One Track Mind

Last night, we flew from Eldoret to Nairobi, which was the first stage of our return to the U.S. It was very sad to say goodbye to the kids we have been teaching for the past five weeks, but we know we will see them again--if not in Kenya, then in the U.S. when they begin college in 2009. I don't enjoy goodbyes, so I tend to avoid them whenever possible!

We had a pretty awesome party for the kids on Wednesday night before we left. The kitchen staff prepared a special meal, which we supplemented with chips, popcorn, cake, cookies, candy, and noisemakers. The kids had a good time playing with our cameras, so I have some interesting shots from that night. Sarah has been really great at getting to know the kids this summer, and while most of them were quiet at first, none of them are particularly quiet now. They also told us that while they understood almost nothing we said at the beginning of the summer, they understand us now. On the flip side, I have gotten better at understanding Kenyan English as well :-)

The plane we took from Eldoret to Nairobi was the smallest one I've ever been on. I think there were roughly 20 passengers, and we could see the pilot from where we were sitting. If I were a nervous flier, this would have been the time to be nervous. The visibility was very poor, we could hear rain crashing down on the plane (usually you can't hear rain on commercial jets) and we saw a couple flashes of lightning. We made it just fine, and it was extremely strange to stay in a luxury apartment last night after being in Iten for five weeks. This place is bigger than my house (three bedrooms and two bathrooms for the two of us) and far fancier. I have taken some pictures so that I represent Kenya fairly. While most people in Kenya don't have washing machines, high speed internet, and satellite TV, these things are apparently available here.

To kill some time today, we went to the elephant orphanage and the giraffe center. We hadn't seen any elephants here, and only one giraffe. Now we can check these things off the list.

The most exciting part of the day, however, was getting to watch the women's steeplechase prelims and 10,000 meter final live, with no interruptions. I am tempted to stay here until the Olympics are over, because I am pretty sure the coverage is far better here. It was exciting to see Lornah Kiplagat leading for much of the race after spending a little time with her earlier this summer, and it was a huge thrill to see Shalane win her medal. I remember where I was when Meb and Deena won their medals, and it will be hard to forget sitting in a luxury apartment in Nairobi with Sarah, cheering Shalane on. (I've written a little more about this on eliterunning.com.)

I can't even begin to describe what an amazing summer this has been. I really hope that I'll be back in Kenya in the near future, and I know I'll keep in touch with many of the wonderful people who I met here.

Our flight leaves at 11:45 p.m., about three hours from now. While I'm sad to leave Kenya, it'll also be good to return home, after spending the better part of the last two months elsewhere.

As my time in Kenya comes to a close (we leave in five days), I am starting to feel very nostalgic about the whole experience. I can easily say that this has been one of the best experiences of my life, if not the best. I am glad I came to Kenya in the capacity that I did. If I came just to look at the High Altitude Training Center (which would have been a necessary part of any trip to Kenya because of the publicity it has gotten in the U.S. and its great mission) and go on a safari, I would have missed out on a lot. Though I am still a tourist here, and I will always be treated differently because of my white skin, I feel like we got to make more connections with people who live here than the average tourist.

This is our last weekend in Iten. We returned from Nakuru yesterday evening, and it was a relief to get back here, where the only "harrassment" we get many friendly "how are yous" from kids on our runs and walks. Our safari was cool, and I'll post lots of photos from that when I get home, but I hardly think that wild animals are the best that Kenya has to offer. I think it would be equally interesting to drive around to various villages and take photos of the street scenes. On our safari, we saw rhinos, lots of flamingos and pelicans, zebras, impalas, buffalo, monkeys, baboons, a warthog, one giraffe, and more. We did not see elephants (which we expected), lions or tigers. Our tour guide told us at the end of our trip that no one has seen lions at Lake Nakuru for months. He said that they disappeared right after the post-election violence. This sounded strange to me at first, because I was thinking that the lions wouldn't have known or cared about the political situation in the country. It made more sense when he told us the widespread theory that someone had illegally sold the lions to another country during this time.

The higlight of our safari, in my opinion, took place while we were waiting at the gate to enter the park. We were sitting still in our matatu, while our driver interacted with the man at the gate. Safari vehicles have a raised roof, so that the people inside can stand up and take photos without having to do it through a window. Since we didn't have any breakfast, I had bought some biscuits to eat, and I was minding my own business, enjoying them. Sarah was the only person behind me, and I suddenly felt someone aggressively rip the box of biscuits out of my hand. I was thinking geez, if she wants some biscuits, I'd be happy to give them to her, but it seemed out of character for her to grab them away from me like that. Then I turned around and there was a monkey, who had come in through the gap in the top of our vehicle, sitting in the backseat of our matatu. My first thought was, "How are we going to get this monkey out of here?" but the monkey was more than happy to jump out the way he (or she) came in, with my box of biscuits in tow. Sarah got a couple pictures of the monkey sitting on the top our our matatu, shoving four or five biscuits in its mouth at once. After that, we decided that we should be careful about eating food in the game park!

