Trying to restart
Well well - isn’t it amazing, how fast 17 months can pass without me updating even the slightest detail in this blog? Yeah, Amazing - and somehow even disappointing 
Course I have loads of awesome excuses in store to apologize for this lengthy delay, but I won’t even start listing them all, considering that someone, none of them would really take me out of dept. But now, I would actually like to start updating my blog more frequently again, frequently meaning more than once a year at least!
Want to know what you missed during the postless time?
Well - actually not that much. IN April 2006, after returning from California, Leo and I - for the very first time in our lives, moved into our very own flat, placed in the beautiful Fischermätteli District in Bern. Moving there, getting settled and living independently was challenging but always great fun. Rhiannon and many other people helped us getting installed - it was awesome!
During summer, we held the mentioned seminars with Dan Kish from World Access for the Blind in Switzerland. Dan Kish stayed in our country for about a month. The great advantage for me was that he did teach me some useful cooking tricks - to the great disappointment of my Microwave Device, which I used less frequently as a result.
At the end of summer, Rhiannon returned to the United States, while I continued putting furniture into my flat - at that time, I had just gotten my very own office desk…
In November, I had this phone call with Jack Oppenhuizen, whom I had met during my last trip to California. He told me about a new project, which was about to start at The University of the Nations in Kona, Hawaii. Back then, I understood that the peoject’s goal would be to make it possible for people with disabilities to get involved into mission work (trainings and outreaches) and to make the University of the Nations accessible to people with disabilities. He asked me if I could check the possibility of coming to Kona in Janauary 2007 already to help building this new project for two years.
As fast as possible, I started to prepare everything for an as soon as possible departure. I talked things over with my employers from The Acess for all Fundation and Illusorialand Museeums’s crew, got myself an appointment to apply for a visa at the United States’ Embassy in Bern and started checking prices for flight tickets.
Unfortunately, more and more delays followed. It started with the university requesting that I, before becoming a staff member, would officially apply for the position. Since their staff application was only available as a totally inaccessible PDF Document, I wasn’t able to just fill it out normally; and it took the staff office crew in Kona a rather long while until I was allowed to apply by phone. Jack had meanwhile decided to move the starting date of our project to summer, to the end of the official school year. And then, there were some rtiring moments while I tried to figure out how to import Leo, my service animal, into the state of Hawaii, without having him go through quarantine first.
In april 2007, while I was still in Switzerland, Leo almost caused an accident, when he ran out of a forest onto a busy street, with no apparent reason. This event was certainly impacting, but thank Goodness not damaging to his guiding abilities, as we discovered in some extra training sessions.
July 2007 came. And finally, my application was processed and officially confirmed by the university. It took unfortunately another month until I finally got to apply for a visa at the United States Embassy. At the same time, I did find a young coupple who was willing to take over my flat, including its furniture, for two years - so I safed myself the pain of getting rid of everything I had bought before.
There were some more weird things happening before our departing flight. There was, for example, this person from the Swiss insurance for the disabled (or however they’re called in English). This person called me to let me know that I wasn’t allowed to export Special Aids for the disabled (such as my guide dog Leo). As a response, I wrote to the Insurance, explaining them and sending evidence that and when I was planning to return myself AND MY SPECIAL AIDS to Switzerland. So far, there hasn’t been any reply from them to my letter. But if someone of the insurance gets to reads this and wants to get Leo back to Switzerland, you at least know now where I can be found.
On September 17th finally, Leo and I departed Switzerland. We first made it to San Diego, where we spent two exciting days. Then, we continued to Los Angeles and, on September 20th, finally made it to Kailua Kona, Hawaii.
So as I said: It wasn’t too much that had happened since my last post, but what happened was very important, for it brought me to the place I am today!
Next time I’ll tell you more about what exactly I’m doing here…