Tesfaye's busy/interesting last week in Vancouver

Monday Sept. 28 to Sunday Oct. 4, 2009: 
 Monday Sept. 28 was Yom Kippur so most of my day was spent at Synagogue and fasting, and then Tesfaye joined us all for the breaking of the fast dinner at my parent's house, which gave Tesfaye the opportunity to see and say goodbye to a number of relatives and friends, some who had previously met him but had not yet seen him post surgery, and some who had heard about Tesfaye but had never met him.

Tuesday Sept. 29 was a big day for me and Tesfaye. During the day we attended We Day, an event put on

the last couple of years in Toronto by Free the Children, an organization founded by Craig and Marc Kielburger when Craig was just 12 yearsold, after Craig read a story about child labour in India and the assasination of a 12 year old Indian youth activist trying to lobby against it. My brother Lorne chaired this inaugural event in Vancouver, which brought in thousands of British Columbia high school students to GM Place for an awareness rally to inspire youth to commit service time and fundraising efforts to combat poverty and oppression and to promote education of youth in the developing countries and locally. There were a number of inspirational talks, videos and musical performances, including a most inspiring talk on compassion by the Dalai Lama himself. For Tesfaye it was a unique opportunity for him to see such a huge expression of interest and caring by the Western world, especially by our youth, targeted at people with exactly the kind of background that Tesfaye comes from.

There were a number of people that I knew that attended the event that also were able to meet Tesfaye for the first time. Afterwards I was able to introduce Tesfaye to the Kielburger brothers, and then as we walked back to the office we happened to bump into Janice,a student nurse who was working on the spine ward when Tesfaye was in the hospital; she was so happy to see him and to see how well he is doing.

Tuesday night September 29 we then attended another very inspiring event, a gala 25th anniversary dinner
celebrating the African Children's Choir, which was founded by human activist Ray Barnett and provides an avenue for advancement of vulnerable and disadvantaged African children through participating in a touring choir while at the same time receiving an education through their youth village schools. The choir"s performance was fantastic and we heard the story of a number of choir alumni that were in attendance, who have gone on to a wide array of occupations such as doctor, minister, teacher, journalist, lawyer and so on.

 

Sir Bob Geldoff received an award and gave a very impressive and moving "off the cuff" acceptance speech which both praised many efforts being done by organizations such as the African Children's Choir and certain countries to combat poverty, disease and illiteracy in the Developing World, and criticized the misplaced priorities of our world politicians in their allocation of funds .  We were able to meet Sir Bob Geldoff, as well as a surpirse guest performer with the Choir, Michael McDonald from the Doobie Brothers. All in all a very long but inspirational day for Tesfaye and me.

Wednesday night September 30 was the night Nanci and I hosted a Thank you VGH/ Farewell Tesfaye
dinner at our house. It was a great evening allowing us to express our gratitude to the VGH team that allowed this life altering surgery for Tesfaye to be carried out successfully, and for everyone to bid a formal farewell to Tesfaye. Tesfaye, in much improved English, went over his life story and expressed what the surgery has meant for him and his gratitude to the VGH. I also, at times overwhelmed with emotion, talked about Tesfaye's journey and my related journey leading up to today; about how wonderful the VGH team

was and how fortunate we are to have such quality care in Vancouver; about how thankful I am that we had such an incredibly successful result for Tesfaye; and how I am sure Tesfaye now has a bright future ahead of him. At the end Tesfaye proudly received from Lise and John a farewell gift of a coveted black fleece VGH Spine Unit Vest normally reserved for staff. I know that everyone in attendance appreciated the evening and the chance to mingle with each other and say "so long" to Tesfaye.

To cap off a most busy week, Thursday night Nanci and I attended a lovely and successful Arthritis Society fundraising gala, and on Saturday night, even though we had an early morning flight the next day, we attended a gala dinner in celebration of Ronald McDonal House BC, as I sit on the Board of that very worthwhile cause.

Sunday morning October 4th came very early; in fact, I was up all night packing and getting ready and did not bother sleeping as Jim kindly came to take Nanci, Tesfaye and me to the airport at 6am. It was a very emotional good bye for Jim and Tesfaye, and then off we were on a long day of flying through Houston to New York city.