Day 11 Woburn to Dunstable

Today Reverend Christopher Harrison is our day co-ordinator and picked us up and drove us to Woburn. We left Derby today at 4:45am.

Before we started the walk, the four of us held hands and began with a prayer before we started on our way, around 6:35am. We managed to walk 10 miles today through Dunstable to Markyate. The A4012 route to Hockcliffe (A5) was difficult due to there being no pavement and heavy traffic with big lorries and busses.

Once we joined the A5 road to Dunstable however, there were footpaths all the way to Markyate where we finished.

After the walk, we went to Sue Bentley's house for Lunch. The food was delicious - we enjoyed it very much. She had laid out a whole collection of food - sandwiches, chicken, salad, everything! - I was lost for which to choose!!!

We then visited another two schools today. The first school was a Roman Catholic school called St. Dominic's School. The teachers were very pleased to have us there. We were introduced to the children by one of their teachers where Emmanuel spoke to what our campaign was about and why he was walking barefoot. They were really surprised to hear about it. Again, he compared their life with children of similar age in Africa who go to school without shoes or food and walk long distances for water. He explained how many of the children are orphans because their parents are killed by conflict under irresponsible governments. Many asked questions - mainly about current situation in Zimbabwe. I found it surprising how much the pupils knew about the situation in Zimbabwe.

One of the teachers, Ms. Jinty Joy Orange revealed that she was from Zimbabwe which the pupils were unaware of until this point. She told me that she was forced to flee from Zimbabwe in 2003 to seek asylum. She also said she was very supportive in what were are doing in light of what was happening back home in Zimbabwe.

Next, Sue took us to see a very interesting church in Harpenden which was built in 1800's.

The second school was a 150 year old St. Nicholas Primary School in Harpenden where Sue's own children go to. The headteacher Ruth Mattison was very pleased to have us. She introduced us to all 155 school children who were gathered in the school hall. Emmanuel spoke to them about human abuses to the young children in Africa. He told them how young people in Africa are surviving every day. He gave them the opportunity to ask some questions. Here are some of the questions they asked and the answers that he gave:


"Why are your friends wearing shoes but you are walking barefoot?"
Khumbula and Tafi help me by checking the paths for stones and broken glass and watch out for traffic.

"What gives you the strength to walk all the way from Derby to London?"
We get our strength from God, from people who are supporting us and from schools that we visit along the way.

"Why did you choose to walk in this country?"
Because we want people in this country to know what is happening in Africa. Also, people in this part of the world have democracy and can say "No" to things that they believe are not right, but in parts of Africa, you could be killed for doing that.

"Who long did it take to walk from the start to our school"
11 days

After the questions, I told them about what happened when I was at school and the 5th Brigade soldiers came to our school and made us watch whilst they killed all of our school teachers. I asked them to try and see if they could imagine what that would be like.

Tafi played a song on his Mbira at both schools today. Emmanuel also sang a hymn for them also.

After the school we returned to the church hall, where we met up with a group. We also met up with many of the parents of the school children. They asked questions and were interested to hear more about what we are doing.

Finally, headed to Luton where we (Emmanuel, myself, Tafi and Chris Harrison) will be spending the night. Chris has done a great job setting up the arrangements and co-ordinating our walk. Michael Waggett and his wife Penny have kindly offered us accomodation for tonight. They said that when they heard from Sue about our walk they didn't hesitate in offering to help us. They also made us a lovely meal this evening and made us feel welcome.

We are now sitting comfortably watching the Russia vs Spain football match just as if we were at home!

We would like to thank Sue again for everything she has done for us, including, Lunch, the arrangements with the schools and escorting around the area.