We did it!

We did it!
On the Roof of Africa

Who are we & why did we do this?

We are three couples living in Nova Scotia who were intrigued by the challenge of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. We have all been blessed to live in Canada with good health and rewarding careers. However, all of us know of a family member or friend that has been touched in some way by mental illness. We decided to dedicate our climb to rasing money for Laing House. We are proud to say that we achieved all of our goals. We returned home safely; we raised over $117,000 for Laing House, almost twice our original goal; and we all summitted on Sept 18. The trip was certainly a challenge but many of us say it was the trip of a lifetime in spite of the fact that all of us have travelled extensively. However, the last word belongs to the most famous African, Nelson Mandela, who said, "After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb".

About Laing House

Laing House is a support centre for youth living with mental illness. It is a youth-driven and community-based organization where young people between 16 and 30 years of age, who are living with a mental illness, can get the support they need to rebuild their lives. Since opening in 2001, Laing House has assisted over 300 youth from across the Maritimes. There are currently 100 members of Laing House. Programs, including employment, healthy living, education, and peer and family support, help youth recognize and develop their own strengths, talents and resources in a welcoming, respectful and collaborative environment. Laing House is the first of its kind in Canada.

The supportive environment of Laing House allows youth and staff to build meaningful relationships. They work together to create personal development, community education, and advocacy programs. These experiences and opportunities provide youth with support and resources to further educational and vocational paths. They develop the life skills needed to form relationships, secure safe housing, and experience hope for their futures. A variety of unique programs and services are employed to attain these goals. Laing House looks forward to a day where the stigma surrounding mental illness has dissipated and there is equal opportunity for all.

Thank you to all Laing House supporters!

The support that Laing House has received as a result of this climb has been fantastic. We wish to express our gratitude to all of you. Like all charities, Laing House feels the impact of the recession. The extra funds raised as a result of this climb will provide Laing House with the resources to continue to serve young people struggling with mental health issues. Thank you!

Sept 9

The day started well when Hans' bag was delivered to the hotel before breakfast.

Hans and Dani went to Arusha National Park for the day.  This park is often overlooked by visitors who drive past it on the way to the more famous parks:  Kilimanjaro & the Serengeti.  It was a great day.  Hans said that there were so many giraffe that he practically used up a whole memory card in his camera.  There was a lot of African wildlife; monkeys, baboons, hippos to name a few.  The altitude was just high enough that they needed long-sleeved shirts.  Also, there were no mosquitos and no tsetse flies due to the altitude.

Henry & Rena took off for Arusha, the largest city in the region to visit the Anglican Bishop of Kilimanjaro.  There are a lot of problems in Tanzania with disease, lack of education and the devastation of AIDS.  The churches do a lot of great work in Africa.  In this region the Lutheran church runs many schools and medical clinics, mainly thanks to the generousity of Germans and Scandinavians.  The Anglican Church has a more recent presence but is doing a lot of the same great development work.

We planned to visit the Bishop, see a school and a church and head home.  It turned into quite a full day.



We attracted an entourage of the two ministers, a doctor, the Bishop's wife, Martha, in addition to the Bishop himself. 


We visited "missions" in the poorest slums of Arusha and missions in rural areas.  These were real eye openers and the slums were straight out of a World Vision ad, with open sewers and orphans.  We really got to part of Africa that no regular tourist would ever visit.  There were many highlights of the day, but the two that stick out were the resourcefulness of the ministers and the Korean couple that ran a multi-denominational bible college.

The ministers move into these poor areas with few resources.  They need to build a church, attract parishioners, and build clinics and schools while at the same time dealing with AIDS, orphans corruption and lack of education.  Their ability to get things done in this environment requires persuasion, problem-solving and energy that few Westerners can appreciate.

The bible college is run by a Korean couple, the Parks.  They educate about 35 students mainly in their 20 & early 30's.  In addition to running the college, they operate a Kindergarten for 120 kids, a farm, raise their own livestock, mill their own grain and build their own furniture.  This couple runs the entire operations, through hard work, efficiency and incredible commitment.  To watch them was truly inspirational.



Above:  Kids playing

Above:  Milling corn at the Bible College


Above:  Rena with the Bishop's wife and Linus, the Doctor.

We met back at the Keys Hotel in Moshi.  We were very happy to see that Paula and David arrived in great shape.  However their luggage did not arrive at all.
Posted by The Kili Team

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)