Beautiful Bricks and a new Era

 'Your work produced by Faith, your labour prompted by Love and your endurance inspired by Hope'
1 Thessalonians 1:3

I spent several hours yesterday wrapping bricks in red ribbon.  The good people at Patene's in Guelph were a little confounded when I told them I needed 30 bricks for an AIDS clinic in Lesotho.  They accepted my explanation and helped me load these five pound babies into the trunk of my small car.  The tow lift driver lifted five at a time.  I stuck with two.  We went off into a conversation about how many more people in the world today are struggling to survive.  He gave me a pearl of wisdom that I have tucked away for future use.  I love parking lot pearls of wisdom.

At this time of year I usually find myself in my kitchen cutting out gingerbread men.  Bricks are an entirely different entity.  I wrapped each with great care, three Bracelet of Hope bracelets folded in.  I thought of the people attending our event tonight who will see the unveiling of a new clinic.  I thought of the people in Lesotho who will find a place of hope and healing as they cross the threshold of that clinic.  I thought of a community here working towards such a miraculous change in the lives of people there and I thought of how that wonderfully woven interchange between two countries has the ability to  heal and transform us all.

My children complain constantly about my epic, pie in the sky thoughts.  

We need that healing.  Our children need the hope that comes from this kind of work.  They need to see the great power that explodes out of group of good people committed to something much bigger than them.  They need to experience a new confidence in our world and in the human beings that seem to be making such a mess of it.  Three tables will be filled with young people tonight.  I have strategically placed a group of high school, university and college students.  It is their creativity, wisdom and intelligence that we need to grow and encourage to make our world a healthier place for the future.

Hundreds of HIV positive men, women and children lined up for care at the clinic I worked at in 2006 and 2007 in Lesotho.  So many of them died.  I can still see all of them filling the hall way, standing room only, their heads raised to the ceiling belting out the beautiful African harmonies of the morning praise and worship time.  How can they sing when their lives are so desperate?  How can they smile when their children are dying?  How can they worship when their lives seem to have so little hope?

This nine year herculean effort has been for them.  These beautiful bricks represent my hope for them.  This beautiful new clinic will be filled with their strength, their courage, their faith and their love.  They will raise the roof with their songs and hymns.  I and many others will have the privilege of being part of that.  It is not pie in the sky.  It is real and possible and totally epic.

Ushering in a new era:

https://chimp.net/groups/braceletofhope3forfree

Click on, spread freely, join in.

Forty Thunderclaps:

10,000 Lives

Graphic Rendering of Bracelet of Hope's new clinic in Lesotho

 by Mark Janeck

Click here and join the thunder:

http://thndr.it/1rYDlFy 

In September, I hired a wonderful woman named Martha Van berkel.  She is an expert in social media and information technology.  She and her husband have started a company that helps small businesses and organizations improve their online presence.   We have met several times over the course of the last few months.  I try to learn while she patiently teaches me the fine art of tweeting, facebooking and blogging.  I think I have been a fair student.   Although I have yet to find a way to remember the seemingly endless numbers of passwords needed to keep all of these lines of communication in the air.  I have been pestering my contacts endlessly and a few have asked me to "unsubscribe them".  Most have been wonderfully tolerant of my efforts and for this, I am very grateful.

You see, there is a point to all of this.  I believe, that as a community of good people, we can build a clinic in Lesotho, Africa that will save thousands of lives.  I believe that once we accomplish this task, we will have developed the capacity to open many more.  Once thousands become hundreds of thousands, a country will be free of AIDS.  When I started this effort, I never dreamed of how hard this work would be or how much of a sacrifice it would require.  I have been stretched and pulled well beyond any comfortable limits.  I have carried far too much weight and responsibility; the task at hand sitting on my shoulders every minute of everyday.  The disappointments and perceived failures seem to have far outweighed the successes.  And yet, I stubbornly keep moving.

I held a child's hand while they died of a disease I could have treated had the necessary tools been at hand.  I watched as many of them died but it was while holding that hand that this difficult path opened up before me.  I had a choice:  To walk ahead toward an impossible goal or to remain who I was and  remain comfortable.

About two months ago, another very skilled and brilliant graphic artist named Mark Janek sat with me in a restaurant on a very rainy Friday and listened as I described my vision of this clinic.  As we parted, I realized that I had never allowed myself to entertain the actual image of the building.  I am not talented in that way but Mark is.

Last spring, at a Bracelet of Hope event, I was introduced to Edward Gal, a very talented web designer and videographer.  Ed returned from a trip to Lesotho in November with hours of video in hand.

