THE BITTER AND THE SWEET

I have put off writing this for a long time. I think about writing it constantly but despite my hands’ desire to write it, my brain refuses to let them take to the keyboard. However, today is the day. My hands are taking control and my brain is nothing but a passenger in the car. Hope you’ll join us for the ride! You know I never fail to bring adventure, right? :)

So, this is a 2-part entry.  Shocking, right? After the EPIC WATERMELON SAGA , I know you expect nothing less than a 8 chapter novel!  However, this time is different.  It’s 2-part because the stories are so opposite I don’t want them to share a screen. I don’t want them to be anywhere near each other for fear of one contaminating the other. Part 1 is The Sweet because good news needs to be shared first.  Part 2 is The Bitter.

PART 1 – THE SWEET

I would have and should have announced this MONTHS ago but once you read part 2 (The Bitter) you will be far more forgiving of the delay… I hope.  However, without further delay.. let me tell you the sweet sweet news…

HERO HOME’S COMMUNITY CENTRE IS BUILT!!!!

WE DID IT!! 

ALL OF US!!!! TABITHA, VICTOR,  YOU, ME, AND THE INCREDIBLE WORKERS IN TANZANIA!

CLICK HERE to see MORE PICTURES!

We did it! We made this happen and I’m SOOOO proud of everyone!!!! It has been an incredible journey (I cringe using this word as it’s been overused by every reality show on TV but it does seem appropriate for the adventures that have happened to make this a reality!) There have been oh soooo many ups and downs… so many obstacles overcome… socks pulled up… tears dried…  screams yelled… hugs given... laughs spilled… and love shared but through it all, WE.KEPT.GOING.  We all kept going.  You kept believing in us and we kept giving it our very best!  I personally cannot ever thank any one of you enough for your support, in the form of encouragement, hugs, a sympathetic ear, financial donations, equipment donations and all you did to help us spread the word! Without everyone’s commitment, we never would have accomplished this incredible feat! So, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!!!

I now I need to take a minute to toot Tabitha and Victor's horn! I wish everyone could meet them!! They are an incredible duo who I have had the privilege to work with! They are the definition of a TROOPER!! They never gave up or gave in and in the end, Tabitha and Victor made this happen!! Throughout construction, they were on site every day, working alongside the contractors.  Through one of the rainiest rainy seasons, they were there! In the burning hot sun, they were there…   And as of October, ground that had just been officially broken in April, held a beautiful COMMUNITY CENTRE complete with an attached living quaters!  It may not sound like much but the amount of love, sweat and tears that have gone into making it happen makes it priceless! Check out more picture HERE!! It's beautiful! 

Our next step is to start running a nursery school in the building. It will be in the mornings and the plan is to keep our amazing after school sports program running in the neighbouring town until we are ready to move it on-site. Tabitha is just in the process of getting the benches and tables made and hopefully by February we can officially open our doors to the first class of nursery school students at Hero Home!! From there, the possibilities are endless! Our future plans definitely include workshops and seminars for community members, tutoring for students, and anything that can have a positive impact for the community!

That’s the amazing Tanzania news! Now on to Rwanda where the news keeps getting better and better with every visit!

In 2008, we broke ground on two little classrooms so we could help Marceline move her 80 students from her front porch to a beautifully painted, fully equipped classroom.  In 2013, we took it 10 steps further and added a library, books, toys, school supplies, a rain water catchment system, toilets, 7 amazing play structures, and a fence. In 2015, we were able to take it another huge leap further!  Thanks to Marceline’s incredible dedication, we now provide the students with warm, delicious and incredibly nutritious porridge everyone morning! Never did I imagine that we would be able to get to the point of offering a daily breakfast program for the kids but Marceline expected nothing less! The vast majority of the students walk to for 8am  with nothing for breakfast.  The play, learn, sing, and dance in the heat until 11:30, at which time they walk back home.  Some of them may not have their first meal until 1:00pm or 2:00pm.  Marceline saw everyday how this impacted the little kids (aged 3-6) and was committed to doing something about it.  She got parents on board and they contributed a small amount towards buying the porridge supplies – corn flour, sorghum flour, and sugar.  GO! provided some initial funds to buy the cookiing supplies and subsidize the extra costs to make porridge happen.  We decided to do a trial run for the last three months of the school year to see how it could work.  Thanks to Marceline’s dedication, it was AMAZING! She got up at 7am every morning to prepare the porridge and then set it to cool.  The kids then went in shifts around 10am to have a HUGE cup of nutritious porridge! (Sorghum flour is extremely high in protein, iron, fibre and vit B so every cup has huge benefits for the little kids). The parents were thrilled and Marceline could physically see an increase in energy in the students.

The new school year started in January and thanks to extremely generous donations and through the sales of the hand-drawn thank you cards, we have raised enough to cover the 5$/day that it costs to provide porridge for all 87 students! (Yup, you read it right! It costs 5$/day to buy the flour, sugar, water, and cooking fuel to prepare enough porridge for 87 kids!!)  The parents are still contributing towards the costs and we have committed to subsidizing the remaining expenses until we can come up with a way to find the money locally.  This may go slightly against our mission of creating completely self-sufficient projects, but when it comes to providing a healthy breakfast to a 4 year old for 6 cents/day, it's ok to make an exception.

So there you have!! I bet you haven’t read that much good news in one-sitting in a long time!!! When you look at all the saddest and destruction in the world these days, I think it’s always important to remember, there is so many people here and overseas that are doing incredible things for others and are succeeding in making their little corner of the universe a better place. TO ALL OF YOU AND ALL OF THEM, THANK YOU!!!!

