This woman is going a little bit above and beyond the Canadian way of being nice and forgiving, especially after this.
I on the other hand would have no issues with putting the end of a Glock into each of their mouths and pulling the trigger.
But to each their own I s'pose.
I'm gonna call the number to help 'em out anyway.

So, who here could forgive these 7 animals?


45 minutes of hell in Kenya: B.C. woman forgives attackers
Five men, two women arrested for brutal attack on Canadian couple
Linda Nguyen , Canwest News Service
Published: Friday, July 11, 2008
Eloise Bergman was taking a hot bath Wednesday in her Kenyan home when she looked up to see five men, each clutching machetes and clubs in their hands.


Eloise Bergen, 66, and her husband Canadian John Bergen, 70, both on missionary work in Kenya, are recovering in a hospital after a brutal home invasion on Tuesday

"I thought this must be a joke so I said can you please pass me my clothes?" the 66-year-old, originally from Vernon, B.C, said in a telephone interview Friday from a Nairobi hospital room.

"They raised their machetes and told me to get out of the tub. They wouldn't give me any clothes."

The men took Eloise's hands and tightly tied one with a black cellphone adapter cord and the other with a cord from her husband's electric shaver.

Then Eloise, naked and dripping wet, was forced to stand up so the men, all local Kenyans in their 20s, could rape her. Three of them did.

The attack lasted a horrifying 45 minutes.

The gated home she shares with her Canadian missionary husband John, a place that was supposed to be a safe haven, had been violated.

"The tall one was in charge of me. He did everything standing up. He didn't lie me down," she said, her voice composed and unwavering. "I think he thought he could get away faster if we got caught. It was quite painful. Then he handed me over to the two others."

The whole time, she did not utter a single word except whisper 'Jesus' over and over under her breath.

After the men were done, they punched Eloise in her private parts, choked her three times and cut her with their machetes. Her jaw was broken. She needed 35 stitches to close the cuts on her face.

Seven people - five men and two women - have been arrested in connection with the brutal attacks on the Bergmans. Two of the men taken into custody have been identified as the Canadians' security guards, hired in the last three weeks to protect the couple at night.

Eloise and John, 70, had recently moved into their own house on a gated farm in Kenya, where they grow food for local children. They were working with the non-profit organization Hope for the Nations, based in Kelowna, B.C.

The retired pair had moved to Africa to help widows and orphans in the city of Kitale and help refugees who had fled a political crisis.

They had been living in Kenya for four months when the brutal home invasion occurred.

Eloise said after she was attacked, the suspects demanded her car keys.

She was then forced to lie down on the floor and was covered with blankets and a mattress.

That's where she lay, waiting to hear the thieves start her car and drive into the distance before she got up and cut her bonds loose with a pair of cosmetics scissors to search for her husband, who she hadn't seen since the attack started.

With a thin blanket draped around her body, she ran out into the yard, calling his name.

Eventually, she found him lying in the bushes, his arms and legs broken. His head, slashed by the machetes.

What followed, Eloise said, was "miraculous."

The car she thought the thieves had driven away was still sitting in her driveway. They had crashed it into a tree and fled.

The petite Eloise dragged her husband, by then a "dead weight" into the car.

"He kept asking me, 'Are we in Africa? Are we in Africa?'," she said. "My face was pouring blood."

It took her three tries to get the car moving.

Eloise had to ram through the gates surrounding her farm to drive for help, 20 minutes away.

It was only when they arrived at a nearby hospital in Kitale that night that she realized how seriously injured her husband was.

The assailants had struck John's skull, jaw, arm, knee and leg with clubs.

He also had been severely cut with machetes. He needed so many stitches to his face that the doctors "lost count," Eloise said.

She said John will need to undergo four major surgeries.

Both will need extensive medical procedures to fix their broken jaws.

Despite this terrifying ordeal, she and John have no plans to return home to Canada. This crisis has given her more strength to help those in need, Eloise said.

"Today in my hospital room, an Ethiopian young girl came in and she just started crying. We both cried together because she had gone through the same thing (rapes) too," she said.

Their son, Josh, 20, from Calgary, is expected to arrive in Nairobi either Sunday or Monday.

Ryan Schumacher, the director for the East Africa division of the Hope charity, is pleading with the public to help the Bergmans with their hospital costs.

The couple have no medical insurance and had sold their house, vehicle and furniture before departing. Schumacher estimates that at least $150,000 will be needed to pay for their expenses.

He added that the organization will re-examine the group's safety precautions.

"It's unfortunate that these guys turned on us. It might've been an influence of alcohol and drugs," Schumacher said from Nairobi. "It's this bush mentality. They had grown up in the bush, not owning a pair of shoes and they thought that they could get something out of the Bergmans."

In the end, the thieves stole laptops, cameras, clothes and as much as $5,000 in cash, money that was supposed to go to African orphans. All of it has since been recovered.

Nonetheless, Eloise said one of the first things she and her husband want to do once they fully recover is to visit their assailants.

"When I woke up this morning, I was picturing the time will come when John and I are physically well again," she said. "It's in both of our hearts to go to the prison and tell them about our forgiveness."

John Bergen, an experienced international aid worker originally from Alberta, has retired from the construction industry.

Eloise Bergen, an American from Georgia, has retired from teaching music.

They were teaching English and providing food to locals, who are hard-pressed by three-fold increases in the price of beans and corn.

"The poorest of the poor were around them," said Bromley. "They are under tremendous stress."

He said the safety of the other Canadians is not compromised because they live in a safer neighbourhood.

