26 APRIL 12
I
don’t know much about luck.. have to say, I’ve never really been a
“lucky” person… some might go so far as to say I have bad luck.. I don’t
know, but when you go out at midnight to have a peaceful number 2 while
squatting over the hole in the cement floor of your outhouse and a
scorpion decides to run right in front of you... I don’t think that’s a
good luck sign… although, I did manage to kill it with a bucket so maybe
I’m not as unlucky as I think... either way.. I haven't been having
much luck
lately...
So, it’s been another long haul since the last update. There are definitely updates to share but not quite as warm and fuzzy as the ones that I got to share when we were digging the well (if those were considered warm and fuzzy…). Things have been rough. I’m not trying to exaggerate or be a downer… but like I said before, you guys are along for the whole ride, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health (unless you want me to stop sending you emails.. in which case just let me know and I’ll be sure to take you off the list! No worries!! :).
So, we
finished the well on March 20th. Tabitha had gone to Sirari (a town
near the Kenyan border) a couple of days before we finished the well to
complete some of her unfinished business. However, while she was there,
she blacked out and was taken to the hospital. I’m not exactly sure
what happened. The doctor discovered the left side of her heart is
enlarged (possibly due to all her years as a marathon runner) and it’s
causing severe high blood pressure.. like 180/140 high blood pressure…
She spent 5 days in the hospital and another 5 in bed out in Sirari. It
was a scary time, especially since I didn’t get all the details until
she came
back. It’s been a month since the incident and although I would love
to report that she is back to full super-trooper strength, that’s
unfortunately not the case. She had a few really bad weeks when she
first got back.. and spent a lot of time in bed…but things are getting a
little better now. She has some good days and some bad days. She’s
still a trooper and fighting through it. Hopefully she’ll feel better
soon. For those that pray, we’re happy to have you pray for her. For
those that don’t, cyber hugs, and warm thoughts are most welcome!!!
As for Hero Home- well, that too is less than warm and fuzzy right now. We’ve hit a bit of a wall… but when you can’t climb over it.. and you can’t find a window to sneak in.. then you take out a sledge hammer and start making your own door! And I think that’s what we’re going to do… not literally.. no sledge hammers will be used.. but you get the idea. Apparently the Mayor of Bujashi (Bujashi is where our land is and I think he's considered like the Mayor though I don't really know) wants something. We’re not sure what he wants. We unfortunately haven’t honed our mind reading skills. But apparently until he gets what he wants, he’s decided to make things challenging for us (because building a home for 50 street kids and orphans in the middle of nowhere is not enough of a challenge on its own).
So, at the start of April, after finishing the
well, we asked the mayor to have a town meeting so we could ask the
locals to come out for one day to help us clear land. We want the local
people to help out since the centre is for the good of the whole
community. Our sports fields will be for all the children, not just the
kids that live at Hero Home, and we will also run programs for parents
and youth in the
community… So, we believe that if the locals put some of their sweat
in to the project at the start, they’ll have more respect and
appreciation for it in the end. Last year, they all attended a meeting
with Tabitha to learn about Hero Home and they all accepted it… so there
really shouldn’t have been any problem to have them help out one day…
and probably they wouldn’t have had a problem but the mayor didn’t call
the meeting. The day of the meeting, we went to the village to meet
with him and he explained that the district government (one step up from
the village government) has asked us to report to them and show them
our registration papers.. “if we even have them...” Well, of course we
have them. Tabitha registered with the national government two years
ago. And the district government has already seen all the documents and
the mayor has seen the documents… but I guess they forgot. So,
OK.. that’s fine. We’ll go back and show them again.
So,
Tabitha went to the district government to deliver our registration
documents (we both decided my skin wouldn’t help this process so I
stayed back and waited). After being tossed around from minister of
something to minister of something else (with a lot of verbal abuse in
the process), she finally ended up at the minister of youth, sport, and
culture. Makes sense since our goal is to use sports to help youth to
live well within in the community. The minister was a mama that Tabitha
knew from her running days. They worked things out and made an
appointment for the minister to come see the land on May 5th. She gave
us the green light to go ahead and work on Hero Home until then.
However, I guess the mayor didn’t like that and is still trying to be
the best darn wall he can be. We tried multiple times to call him
but he’s decided not to answer our phone calls.. unless we call him
from a different phone number in which case he answers but they usually
finds a way to hang up once he realizes it’s us. At least we get a
little chuckle out of it. :) Tabitha did finally run in to him a couple
of days ago. We were coming back from the land and he was in Kisesa
(our town) and to his misfortune, his friend saw Tabitha and called to
her. I guess the friend wasn’t in on the secret that he isn’t talking
to us. Tabitha chatted with both of them. The mayor said he had been
to the district office and that we need to stop working until the
minister comes out to check the land. Tabitha explained that the
minister has approved the project and there is no reason to hold up
work. The visit is just to see the land, but the project itself has
already been approved. I don’t think the Mayor was happy.
