The last several months have been more of a struggle than
I’ve let anyone know. Back when I made that blog post, issues with Elizabeth
had just begun. Any of you who have closely followed my work and life here know
how much she meant to me. To say she was my mama, my sister, my friend, my
guide, my everything here, would be an understatement. She, in addition to Hill
Crest, completely captured my heart. We talked about everything. Just like two
best friends, I stood in the bathroom with her while she took a pregnancy test
(which was positive, and seven months later Sharon was born!), we gossiped, she
did things like teach me to cook, she gave me relationship advice, we shopped
together, ate together, she helped with my washing, and I did anything I could
to help her, though she rarely needed help – a one woman show, that one. Usually
my contribution was playing Florence and the Machine any chance I got. She
loves Florence.
Anyways, when things went sour with Isaac (they were already
split up at this time), we put in the contract that he had to abandon
everything but she would continue to work with me at Hill Crest. I knew she
didn’t know what had happened and still to this day believe she had no idea
what he was doing back then. Fast forward a couple of months…one day a teacher
came to me saying that a parent had complained about a school fee payment
issue, something not really worth explaining on here. From then on I started
paying closer attention to the money coming into Hill Crest from the parents
that could afford to pay some school fees. One day there was the equivalent of
$100 collected, so I decided to take it and buy the supplies we needed for
school. After all, in the contract, the school was mine so I should be the one
overseeing the money. Previously I’d let Elizabeth take it because I trusted
her to hold it and use it for salaries, supplies and little things like
teacher’s breakfast etc. Because of the rumor, I decided to take the money this
day and as soon as I took it, she changed. It was like a different person was
sitting in front of me. I had a valid reason for taking it; I had the car so could buy bulk
exercise books, chalk, teaching aids, etc and eliminate the transportation
costs, but everything about her changed. In that moment, I knew she had been
stealing the money, and she was mad that she couldn’t have this bit as well. I
don’t think I’ll ever forget the way her face changed that moment or how her
body language shifted. I didn’t recognize the woman sitting in front of me
anymore and my heart broke.
Issue after issue, rumor after rumor came up over the course
of about a month. Elizabeth showed up
less and less, Gratitude stopped coming to school and parents came in
complaining day after day. There was so much buzzing around that I finally had
to hold a meeting with all the parents to get the information and give them the
proper updates on everything. Elizabeth still had the keys to Hill Crest, and
despite getting a very healthy salary, I found out she was coming in the evenings
and taking food that was meant to be for the kids’ lunches. I was also told that she was telling parents
in the village that Hill Crest was shutting down and that they should shift
their kids. These factors among a handful of others made for a hectic meeting
with about 60 concerned parents led by the head teacher and myself. Issues came
up like, if she had already moved Gratitude to another school what will stop
her from coming to Hill Crest and poisoning the food? What happened to Isaac?
What is the future of Hill Crest? We assured them that that day, all the locks
would be changed and I would be the one opening and closing the school every
day, Hill Crest was not going to die, and that they can count on me and the
head teacher to keep their kids fed, educated and safe. Considering I was the
only consistent face over the previous two and a half years, I had most parents
on my side with the help of the head teacher.
So for a while I opened and closed the school every day,
then my teachers and I split up the opening and closing. But we always left
together and a parent living right outside the school kept an eye on things for
me if I didn’t keep the keys overnight.
Eventually we learned that Elizabeth had taken the registration
book and called every. single. Hill Crest parent and told them it was shutting
down and they should shift their kids. All because I took the school fees that
day. She had scared my head teacher in such a way that she would hardly talk to
me, and if I had to approach Elizabeth about something, she wanted her name
completely left out of it and didn’t even want to be around. Word finally came
out that Elizabeth had started a little school secretly, which I didn’t
understand. She had told all the parents to shift their kids there, and was
stealing Hill Crest money for this new secret school. Why? I don’t know. She
had clearly been planning a demise of Hill Crest after I took the money that
day. Man, money can change people. Anyways, things settled down, Elizabeth was
out of the picture (though she left with some Hill Crest valuables that we just
had to give up on getting back), we only lost about six students of the 80+,
and the overall environment at Hill Crest was better than ever. It was such a
happy, honest, fun, positive place to be. It was the happiest place on earth,
even more than Bonnaroo and Disneyland combined. I don’t remember when exactly
Elizabeth left the picture completely, but over the next handful of months
there were little issues coming up.
Word got out that Mama Remy was the one who, at the big
parents meeting, brought up Elizabeth potentially poisoning the food when she
was sneaking in at night. This we know because Mama Remy came to school one
afternoon with gashes and bruises, crying to us that Elizabeth had shown up the
night before with two men who roughed her up and threatened to kill her if she
talked about Elizabeth again. Everything Mama Remy said had to be taken with a
grain of salt, but this one both my head teacher and I thought might be true.
Mama Remy had never come to school claiming something like this before, drunk
or sober. We just told Mama Remy to take care, as we couldn’t do anything
because there was no definitive proof that Elizabeth had done this, and of
course Mama Remy had a nasty history with alcohol abuse.