Now, whether you read Part 2 (The Bitter) http://amazingamandaintanzania.blogspot.com/2016/02/part-2-bitter.htmlor not, is entirely up to you.  However, regardless of what you read, I do want you all to remember that there are AMAZING people out there doing AMAZING things everyday to make the world a better place! And theirs accomplishments need to be shared and celebrated!!!

PART 2 - THE BITTER

PART 2 – THE BITTER 

I’ve struggled with this next post for the last few months.  I’ve debated and continue to debate whether or not to write it.  But I’ve decided until I finally just get it out, it will continue to sit in my head and take up much needed space!

For anyone that is new to this blog, SORRY! You’re kinda jumping in at the end when there has been a whole 10 years of back story! I don't tend to hold back in the blog and this time is no exception.  So, if you would rather not keep reading, that's cool.  I’ve decided to write this for everyone who has been along for the crazy RIDE!  For those of you who started following along back in the days of me getting kicked in the head by a bush buck, getting sick up a mountain and then getting carried and dropped down a mountain, the meningitis mishap in Zanzibar, the mice fiasco in Rwanda, Walter the 10 inch worm, the massive theft in Mwanza which resulted in the loss of 7 years of documents, or any of the adventures we’ve had on this ten year, never-ending voyage! I’ve decided to take you along for one last ride.  You’ve come this far with me… I can’t leave you out now.. although maybe I should and maybe you would rather i did.  Just remember, the upside of reading these stories is that you don’t have to live them! :)   

So, I’ve often described Tanzania as that abusive boyfriend that keeps kicking the crap out of me and I keep willingly going back for more.  Well this year, prophecies were fulfilled…. Although, the dude who kicked the crap out of me certainly was not a boyfriend.  He was and will continue to be, a stranger.  The next part is hard to write and hard to read, so if you don’t want to keep reading… now is the time to stop.

So, on July 29^th, at 6:00am while out for a morning run in Kisesa, Tanzania (the town I’ve lived in on and off since 2012), I was attacked by a man with a knife.  I will spare you many of the details but basically, I was out running in the town.  A man in a track suit and runners came up behind me.  We greeted each other and he started jogging beside me.  After a minute or so, he stopped and grabbed me by the neck and pulled out a knife.  Initially he asked for money but when I couldn’t provide any (it was 6am and I didn’t have any on me)… he pulled me off the road and proceeded to beat, cut, and rape me.....  The event ended when 2 girls came out of their house to begin morning chores, heard the commotion and started screaming “THIEF”.  By this time, the damage was done and the attacker let me go and ran off.

The minutes, hours, days, and weeks that followed were a bit of a blur.  I once again had the pleasure of navigating the terrible Tanzanian medical system (highlights or rather low lights include – needles breaking, freezing not taking, visiting 4 clinics until finally finding a place that had tetanus shots in stock, having a doctor complete the police report and then asking for a bribe, and being given ARV meds that are no longer used due to their harsh side-effects).  After that, I got to deal with the horrendous Tanzanian police who are some of the most corrupt people in the world (low lights on those interactions include being told I’m fat, I should eat less and exercise more – all this only a few short hours after the attack). I then got to deal with my Canadian Insurance company (EXTREME low lights include being told rape was not covered by insurance, they may or may not cover a flight to Nairobi to get proper treatment for my injuries, and they needed to verify with higher ups whether they could cover the removal and follow up treatment of the stitches I got for the massive cuts to my fingers – yeah, apparently Canada is no better!!). After dealing with ALL of that on the day of the attack, I then made my way to Nairobi to stay with my friend (the amazing Carla Unger and family) and get the treatment I needed.

The adventures continued for 2 months after the initial event, it included surgery to get the tendons and nerves repaired in my index and middle finger on my left hand (the 2 days in the hospital after surgery were an adventure in itself - the nurses were happy to see Carla and I finally leave), follow up surgery on the middle finger when it wouldn’t heal which involved removing skin, tissue and blood vessels from the ring finger and sewing it on to the middle finger and then sewing the fingers together for 2 weeks (It took “crossing my fingers” to a whole new level)!  That was followed by a third surgery to separate the fingers which of course came with its own adventures on the operating table!  However, thanks to my incredible hosts (The amazing Unger family) and support from family and friends, I survived!  And although not everything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.. it does make you smarter!  My fingers may never be the same and my hopes of being on the Canadian Olympic Volleyball team are officially over.... but on the upside, I have learned a lot in the process.  

So, there it is.  This is perhaps the shortest blog entry I've ever written.  I guess I should clarify the title. The more I think about the, the more I realize Bitter is the wrong title for this post. I did it more for the play on words but it is inaccurate.  I am NOT BITTER.  In fact, I am far from bitter.  I'm incredibly grateful to be alive and almost completely unscathed.  (Two little fingers on the left hand is so minor in the grand scheme of things).  I know too many people in Tanzania who have had far worse incidents with worse results.  I have a friend who lost her right arm in a bus accident. Another who broke both legs after being hit by a car, a dear friend who lost his sister-in-law and her baby in child birth, and most recently and tragically, one of the girls from the sports program – and Tabitha’s best little track star, lost her life at age 7 in a house fire.  For those reasons, and many more, I am so grateful for my outcome.  

Wilemina (Wile) - our track star who sadly is no longer with us.

So, that's the last adventure for now.  I'm sure there will be more in the future but right now my focus is trying to get my fingers healed.  Thank you for reading.  Thank you to everyone for all your support over the last few months and the last few years, through the ups and downs, twists and turns, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I could not do what I do without everyone’s support and encouragement.  

Asante sana. Thank you so much.