Though I had a good time on our trip to Nakuru, I wasn't blown away by our safari. It was, however, fun to have a change of scenery and go on a little adventure. I particularly had a good time hanging out with Matt, Edgar, and Sarah. When we were without Edgar (we finally reunited with him on the morning of our safari), it was amusing at times having three Americans who didn't speak Swahili or know what they were doing in Nakuru. However, we did alright for ourselves. Our hotel was decent and safe, and we didn't pay too much for it. (We each paid the equivalent of about $7 for the night!) We also got a decent deal on our safari. We were still trying to talk the price down the morning of the trip, but Edgar eventually said, "It's a good deal, take it!" I think we are all a little weary of paying the mzungu price, which definitely happens. That's why I like shopping at the grocery store here--everything has a fixed price. We had to laugh at Edgar a bit, because apparently he had trouble getting around an unfamiliar city as well...He ended up staying in a different hotel than ours the night that we spent in Nakuru, because he claimed he couldn't find our hotel and he just wanted to go to sleep. We found his hotel that night, which was only a couple blocks from ours. We tried to go visit him, but his phone was off and the woman at the desk gave us the wrong room number, so we ended up startling some other Kenyan man. After that, we gave up on finding him!

I might have been disappointed in the safari if we had spent hundreds of dollars on it, but the trip actually cost us less than $100 each. Even though most things in Kenya are cheaper than they are in the U.S., safaris can be very expensive. We were looking at the prices for staying in tented camps and it looks like they all cost a minimum of $150 to $200 per night per person. Every time I travel anywhere in Kenya (other than Eldoret), I definitely have a feeling of, "Thank goodness I returned unscathed." Though I had that feeling when we returned last night, I also felt like I was never in any danger on this trip. The road to Nakuru is much better than the road we took to Kericho several weeks ago. I am usually over nervous about such things, too. I think that a lot of the fears that people have about coming to Kenya are unfounded. I got sick here, but it was from the medicine doctors in the U.S. gave me. Americans might be at a greater risk for food poisoning, malaria, and car accidents in Kenya than they are in the U.S., but I also think that we hear more about the negative than the positive. We have had about 15 different wazungu stay at the HATC while we've been here and only one of us (the guy who got malaria) has had anything bad happen. Besides, he picked his malaria up in Mombasa, not here.

P (my longtime boyfriend, for anyone who is not a regular reader) is leaving for Beijing today. Every time I tell people here that he is going to the Olympics, they ask if he is running :-) He is working as a reporter for the IAAF, which isn't quite as exciting, but is still awfully exciting. We haven't yet seen any Olympic coverage, but I am hoping to get a chance to watch Lornah run the 10,000 on Friday while we are in Nairobi, waiting for our flight to London. Monica, Lornah's sister, said that she is working on getting the cable channel they will need to watch it here by Friday.

I still have so many things I want to do here before I go. I have made a list. One of the things we are going to attempt to do today is check out the trees at St. Patrick's High School. Apparently they plant a tree there for their champion runners, and they are running out of space. This morning on my run, I tried to run over to Singore Girls High School, which has produced many of the good female runners in the area (Lornah included) but I was already 80 minutes into my run when I asked a man (in Swahili, I might add) where Singore Girls was. He told me it was five more kilometers up the road, at which point I gave up on going there. I had a breakthrough in my running last Friday--I basically felt much better than I have the whole time we've been here. It could just be luck, or it could be that it took me a full month to adjust. I felt good again today, so decided to attempt my first long run. I had run for 80 minutes before, but I was doing 15-18 mile runs on Sundays before I left for Kenya (and about 50-60 miles per week), so my 9-10 mile "long runs" here were kind of pathetic. This morning was my last chance and I felt good, so I kept going. I wound up running for 2:18, which has to be at least 15 miles. (I think I run at least 9:00 pace here, but you never know. It felt like 8:00 pace does at home, but it definitely wasn't 8:00 pace.)

I should end this for now. I don't know when I'll have a chance to post all of my final entries, but I can certainly do it when I get home on the 17th(ish), if not sooner.

