History Matters

Approx reading time: 3 minutes 40 seconds

"A chance 4 all u bloggers 2 make history. On the 17th October 2006, The National Trust is asking all bloggers to take part in the biggest blog in history, by recording a blog 'diary' of that particular day. Then all the blog records of that day will be stored by the British Library as a permenant historical record of our national life. It will be a one off, one day diary done on a mass scale - it will aim to be a historical record for future generations, on how life was like "In our day"."
taken from cellardoor-cellardoor.blogspot.com

when I read this, thousand thoughts on what I would blog about went through my mind, however, as i sat down and began to write, i suffered from writer's block...
and if this is any indication as to how my Thesis writing up is going to move along, Im going to have to add an extension to my extension...

Anyway, last week ( either wednesday or thursday morning) i was watching morning live on SABC 2 (breakfast programme) and Vuyo the presenter had a special guest in the studio...

The lady's name was Zuki Matamo,

Evelina Tshabalala, Zukiswa Matamo and Nomawethu Nika from Mandela Park informal settlement in Hout Bay, Cape Town are used to making their way through hardship.

That's why they're not daunted by their latest project: to climb the highest mountains on each of the seven continents and, in the process, become the first black women to conquer Everest.

Matamo and Nika summited Russia's Mount Elbrus together on 9 September. Tshabalala summited Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro on 8 July, followed by Matamo on Women's Day, 9 August.

Next stop for the trio: Aconcagua in Argentina in December and January. Tshabalala will catch up on Elbrus, and Nika on Kilimanjaro, either before or after the South America trip.

They've called their project "Isicongo", after the isiZulu word for the top of a mountain.

Beating the odds
Tshabalala, 41, is a single mother, the sole bread-winner in her family, and lives in a one-bedroom shack next to a rubbish dump. She's survived a car accident, the death of her second son - and the news that she's HIV-positive.

She's also an accomplished marathon runner: in 1994 she realised her life-long dream of taking part in the London Marathon, where she placed 25th.

It was running that first brought Tshabalala and Matamo, a domestic worker and mother of three, together in 2003.

Matamo had spent the previous two years struggling to lose the weight she had put on after the birth of her third child. Tshabalala's solution began with a 20-kilometre run.

"After that run I decided I never wanted to see Evelina again," says Matamo. "I kept looking at her and thinking, I'm never running with you again."

Eighteen months later, the two were running marathons together, Matamo had shed 42 kilograms, and the friendship was unbreakable. They remember each others' times for every race they have run together. And Matamo doesn't mind finishing behind Tshabalalo - because she always runs back to keep her company until the finish line.

Then there were three
In 2005, Tshabalala and Matamo climbed Table Mountain, and were hooked at once on this lofty new expression of their sporting abilities.

In the same year, Matamo met Nika, also a mother and domestic worker, who had also starting running in order to lose weight.

Matamo encouraged Nika to start running competitively, and within the space of a few months Nika had completed the Winelands Marathon, Two Oceans Half Marathon and Knysna Marathon.

Achieving their new goal will require intense physical and psychological effort - and a fair dose of good luck, especially when it comes to the highest of them all: Mount Everest.

The last expeidtion is planned for 2008, and that will be Everest.

I think what she and her fellow team members ahve achieved in the short space of a year, is absolutely amazing, and hopefully they can be a source of inspiration to many young women in SA.