On bunnies and challenges....

I know I haven’t written in a long time….25 days to be exact. Which, at the pace with which my life races along, seems a life time. And what has happened in those 25 days? Well Craig had his second knee surgery and is slowly, slowly rejoining the world of the walking. Joseph’s knee, despite doctors and MRIs and x-rays, remains undiagnosed. He is still on crutches, doing lots of physio and is so bored he has started reading his physics book during games…..talk about a silver lining!! 

I also started my acrobatics class at the circus school (think I will save details for a later post) and I ran a 10k last weekend on Clapham Common. With Alice. In a bunny suit. Not a sexy, I have a treat for you bunny suit, despite the fact that the packaging said “for the wildest of nights.” Tragic.  We looked like sad, failed children’s entertainers. And to make it all the worse, Easter, if you remember, was two weeks ago. So we didn’t look festive. Just deranged. And if that wasn’t enough, the race wasn’t crowded and the runners were quite strung out. Instead of a warren of rabbits racing across Clapham Common, it was the occasional bunny plodding by, as though a few misguided individuals had misread a fancy dress party invitation. Oh, but who cares. We loved it. We got medals. And we walked home in our bunny suits.  All part of the challenge. To laugh in the face of public humiliation. 

I have been thinking a lot about challenges lately. The challenge of doing challenges. The challenge of asking for money. The challenge of building a school in a deprived area Chihuahua, Mexico, for children who have nothing. And that is exactly what a brave group of local women in Chihuahua, Mexico have done. They took over a failing school (and to be considered a failure in a poor area of Mexico must be something indeed!) and transformed it into the charter school, Colegio Riberas. The school, which opened in 2013 with 60 first graders, is for local children whose lives are not only challenged by poverty but by drug trafficking, gang warfare and daily violence. So far, they have buildings for lessons and music. I AM BUILDING THEM THE LIBRARY, and hoping to break ground soon.

This is all being done under the wonderful charity founded by my friend, James Owens, The World is Just a Book Away (WIJABA). The charity has successfully opened more than 60 libraries in Indonesia and my library will be the 9th in Mexico. Attached is the link to the new, fancy fund raising page WIJABA made for me. I hope you like it and will help me with this challenge! https://annelibrarymexico.squarespace.com