The work they do at the hospital is quite literally
life-changing. They are saving girls from spending their lives in
isolation…from being seen as a disgrace…and from being stuck in an
incomprehensible life sentence.
If you don’t know what obstetric fistula is, here is a
very quick description taken from our now non-existent website:
Obstetric fistula is the result of internal damage caused
by a prolonged obstructed labour in childbirth, which can be five days or more.
The baby will die and then the mother is faced with a life of permanent
incontinence; continually leaking urine and sometimes bowel contents.
Like I said…incomprehensible.
We walked for 16 days (not non-stop) with our mum following in the car and providing sustenance
and general helpful mum-stuff. We were given every night’s accommodation free,
food vouchers, walking gear, petrol vouchers and on top of all of that, people
gave over $33000. The whole thing went better than we had ever dreamed and we
were both amazed and humbled by all that happened before, during and after this
event.
As a tribute to this upcoming 2 year anniversary, I have
put together a collation (which makes little-no sense whatsoever) of all 16
days worth of blogs…and with a total of 11886 words written all up, be glad
that this is just a 1676 word snippet.
P.S. There is some
fairly exciting news (for me) which is expressed at the bottom…but in order to
get to this news you HAVE to read everything else…THIS IS NOT
NECESSARILY TRUE, BUT IT’S JUST POLITE TO DO SO.
Day 1
Once at church, it felt quite celebrity like with cheers
and clapping whilst we blocked our faces from the flashing cameras and
outstretched arms of fans…
…The final song was ‘I Walk by Faith’ and then we headed
out the door…
…As we continued on, Dad was following close behind…he was
then lost…
…There were some awesome cows that met us on the way.
Day 2
I needed to go to the toilet but decided to hold on…but
then I couldn’t any longer…so we crossed the road and just did it in the grass.
Katie had the video camera out…
…We’ve done our hot and colds…
… after I screamed and she laughed…
…Katie and I
headed off (in the car) to a place called The Range where we played some
baseball…Katie was good (like really cricket good) and I was bad (like bad).
Day 3
The morning involved Katie getting some scissors and
cutting into my skin, trying to relieve some of the blister pain…
…We then came
across a sign that said it was going to be windy for the next 10km…so we
decided to take a photo next to it to pretend we were excited about this…somehow
Katie’s excited face turned into her looking high…
…when we did get to the bottom of that first hill we had
one of our favourite times of the day – Lesley cookie eating time. These are,
and I will quote myself on this, “the best cookies I have ever eaten”…
…It was then that a toilet stop was required…
… Katie: “oh – I don’t have the toilet paper”
Jo: “what?!”
Jo: “what?!”
Katie: “umm, it’s in the car”
Jo: “why?”
Katie: [giggling] “cause I took it out”
Jo: “cause it was heavy?!”
Katie: “Haha”…
…I then decided that it would be a good idea to start
singing ‘100 bottles of beer on the wall’. It seemed like a good idea until I
got to the 98th bottle… so in order to get down to 0 I went in large
increments, occasionally having 20 bottles of beer falling off the wall at once.
For a reason unknown to me, Katie tried to put some bottles back on the wall…it
didn’t work cause they were all broken.
Day 4
After hot and colds we went outside so that Katie could
do a bit of cricket training…I smashed tennis balls at her with a tennis
racket.
Day 5
Katie needed to take her Echinacea [which we say as
U-CAN-A-SHA] (a natural remedy for colds) but when mum made that suggestion
Katie thought she might instead have some euthanasia…
…we saw a very squashed possum…to which Katie noted, “wouldn’t
it be gross if we got possum splattered all over us”. The answer to that is
yes.
Day 6
Just a few hundred metres further on from this there was
a large park and then, suddenly, this giant came running towards us whistling
and yelling. At first we were confused, then slightly scared, and then when we
realised it was Ollie Marino…
… Katie said, “I’m not voting for him, he looks like he’s
about to die”…
… Katie is more a fan of preservatives.
Day 7
So we held on. Until the nearest bush…
…It was at the
exact moment that we arrived at the car Rachel and Helena managed to find their
way to us without having to take a single step. Very clever…
…we just hung out, chatted and laughed at Katie’s awfully
disgustingly dirty feet.
Day 8
7km into the walk 3 car loads pulled up next to us with a
crew of walkers to join in…
…Brothers Walk
for Attractiveness handed Sisters Walk for Beautiful a cheque for $1300…
…we all chilled out on State Highway 1 for a bite to eat…
…Rachel, Nelly and Alex follow us back to our
accommodation in the beautiful little town of Opua…
…While Katie and I endured hot and colds, they ate Lesley
cookies and drank juice out of wine glasses to revive themselves…
…”it’s snowballed”…
…“no – skied”…
…Oh boy.
Day 9
Today is a joyful day…
…we only had
9½km to do…
…Katie decided to start singing…so we sang loudly and
waved our arms about…
…we made a wee stop (literally)…
…when I asked if I could
throw the mouldy bread to the birds, mum questioned why I would want to throw
away Maori bread.
Day 10
‘Happy Birthday’ to mum…
…‘May your day be filled with rainbows, fluffy kittens
too, pretty flowers and chocolates, enough to distract someone as old as you’…
…we made a quick stop on a short bridge where Susie the
eel lives.