I still have a lot to write about before I leave Kenya, but I am at an internet place (I can't use the word cafe, even though they do here, because no food is served) so I thought I would say hello.

We began a safari to Lake Nakuru today. Sarah and I are traveling with Matt, who will be a junior at Williams College in the fall (Amherst's rival school). We were supposed to meet up with Edgar, another Williams College student who is a KenSAP grad, in Nakuru. Matt lost his phone on his way to Eldoret, where we met up with him. While we were sitting in a matatu in Eldoret, waiting for it to begin the three hour journey to Nakuru, we realized this meant that we had no way to get in touch with Edgar.

I looked through my call history on my terrible Kenyan cell phone (the kids laughed at my phone when they saw it) and wrote down the only three Kenyan numbers I had in there. I called all three numbers, having no idea who I would reach. I only reached one person, but luckily it was one of our students, Daudi. Though no one at the HATC had Edgar's phone number, we eventually got one of the two American high school students who are staying at the camp to call me. Since he was teaching our class for us today, he had my computer. On my computer, I had a file with Matt and Edgar's phone numbers, so that problem was solved.

Even though we were unable to reach Edgar for hours, we eventually tracked him down. It sounds like he is staying at a hotel near ours tonight, and we will pick him up at the beginning of our safari tomorrow, I hope. Considering that we arrived in Nakuru with no plan whatsoever, we have been doing quite well so far. The ride here was smoother than our trip to Kericho, and our matatu was almost luxurious in that it was not at all crowded and the seats were comfortable. I don't really like being in downtown Nakuru, because there are a lot of people who harrass us. It's not like Iten at all. Street kids who sniff glue are apparently a big problem here, and they follow us around, asking us for money. We encountered some in Eldoret this morning while we were looking for a ride to Nakuru and they were particularly aggressive, taking things out of my bag and grabbing our bodies. Matt had his suitcase with him because he's on his way back to he U.S., and so people in both Eldoret and Nakuru were particularly aggressive about wanting to give us rides to various places that we didn't want to go.

I don't want to sound like a heartless person, but I am much more inclined to help someone or buy someone's product when they don't demand that I do so. Most Kenyans are so friendly and kind, so this is definitely the exception.

We have arranged to go on a six-hour safari around Lake Nakuru tomorrow. Apparently we can see everything except elephants, the one animal Sarah really wanted to see. I think this can partially be attributed to the fact that she is a Jumbo (a Tufts graduate). I am really looking forward to seeing some cool stuff...though the idea of sitting in matatus for 10 hours (the ride home will be about four hours long) tomorrow does not appeal to me.

Things are going really well with the KenSAP kids. I get to know them better all the time, and we have seen some concrete progress on their practice tests. We spent a lot of this past week editing essays. We have 56 essays to correct total (14 kids, four each) and many drafts of each. It makes me thankful that I am not a teacher in my other life. The kids have such great stories to tell in their essays, so they are fun to read, but they get a little less fun the fourth time around...

We went to the Children's Rescue Center again yesterday and the weather was good enough for the kids to play outside. Our group played soccer against most of the girls at the Rescue Center and the girls won handily. They were quite good. I took lots of photos of our visit, which I will post when I get back. We are going back once more (on Tuesday) and this time my group will visit the boys' side, which should be a different experience.

I am a little sad to be without my point-and-shoot camera this weekend, because there are a lot of little things I would take photos (and videos) of if I had it. However, it is in Nairobi, serving a more important purpose. A few weeks ago when we were at the track, we met a boy named Henry. He has run about 9:15 for 3k, but he hasn't raced much and hasn't been running for long. He is hoping to eventually go to college in the U.S. (like so many other Kenyans in his position) and is relying on an athletic scholarship. He is living in Iten with the sole purpose of focusing on his running. Henry's brother is over in the U.S. now, running for a school in the South. Henry and I exchanged contact information and though I don't think there are many ways in which I can help him, he's become one of my Kenyan friends. I seem to bump into him a lot, and when I saw him at the internet place in Iten the other day, he walked us most of the way back to the camp before getting around to asking me if he could borrow my camera for the weekend.

Henry's sister graduated from college this weekend in Nairobi, and he wanted to take photos so that his brother in the U.S. could see them. I got the nicest text message from him today, saying how much it meant to him to be able to take photos of her big day. So I may not have videos of animals running around a game park, but my camera is doing more important things this weekend. Besides, this is hardly a sacrifice, since I still have my Nikon D2Xs with me.

Matt and Sarah are ready to go, so I'm going to sign off now.

