Hajja Salesjana May June 2017

9 Climbing the mountain proved to be harder and much tougher than I thought, we had prepared and trained hard for it, but no experience you would have heard or read about can prepare you enough for what is to come. This colossal mountain can show its power and strength by reducing a person to nothingness, leaving you alone with your thoughts. It takes its toll on you from a physical aspect; every day you are challenged with long hours of continuous trekking. It takes its toll on you from a medical perspective too, you can get sick with the weather, food and altitude. It challenges you to face nature without any extra necessities and commodities of toilets, showers and beds for a whole week. It challenges you as a team, it can either make a team or break it, thankfully it made us an even better team. And finally it proves to be the biggest mental challenge ever, you have to find every ounce of mental strength to continue channeling your energy to keep on walking, telling yourself not to give up, reminding yourself that what you are doing is a small sacrifice for a better future of the children in Sorsa, and finding all the strength that you never knew you had, to persevere to the top. The next day we had a much needed rest day and prepared our stuff to go on a short well-deserved holiday: a safari and a couple of days in Zanzibar. After these very essential few days, where we had time to re-fuel our energy, we headed to Ethiopia. This was the final chapter of our year long commitment, and one of the most important. We flew from Zanzibar to Addis Ababa via Nairobi where we were greeted by Fr. George Grima, the founder of the Missionary Movement Jesus in Thy Neighbour. Our arrival in Ethiopia did not mean the ending of our journey, we had to endure more than 10 hours of driving through very rough roads to reach Arramo, the village where we were to be hosted by the nuns. We finally arrived at the nun’s home, where we were welcomed heartily. The next day we woke up early to prepare food for the children that we had to meet during the day and drove for another hour to reach the school we had funded in Sorsa. On our way I observed that we were surrounded by extreme poverty, it was a poverty which I had never experienced before. People lived in very small single room houses built by sticks held together with a piece of rope. Later, when they could afford it, they would add a mixture of manure, dirt and water, over the sticks, to make closed walls. Quest for the Roof of Africa ( 6 ) by Claire Falzon We are pleased to bring to you the adventure of a lifetime Claire Falzon, a Physiotherapist, a Salesian Animator and SPYSmember, has recently embarked upon for a very noble cause. We will share with you her inspiring story bit by bit. Enjoy the climb to the breathtaking summit.