Day 11
I got a call from Alison Pugh from Breakfast…
…we either had to walk over this terrain for 13km or be
crushed by a slip…
…There was also the option of being hit by a large truck
on a small bend…
…“why is there one truck going north and one going south,
but they are both carrying logs?”. That is a good question…
…with the Mangamuka Summit
presenting itself in all it’s glory…
…’What goes up must come down’…
…“this is the road that never ends, it goes on and on my
friends, some people started walking it not knowing when it ends, and they’ll
continue walking it forever just because…”.
Day 12
We made a stop...for one main reason which you are
probably aware of…but also to strip off four of the five layers…
…Of course, once we got started walking again it poured
down and we were back to square one…
…the little lamby baa’d and everything…
….I recommend being in hot water while the air around you
is cold. It’s pretty much one of the best things out.
Day 13
The weather report for September 17th was not
pretty…a storm was approaching and it was going to be big…
…for the second time on this trip, I stripped on State
Highway 1…
…Would you rather be bald or have no eye brows? Jo – no eye brows. Katie – bald…
…Then we found some fossils…
…Something else that is quite concerning is Katie’s
brain…
…“let’s console ourselves with a Lesley cookie”…
…Katie started losing her mind and she started talking as
if she was a cow.
Day 14
We were very proud of ourselves until we looked at the
photo and realised the sun had changed and that it now just looks like we are
quite deeply in love with each other…
…Katie and I are in need of toilet stops throughout the
day…
…The long bushy grass is the best option for visibility
and comfort…
…mum joking about how painful it would be if we
accidentally went toilet on the side of the road in gorse…
…At first I found it very amusing that we should have
120km/hr (75miles/hr) winds blowing at us…
…I soon did find that this was not as funny as first
thought.
Day 15
We stopped…we stared…we
screamed. I know it sounds insignificant and, quite frankly, stupid…but we saw
a horse that we did not expect to be there…
…It was very amusing. And
sad. But still amusing…
…Wana hear a joke?
KATIE: “Look! There’s an
emu!...no wait…MOA!”
Dictionary.com definition of Moa: ‘…extinct since
about the end of the 18th century’…
…It felt very ‘The Amazing Race’ like with Katie being
all hard core and me being the slow one in which people yell at from their TV
screens for letting the team down…
… Now picture with me, if you will, 60 metres of vertical
sand below and a body board to aid you in your descent. In an ideal world, such
as the one Katie lives in, you zoom down the hill at an extreme speed, make a
thrilling entry onto the flat sand and then come to a brilliantly clean stop. In
my world, the kind of world that has ones knee break while falling over
relatively boringly while skiing, the path to the bottom is not so easy. I
start a few seconds after Katie, I hear her excited scream, I let go of all
inhibitions and I slide. I go very very fast and I smile and think I’m awesome.
Then, suddenly, my view changes and I am now no longer in contact with my board
or the sand…I am flying. The only thing which can follow is the landing...
…Thankfully, it was my head that suffered
the most so I’m all good to walk tomorrow…
…suddenly, the door to our room swung open and eight
beautiful people stormed in…
…if it had been just a few minutes either
side of their raid any one of us would have been…nakies…
…then we parted ways as it was 9:15pm and that’s like
crazy party late.
Day 16
The final day!...
…Rachel commented that she had already put her blisters
on, and Ineke mentioned how she liked Robyn Palmer’s legs…
…we had two groups…the peloton…and Robyn…
...Ineke looked really really happy every time she drove
past us…slowly…mocking us…
… And then we made it to Cape Reinga!...
…we were indeed finished and that is very much
WAHOOO!!!...
…I then asked a couple of tourists if they wouldn’t mind
taking a photo for us. They then made the mistake of asking, “Where have you
walked from?”…
…The final Lesley cookie (of approximately 70) was broken
and shared amongst friends…
…I’m thinking of walking to your house and calling it,
‘Jo Walks for Satisfying’…
…While I was eating my ice cream I decided it would be
the perfect and most hygienic time to take off my blister pads…
…Katie’s goal: jab, stab and cut Jo’s blister until it
pops and goo splurts out…
…She did this successfully and things such as, “it’s so
juicy up there, you just see the water bubbles moving around” and “ew, Jo
juice” were said…
The walk is now done. It feels a bit surreal…but it’s
exciting to have made it and still be able to move. Thanks so much for your
support…it’s been absolutely marvelous.
Bye
So there you go. 16
days of walking blogs all rolled into one. How enlightened you must feel.
Ok…so the exciting
news I mentioned earlier…
On Thursday
September 20, 2012 (which, by exceptionally brilliant chance, is exactly two
years after the finish of the walk) I am taking the day off work…
On this day I plan
on sleeping in slightly…
Maybe watching a
bit of Paul Henry while eating breakfast…
I may then start
getting showered and dressed…
Then I’ll walk to
the train and head into town…
Once there I will
make my way to Federation Square for a spot of lunch…
AND…
I…
WILL…
BE…
HEARING, SEEING AND
HOPEFULLY MEETING DR CATHERINE
HAMLIN HERSELF!
Yes indeedy…this amazing 86 year old lady who is still
working almost every day of the week, is heading over to these here fine
Australian shores and will be speaking at a few events. I’m all booked in. I’m
all excited. And I’m all a bit nervous about the prospect of meeting this
remarkable woman.
Let’s hi five.
And hug.
