Mama Lucy sent me this email today – a bitter update from which she’d shielded us as we celebrated the sweeter moments of the last few weeks.  In a text I received during our Ideablob voting process, Mama Lucy mentioned she was dealing with an “emergency.”  Emergencies run a gamut when one leads a school for hundreds of children, so I asked to make sure she was okay, let her know I cared, but didn’t probe much more when she responded that “it is very ok” and that she’d “solved the issue.”  Of course, she was fine…but there’s so very much more to the story:

On 22^nd May 2009 I had the chance to experience the two tastes – sweet & bitter – which I’ll never forget. You may ask me why it took so long before I’ve shared the taste with you, but the tough job hindered me to do that! We were busy voting with the Ideablob competition, waiting for the results, you were getting prepared for the 140 conference Stacey, and thereafter so many other things. Though it’s just a story now to share with less impact, but you deserve to hear the story. Just relax as now we’ve only one taste. The sweet one! The bitter has gone.

The night before we started voting, on 22^nd May we were attacked by robbers at our home, at 2:30am. We were all in deep sleep before we heard a huge stone breaking the front door of our house. Within a minute, they were inside, and broke the door of our bedroom. My husband and I were not in a position to respond to the attack as they were already inside, without knowing how prepared they were. We ran and hid in the washroom before they broke our room’s door. They entered in the bedroom and started picking what they wanted. Fortunately, I was able to take one mobile phone of mine. I sent text messages to 5 friends of mine, alerting the situation. Good enough, one was able to inform the police. Before the police arriving, they broke the washroom’s door and pulled my husband to the bedroom, asking him to give them money. They didn’t touch me at all. They cut him with a panga (machete) on his arm and shoulder. But it was not very deep. My husband gave them the little we had in the room. They insisted for more, but my daughter Brenda told them we don’t keep money at home as the students’ parents are paying at the bank. They pushed my daughter and husband to the washroom. They continued with taking things from our room and Brenda’s room. The police came after half an hour, while they were still in the house but the gate was locked. After they heard the horn of the police car, they ran. After getting out, we came to realize that the watchman was tied with a rope both hands and legs. He was left helpless in the garden. We went and opened the gate, and our neighbours and policemen came inside.

The robbers took all the valuable things which they found in our house. Among many were: Money, Radio, Laptop – 1 pc, camera – 1 pc, mobile phones – 5 pcs, just to mention a few. That was the bitter taste of the day.

For the sweet taste, we were left alive and the next day which was the 23^rd of May, we were able to join others in the voting process. After the results of Ideablob that Epic Change won, the sweet taste increased.

The police are still on investigation, hope one day to hear good news about the stolen things. Two weeks ago, we were called at the police station to check laptops found, but unfortunately ours was not there. We’ve settled and things are okay now, though it was a great shock! We are trying to take all the measures to make sure this can’t happen again. Steps taken: 1). Hired KK Security and they installed alarm in and outside the house. 2). Two security guards instead of one.

Hope this will not shock you as it would have a month ago…

Much love,

Mama Lucy

All this while she was mobilizing a village to win $10,000 for a technology lab.

“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.” – Booker T. Washington