Fast forward a few months, we lost a few more kids and had
some small issues but it was all okay...just annoying and of course still a
heartache. My head teacher told me that she had seen the sign for Elizabeth’s
school, so of course I went to see. Some people wondered why I had such an
issue with Elizabeth starting a separate secret school…it wasn’t that she did
it, it was how. She had support not only from myself but from other former
volunteers, so why did it have to be a secret? And why was she stealing? And
why did she have to try to take down Hill Crest in the process? Of course, I
went to find the school with my friend who works for the volunteer company I
came with back in 2012. Literally as we passed the sign for Shekina Glory,
Elizabeth’s school, my friend got a call from her bosses asking if she knew
what happened with Elizabeth and me, that she was threatening to sue the volunteer
company for bringing in someone who stole her school. We went right away to the
office and I met with the volunteer organization directors. They pushed me to
just leave Hill Crest, it’s her school, how can I let her suffer, etc. It
turned into a heated discussion and they called Elizabeth to come in. She had
seen them a few days before and clearly manipulated them into feeling sorry for
her, making things up about her lifestyle that I knew weren’t true but portrayed
immense suffering. After a lot of talking, yelling, and tears, Elizabeth said
she would leave it and that we could be peaceful. I was so hurt and angry that
I just walked out. She was after money, and I was just “a volunteer who came
and stole the school.” She told them she didn’t know what she was signing when
she signed the contract. But she did, because the meeting was in Swahili, the
contract was in Swahili, and I told her that just because the legal documents
said Hill Crest was mine, we would be working hand in hand.
From April 2015 until about two months ago, I was fighting
her. Dodging police, settling rumors, talking to village officers, securing the
school, and getting people from Isaac’s debt off my back. Just this year,
police have come knocking at my gate twice. In December we had some issues with
the health department following a cholera outbreak. We had seven violations, small
things like having plastic bowls instead of steel, the medicine cabinet was in
the kitchen, our cook was wearing sandals, we didn’t have an office. Easy
fixes. We had a really good meeting with the department head and he agreed not
to shut us down because none of our violations were bad. During the holiday,
the staff came to school and did a massive clean out and rearranged things to
show the health department that we would fix the violations. We opened in
January like normal, but shortly after were officially shut down. I went to
meet the head of the health department and bribed him to answer my questions.
He was given a massive bribe to shut us down, you can guess by who (with the
help of former volunteers who continually made me out to be the bad guy). I
refused to give another pay out so I contacted my lawyer and he told me the
legal action we would have to take to reopen.
During the
time we were making moves to reopen, and our official reopening, I hit what I
thought was rock bottom. In December, my former rowing teammate at Clemson was
diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I knew that was a nasty cancer, but…hellooo…it
was Brittany Burns. The funny, best party throwing, tough as nails, take no
sh*t girl that I always secretly admired so much but also kind of feared. She
would be fine, if anyone was going to beat cancer flawlessly but with a punch,
it was going to be Brittany. I occasionally checked her page for health
updates, and they were all so positive that I maintained a cool attitude about
it; she was definitely going to be fine. But on the morning of February 1st,
I opened Facebook to the absolute shock of Brittany’s passing. I melted into my bed and lost control. School
things got delayed because I locked myself in my house for the next four days
and spent the next probably two weeks just trying not to cry all the time. My
snapchat, instagram and facebook were flooded with articles by People Magazine,
New York Times Daily, In Touch Weekly, and more posts than you can imagine from
the many, many people that loved Brittany so much.
After finally
getting to a point of basic functioning, we were at a point of getting Hill
Crest open again. Two days before our
reopening, I got a message from my head teacher…”Hill Crest has collapsed.
Elizabeth came and took the school back.”
Excuse me, what? When I asked questions, my head teacher
only said “that’s the way it is. I can’t say anything else.” If you knew my
head teacher, you would know she always had something to say and a way to help
us come back on top. Elizabeth clearly put something over her that made her
afraid to talk to me. Because of this, I
had and still have huge hesitations with just appearing at school, I don’t want
to risk the safety of my staff. Well…former staff. So after that, I said fine. She
can have it. I’m so tired…I didn’t tell anyone for about a week, I just cooped
up in my house again trying to process and figure out what was happening,
making pro con lists in my head, and tiptoeing around the feeling of regret.
While I was in hibernation over the Hill Crest/Elizabeth thing, my mom messaged
me about the death of Mike Haney. The single most incredible man on this earth.
I knew he was battling cancer also, but, again, wasn’t expecting to lose him. Cue
actual rock bottom, to the point my friend had to take a day off work just to
be with me. I discussed (sobbed) everything out loud with her, and she agreed
that walking away from Hill Crest was probably the right move at this time. It
makes me sick to think about Elizabeth winning this…but 16 months of fighting
has taken a toll. Even with the support of my parents and friends and family
here and in the US, I’m tired. I’ve been here fighting all of this on my own
for 16 months. Other people have helped and been around, but nobody else has
been the one sitting through what I have. From being arrested to heated meetings
with my lawyer and others, being threatened, having the police rocking up at
school or my house, still getting messages and calls constantly regarding Isaac’s
debts, the Remy/Mama Remy situation, losing people at home and missing big
events with friends from high school and college, it has exhausted me.
So, a few weeks ago marks the end of my involvement at Hill
Crest. I’m finally able to accept it and know that it is the right decision. I
can focus on ACEC and put my full attention towards developing an amazing organization.
I can finally put effort into making my relationship work. I still get to see and
be here for the kids I moved here for, and I will be able to leave Arusha once
in a while without feeling guilty for living instead of putting all my money into
Hill Crest. Most importantly, I can stop fighting. Right now, I am trying to focus on myself and getting
to a point mentally where I can hit the ground running with ACEC and the
project, but it’s going to take time. I am slowly developing the Adult English
program, but am taking the proper time to take care of myself after everything
that has happened.
Everyone has been so supportive of me and I’m so grateful
for that, and I hope that you will continue to support me when I get ACEC up
and running. I know that it’s going to be an incredible organization if it’s
done right, and for it to be done right, I have to get my focus and motivation
back. So bare with me for a couple more weeks while I relax and get things in order
for the next big move with ACEC.tz.
All my love,
Kat
