Thula Thula Game Reserve, South Africa

Kim, Mary, Sam and Niko 2010

St. Julianna, Founder of the St. Camillus Center

In 2004, I went to South Africa to study the AIDs pandemic with a delegation of 16 women from the United States.  We spent 2 of our 16 days in South Africa on a game reserve.  Upon returning my then 6 year old, Sam, who is an animal enthusiast, made me promise that I would not go back to Africa without him.  I made that promise and set my intention to go back to South Africa with Sam and Niko one day and to spend time on at a game reserve.

In 2009, a young woman, Mary, came to Tacoma from Lesotho Africa to work in L’Arche for a year.  We were her host family.  Mary walked into our home and took up permanent residence in our hearts.  She returned to Lesotho in the summer of 2010.  By the summer of 2011, Mary had married her longtime boyfriend, Paul and she had given birth to their son.  They named their son after her brother… Sammy.  Our family’s dream to visit her and to meet Paul and our grandson, Sammy became more than a dream.  It became a clear intention.

I served on the board of The Lesotho Connection for 3 years from 2006-2009.  Lesotho is a small mountainous country surrounded by South Africa. One out of four children, in Lesotho, is orphaned by AIDs.  A Holy Names, Besotho, nun named Sr. Julianna has devoted her life to caring for the orphaned children in Mohales Hoek, Lesotho.  One of the goals of the Lesotho Connection has been to raise the funds needed to build a home for the orphaned and vulnerable children in Sr. Julianna’s Care.  This dream was fulfilled and the children moved into their new home, the St. Camillus Center, in December of 2014.   I wanted to see this center, which had been just a seedling of a dream when I was on the board and I wanted to spend time with Sr. Julianna and these beautiful children.

This dream of returning to Southern Africa, which started in 2004, continued to grow in me as our love for Mary developed, the St. Camillus Center was built and Sam grew into a young man.   The dream expanded to include Sam’s best friend, Will, in this adventure.  Sam and Will have been friends since birth.  Their friendship has been nurtured by their deep loves of animals, music and community.

In the autumn of 2014, I felt a voice inside me say “The time is now!  You must begin to prepare and plan to go to Southern Africa this upcoming summer.” It would be the summer before Sam’s junior year of high school and Will’s senior year.  If we waited any longer, the opportunity for all of us to go together could be lost.  And so we began to plan.