After the Journey Part III: A different kind of a walk

Dear friends,

I had in this walk a lot of what i did not have 20 years ago, and while I grew up walking practically everywhere, walking more than 40 kilometers in a day was not part of that routine. It is a long distance to walk and certainly harder if one is doing it alone. I am therefore grateful and honored for every person who was in the journey with me on July 11th...20 years later. I know that on that day and many to follow we collectively became, and will continue to be a face, legs, and feet that represents so many.

I have also received such unbelievable feedback since we walked. I am inspired and encouraged that the purpose for walking was and is far greater than I could possibly have thought or imagined. We managed to raise close to 18,000 USD (just 7,000 USD short of our initial goal), and a few days ago handed over a check for 15,000 USD to support the work of Hope Ward. A multitude of thanks to so many who have given generously to Rose's Journey, who have heard the stories of every Hope patient present and past, and who continue to tell these stories to others. As I sit down to write thank you cards, I find that I do not have the right words for them. More than I can express in words, I thank you.

I said prior to the walk that the journey 20 years ago, lead me to a place of hope...It was the beginning of my restoration as a girl, and it was a second chance at having a family and hope for the future... This is my hope too for many of the patients I meet and interact with on Hope ward--Hope 20--Kevin Akiror, Hope 18--ML, Hope 19--OD, Hope 3--NV and the list continues. It is my hope for our friend George, and Susan (who I found out is 17 years old and not 19...it turns out she is the exact age I was when I walked 20 years ago). Thank you for making HOPE possible.

My friend Kristen Petitt said of the walk, "Fulfilling". She noted that at some point she would look where she had just walked and admired how beautiful the road was. Once you walked through it, you remembered it. She, like me, did not want to forget.

20 years later, I have not forgotten. As I said, you do not forget a walk like this, and on the 11th, as I walked with many others, I knew that they would not forget either. I am grateful that many allowed themselves to feel what I was feeling, and still walked anyway. In the footsteps, we saw and recognized each other in the journey—in parts of our stories that were similar and marveled at the ones in which our stories were dissimilar…Two friends…one growing up in Oklahoma, the other in Bamunanika, a life so dissimilar! Each making a choice 20 years earlier and entering a path that would ultimately lead each to the other…both journeying together from Bamunanika to Kiwoko…on July 11th…we ended up remembering together.

It was good to remember and rediscover the feelings of 20 years ago, to note ways in which I was not seen and others in which I was seen, even when I did not recognise it. To look beyond the road and to comprehend its endlessness; to stop and see others in it and beyond it--the way I did not 20 years ago.

It was good to remember the bits that I often don't want to remember...that I too, was so caught up in my own helplessness and sense of despair to notice others who might have been walking with me 20 years ago. So it was important, in this walk, to not only see those who formed some of the reasons we were walking, but also the ones in the journey with me, and those beyond it, the ones on the side of the road and the ones who had gone before us, or ones after. At times the walk was funny--we laughed helplessly at the way we each were walking—like babies just learning to plant our feet—everywhere was really sore, but we knew without question we were going to finish. My brother Tom said "All I can say is that I am walking from the heart" It was no longer about the feet!

There were so many stories to tell, so many to capture, so many which to the eye seemed forgettable, and to the heart unforgettable! Our experiences may have been different and unique but on that day we shared a oneness that was impossible to ignore. We may have come from different parts of the world or countries, but there was no mistake in our meeting—everyone who walked was supposed to be there...more later