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on Um Zayd wa Atheer (Uganda), 14/Jul/2009 16:54, 34 days ago
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Fleur's Journey, another special day.Fleur is a 38-year-old Ugandan nurse, studying for a PhD in America. She is beautiful strong, spiritual and intelligent. Twenty-one years ago she challenged her father over bad practices in her family. He disowned her and she walked away. She walked for over 40 kms to start a new life. Twenty-one years ago she had only the clothes she stood up in and no shoes. She wanted to become a nurse.On Saturday Fleur and 62 others, friends family and colleagues, some from across the world, re walked this journey from her family home to a Mission Hospital north of Kampala. Helen, a VSO friend, lives in Fleur's house and invited me to join her on the walk. I had only met Fleur twice before but those brief meetings were enough to tell me that this was special and something I should do. Helen and I managed about 30 kms. We did the beginning and the end as much of the middle section as our bodies would tolerate. The midday heat, the tarmac and the marram were punishing.Fleur's journey was a celebration of her life and all that she has achieved, so far, from darkness to light, from despair to hope. At 17 she was determined to become a nurse, to care for others as no other nurse had done before, to be an example for the whole of the nursing profession to follow, to stand up against child sacrifice and mutilation.Fleur herself and a few others close to these issues walked with determination, without faltering, to complete every step of her first journey. Even those with injuries and fatigue were equally determined to walk the last leg. Our reward was a tremendous welcome at the Mission Hospital with balloons, banners, dancing, singing, prayers and refreshments. Student nurses from Kampala embraced student nurses from the Mission as a testimony to the nursing profession and Fleur's example. Among the exhaustion there were tears and joy. Fleur delivers the word HOPE to us all not as a possibility but as a promise.