert but they considered us the ideal candidates. Yahoo!!!!!!!!!
I have started a new blog to record this adventure called Out of Africa.. I will continue to play with poetry and prose at Neverending Story.