"We go globally into difficult places . . . sometimes bad things happen to good people," he said. "It will strengthen our resolve."

Canada's Foreign Affairs Department said consular assistance is being provided.

The Hope society has set up a process for donations. Call 1-250-712-2007 for details.

If I was the husband and they messed me up maybe....maaayyybeee I could let it go....but if they raped and beat my wife I'd want blood.

I know it's sad, but it's shit like this that makes me think what they're doing over there is pretty much hopeless. These people just seem so far removed from rationality - for what ever reason - that there's really nothing anyone of outside influence can do. They have to either fix themselves themselves or die out, Darwinian style.


God bless this couple for coming through it like that, though. They're tougher, and better than most, no doubt.

I think there is no 'these people'. I mean, I assume not all of the people there are rapist violators. 7 too many at least. But there are tons of people. It's horrible, and I think this couple is very strong in their beliefs to keep going despite of this. It must also be scary for their 20 year old son to go there, knowing what has happened.

groetjes,
Mirella

The problem is, the wrong ones are in charge. Those who can afford to go there and do good are such a small drop in the bucket that it just doesn't help, and good people end up getting hurt.

Safety is so important... I wish it could be relatively safe everywhere in the world.
Friends are going to the Festival in the Desert in Januari. That's in Mali. One reason (besides money and lack of interest) I'm not going is that I'm female. I wouldn't want to risk being raped. Maybe that's a prejudice, but I'm better safe than sorry. It's sad that people live in situations like that. It's good that people are trying to change things, but that's just 'drops on a hot plate' indeed .

groetjes,
Mirella

You don't have male friends to look after you?

Yes, and a boyfriend too. But they are pretty powerless against armed robbers, for instance, and they can't be awake 24/7. They could be captured or worse too...

groetjes,
Mirella

There's no doubt that is too fucking forgiving. I'd hunt down and kill those faggots personally.

Uh-huh. Blame America first.

I was thinking the opposite actually. I could just about handle it happening to me but if I saw my partner lying on the ground with his knees smashed in, that's when I'd lose it.

Follow up on the couple:

Kenyan attack victims to return to B.C.
Must heal injuries before flying home

Cassidy Olivier, The Province
Published: Thursday, July 17, 2008
A Vernon couple who were brutally attacked by machete-wielding robbers while doing missionary work in Kenya will return home once they are strong enough to fly, family members say.

John and Eloise Bergen were airlifted to Nairobi hospital with serious injuries July 9, after they were attacked by at least five armed men and left to die at their home in the small town of Kitale.

John Bergen, 70, has since undergone multiple surgeries to repair a shattered jaw, a broken wrist, two broken arms, damaged knee and multiple lacerations and bruises.

His wife, Eloise, was released from hospital earlier this week after receiving 35 stitches for multiple cuts and bruises. The 66-year-old also suffered a broken jaw during the attack.

Robyn McGough, the couple's daughter-in-law, said John is expected to be released from hospital as early Saturday. It may still be some time before they are both physically ready for the lengthy journey home.

"They are coming back," she said, adding she plans on receiving them with lots of kisses and hugs. "They want to make sure he [John] is strong enough to get on the plane."

News of their imminent return has brought comfort to family and friends who were uncertain if the couple planned on returning home anytime soon.

Despite being beaten to within an inch of their lives, Eloise said last week from her hospital bed in Nairobi they planned staying on to continue their charity work with the Hope for the Nations group.

McGough's 18-year-old son, Robbie McGough, and two of the couple's sons, Josh and Darcy Bergen flew into Nairobi Monday night to coax the battered couple into coming home.

McGough spoke with them Tuesday and said everyone seemed to be in good spirits although emotionally drained by the ordeal.

She said her son told her John was "full of life," laughing and cracking jokes.

She believes her in-laws plan on visiting the local prison to confront and forgive the men accused of attacking them before they board the plane home.

Kenya police arrested seven suspects in connection to the attacks last week, including two security guards hired to protect the couple.

Before leaving for Africa in March, the couple sold everything they owned and are relying on the B.C. medical plan to cover what is expected to be a massive medical bill. A fund has been set up at the Vernon Bank of Montreal, with donations payable to account No. 314100013035545. Hope for the Nations is also processing donations. Call 1-250-712-2007 for details.

Good for them. Africa's a fucking hell hole, you couldn't pay me to go there to do anything that's not in a sanctioned off embassy.

I don't know that this is so true... I mean the west has done stuff just as heinous on a broad scale as some of the African countries have done or are currently doing, and there are people just as fucked up as those in this story in Europe and America(man who kept daughter and grandkids in dungeon, etc). I'm not defending them in the least, but to say that these people are any further removed from rationality than Europeans coming to America, slaughtering the Indians, going to Africa and enslaving the continent, or Southern Americans until the 1960s is a stretch.

If only there were more people in the world with the same qualities as this couple-

This could have had a very tragic outcome... thank goodness it didn't...

Awe-inspiring.

stupid internet shorthand and my psychological acceptance of it...

i read this as:

45 Minutes of Hell in Kenya: BeCause woman forgives attackers.

Kenya again, last Thursday: 5 women, or actually girls aged 17-25, working for a Dutch Christian organization, were raped. They were there with 7 other people to help building a school. The place they were was 'secured' but the rapists had kidnapped a neighbour to force their way in. They only raped the Dutch women. There were other women there but they had babies, and that was probably why they did not rape them

groetjes,
Mirella

Perhaps they should have tried to convince the persons to go away or stop what they're doing.

I see your , but just for your information: The Netherlands are not Kenya .

groetjes,
Mirella