Martha was my teacher.  She empowered me with the knowledge I needed to move into a new fundraising arena.  Mark put the vision to paper and Ed took the hours of video and created a passionate clip ( soon to be viewed ) that tells the whole story in under 3 minutes. Their energy, their talents, their  creativity and so many of their hours were poured into this dream.  So many people in the last 9 years have done the same.  Perhaps if I had realized just how many there were, I would have been far less anxious.

So, here it is, Mark's creative genius:

This is the clinic we will build.  It takes my breath away.  I know the hope that it will bring.  I know the lives that it will save.  In it, I will hold the hands of healthy children.

So, lets begin this new phase.  In the next 24 hours, I need 40 thunderclaps from 40 Facebook people.  Forty will take us to our goal of 100 and it will spread our social media net far and wide.  Thunder ( the internet version) will usher in our new effort on Friday;  an effort that will build this beautiful place.

Here's the link.  Click on it and join the thunder!

            http://thndr.it/1rYDlFy 

 Thank you
Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik MD CCFP
Founder of Bracelet of Hope

Batman and Wonder Woman

Teenagers found by police dogs.  Admitted to hospital, the teenagers, not the police dogs.  All Zajdliks intact and well.  Bat is back in it's usual place.

My brother-in-law says that Batman is blessed to have me and that if he is Batman, I am Wonder Woman.  This lead to a cascade of emails and shenanigans all day yesterday.  When I arrived home last night, Batman and Wonder Woman had made their way to my kitchen.  You are all pretty funny.

Pamela Cooper with Batman and Wonder Woman

Barry and Anne-Marie:  plain and ordinary

My Batman

Dr. B. Zajdlik Phd

This is an impromptu blog.  Some things just need to be written about.  I have been married for 29 years.  Who gets married at 22?  I started medical school in September of 1985 and I got married in December of 1985.  Every woman in my family before me married young.  I was the first to go to University and the first to have a career.  I was willing to break many moulds but I met a very handsome man in January of 1984 and that was it.  

We met at the University of Guelph.  I was out for a quiet evening with my room-mate who promised me we would not interact with any of her male friends.  I was recovering from a nasty breakup with my high school sweetheart.  I was very committed to being on my own for a long, long time.  My room-mate was committed to hunting down her boyfriend and she found him at the Keg in the University Centre.  He was seated at a table with five of his friends.  I knew there was no point in objecting so, I scanned the crowd and chose the best looking guy to sit beside.  

There is a theory that we are drawn to mates whose characteristics and personalities will challenge us to grow and mature.  Love and passion are wonderful but, truthfully, marriage is the best place to work out our difficulties, sort out our baggage and learn to put someone else first.  It is at times, a very painful process.  Done well and with the greatest respect to its precious value, a marriage can pass on blessings to many future generations.  Done poorly, it has disastrous consequences that are often played out for many generations.  

On one of our early dates, we were walking back to residence when a pick up truck passed by.  It was full of young university students who catcalled as they drove past.  This enraged my future husband who took off on foot, caught up to the truck, chastised the occupants who sped off with their tails between their legs.  It was at that moment that I knew I would marry him.  

Last night, we had just drifted off to sleep when our dog uncharacteristically barked from the living room.  Our daughter yelled from her room.  There were people on the porch.  I think it took 5 seconds before my husband was out of bed, the bedside bat in his hands.  Clothed in his underwear and armed with a bat, he confronted the intruders just after they had broken into our kitchen.  Injured, coatless and bleeding, two very intoxicated teenagers stood there terrified.  They had crashed their car on the road in front of our house, abandoned it and then staggered  across the field shedding their coats and their drug paraphernalia en-route.   

My husband was on the phone with the police while I tried to tend to this terrified, painfully thin and heavily inebriated girl.  How she ended up in this state, God only knows.  She was so afraid.  She screamed for her mother.  Broke my heart.  Her boyfriend took off out the door leaving her behind.  Not the kind of man who would run down a pick up truck for her.  She soon followed refusing our help, stumbling into minus ten degrees.  It was over in minutes.  I went back to bed.  My husband got dressed and joined the police in a manhunt just as the crashed vehicle on the road exploded into flames.  

Not a James Bond movie; just a night at the Zajdlik house.   I will write a blog in the future in which I will honour our police officers and firefighters.  Cars and fire trucks up and down our stretch of the road, uniformed officers trekking into frigid farmers fields searching for two human beings who would be good and frozen by now.  And right behind them, my knight in shining armour.  Fearless and ever protective.  

I think he crawled back into bed after 3 am.  He slept fretfully.  I slept very soundly.  As I left the house this afternoon for an overnight conference, I kissed him on the cheek.  "I love you, my batman"

We are not 22 year olds anymore.  I'd say we were somewhat worn and seasoned warriors but we have never been alone and I have always felt safe.  Blessed by Batman.


Dr. Anne-Marie MD CCFP
Founder of Bracelet of Hope