So, that was Tuesday. I forgot to mention, on Saturday, we met with our general contractor and two of the awesome well diggers. We’ve officially hired them on as full time workers! So, the GO! Team just got a little bigger. They are happy for the full time work and we’re happy to have them! They started clearing the land on Monday. They continued on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, there was a funeral in the village so they couldn’t work. Today is Friday. They went to work. However, our friend the mayor went out to the land to tell them they couldn’t work until the district office comes out on May 5th. Harrrouumpphhhfffff!!!!!!!! The Mayor has yet to call us or tell us directly that we can’t work, but I think we get the point. Where’s that sledge hammer ???? :)
So, needless to say,
things have been a little slow.. but we haven’t given up… I mean,
some days we want to.. and there is a lot of lying on the cement floor
contemplating our future… but we’re still going on!!! You see, last
year, Tabitha met with over 200 townspeople and they accepted the
project and the local government not only accepted the project but
agreed to give us 30 acres of land, the national government as
registered us as a NGO and in February of this year, we had another
meeting with 30 local leaders and they accepted the project again and
measured out the land and now the district government has given us the
go ahead to work.. so really… there is no reason not to move forward.
One apple cannot ruin the bunch, one man cannot stop a thousand people
who believe… so.. we will make that door!!! We will get through this
wall!!! it’s maybe just taking more time than we’d like.
Since writing this email, we've talked to the district minister. She was surprised to hear that the work wasn't going on. She told us she'll come out on May 2nd to see the land and get us a signed document allowing our work to proceed. She said she's never even talked to the Mayor. go figure!
So
again, those who pray, by all means, keep us in your prayers! Let's hope
things go smoothly, we make the door happen and we walk through to
greener pastures!! Those who don’t pray… all positive vibes are accepted
with open arms!
But enough of that. On the warm fuzzy side, we had our first real soccer game with some of our street kids!!! It was awesome!!! We brought some of the street kids we play soccer with in Mwanza to Kisesa to play against the local Kisesa team. If there was ever a David and Goliath match, this was it!!! This was the type of match movies are made of! Our kids were all under 12 and we told the kisesa coach to bring his under 12 kids. He showed up with a group of giants! :) The youngest might have been 12 but the oldest was at least 15 or 16. And they had shoes.. each and everyone one of them. And we didn’t. It was definitely mismatched.. but our kids were awesome! They put on their jerseys, tied up their shorts and took to the field! Although it was a gong show getting started, once the game got underway, it was awesome! The kids played their hearts out!! We had the local drumming troupe play at the start and at half time and there was a good group of kids out to support! The last 10 minutes of the game, a huge rain storm came! We played on for a bit and then gave up and everyone ran from the field to the shelter down the street! It was a great ending to the day!! We were soaked to the bone and happy to the core! :) the kids had a lot of fun, even if we lost 4-0 (it could have been 40-0 with the size difference.. but our kids played hard right til the end!). We sat with all the players after the game.. gave out some notebooks and candy.. congratulated all of them for an excellent first match and amazing sportsmanship and then called it a day. I had supper with the mwanza kids and then we headed back to town so that they could sleep… on the street… the taking them back to the street part was definitely hard. There were only 6 street kids that came to the match.. but it was still hard to know that they weren’t going home to parents or adults to care for them… and they are awesome kids!!! Super awesome who deserve a great home! We had a great ride back on bus. They had the whole bus laughing. No one would have ever guessed that they were a bunch of “no-good street kids” (as people refer to them..). they were normal kids who were happy after getting a chance to play soccer! It was definitely a good reminder as to why Hero Home needs to happen.. despite any wall that tries to be put in our way!!
Last thing, I’ll shamelessly plug our new and super awesome facebook page again! Check it out! LIKE us and tell your friends to LIKE us! We're very likeable!! :) There are tons of pictures and all our videos as well! and you can stay up to date on everything that's happening with GO!.
Also, just thought I’d share with everyone that St. Pauls High School had
a super successful Mission Week back in March during which they raised
2517$ in support of GO!. We’re super thankful to the staff, students
and families who supported the
cause!!!
And Westwood Collegiate
just
finished up their amazing Hero Month! They had tons of events including
selling hand prints, t-shirts, a bake sale, and a soccer tournament!!
It was hugely successful and helped us spread the word about GO! and
Hero Home!!!! So successful that Sharon Blady- the MLA for Kirkfield
Park actually talked about it at the Manitoba Legislative Assembly! Check out the link to read what she has to say about Westwood and GO!. YEAH!!!
I
think there are some more fundraisers coming up in the next few months
as well, so stayed tuned to our website and facebook page!!
Thanks again for all the support! :) I hope everyone is doing well! As always, I love to hear what people are up to!
Tupo pamoja (“we are together” in
Swahili)
Amanda