Though we've figured out how to get online in Iten, I still wait until our weekend visits to Eldoret to post my blog entries. This is because the computers in Iten don't have any spare USB ports for my little hard drive, which has proved to be a very worthwhile purchase. Sometimes I compose my emails in advance, because it's not very fun to sit here at this crowded internet "cafe" (no food or drink is served here) and write.

Since we've been working very hard this week, it's very nice to have a weekend. We are running errands in Eldoret, and we will spend the rest of the weekend catching up on things, editing essays, and doing our lesson planning for the week. I want to buy some supplies to bring to the Children's Rescue Center while we are here, and I also need to stock up on water and some food.

There are more wazungus (not sure if I'm spelling that correctly - white people, essentially) at the HATC now. We have two Germans who are there to train, a Dutch couple (one of whom is writing an article about the young women who live and train at the HATC), and two high school boys from New York City. The boys come from the same school as Bill and Wendy, who were here earlier in our trip. I just met the boys this morning, but I like them, and one of them seems like he's a total track nut, which is always a plus in my book. Sarah and I have requested that the staff seat us at the students' table from now on, and serve us the same food, instead of the wazungu food they make for us. (There's usually a wazungu table in the dining room.) The wazungu food is good, but I'd like to eat more authentically Kenyan food most of the time. I might want to take back these words a week from now, but we'll see. It's also good to sit with them because the more we talk to them, the more they get to work on their English. (Sarah and I are also working on our Swahili, but it's a very slow process.)

Our matatu ride in was bumpier than usual, but I didn't feel unsafe. I am pretty sure the guy sitting in front of us was an elite runner, because he had a Nike hat AND shoes, and he just had that tiny person look that elite runners have. I am not the type to tap on someone's should and say, "Hey, who are you?" but this would probably be a better story if I had done so... I've gotten so used to riding in matatus now that nothing about the experience really fazes me.

As we were nearing Eldoret today, we saw this amazing sight... There were three three naked kids, maybe five years old (I'm terrible at guessing ages), splashing around in a small pond or large puddle, depending on how you look at it. It was big enough to swim in, but the water was brown and definitely not clean. It was amazing to see these kids splashing around, though, because they just looked like they were having the time of their lives. It was pretty adorable.

If I were in the U.S., I would be at the Beach to Beacon 10k in Maine today. I'm just as happy to be in Eldoret and Iten, but I am starting to have my first pangs of missing home. I am glad that we will be here for 13 more days, but I am also looking forward to returning to the other life that I have back in Amherst. We still have a lot to do while we are here, so we will remain very busy until we head home on the night of August 15th. I'm really excited to start watching the Olympics when I return home, and I am particularly looking forward to cheering for all the Kenyans, whether they're representing Kenya or another country. I'd say I'm looking forward to seeing P, but he's heading to Beijing on August 10th and will be covering the Olympics for the IAAF, so I won't see him again until August 26th. My cat, Izzy, will be at home waiting for me, though, which will be very nice.

I'm happy to say that the students' first day of community service went very well. We made our first visit to the Eldoret Children's Rescue Center yesterday afternoon. (The phone number I had for our contact mysteriously worked again the following morning.) Though I wasn't too impressed by their advance planning, the students really stepped it up when we got there. One of their plans was to play with the kids outside, but it started raining as we arrived and continued raining for most of the two hours that we were there, so we had to move all of our activities inside, to places that were too small for running around.

Before we knew it was going to rain, we were sitting at lunch, and I said to Sarah, "Who has the soccer ball?" She said she didn't know, but it was the students' job to figure that out and remember to bring it, and that they shouldn't need to be reminded by us. This was their project after all, so we didn't say anything. Of course, they showed up without the soccer ball and didn't realize that they didn't have it until we had already gotten to the end of the driveway of the High Altitude Training Center. That was when Sarah casually asked who had the ball. There were apparently a few gasps and some finger pointing (I was in the other matatu, so I didn't witness this), then one of the students ran back to get it.

Another weakness in their plan was that both groups planned to play soccer, but we only had one ball. At the Children's Rescue Center, the boys and girls are kept separate at all times, so we had one group go with the boys and the other go with the girls. It was this lack of planning that caused me to be a little worried and skeptical heading into the experience. Since the transportation for each trip to the rescue center costs about $60 (for which I may or may not get reimbursed), and we plan to go three times, I would have been a little frustrated if they didn't make something of the experience.

When we got there, I went with the seven students who were assigned to the girls' side of the center. We were escorted into a room where approximately 35 girls were gathered, waiting for us. I can't even guess what the age range of the girls was, but it sounds like they have everything from infants to 20-year-olds. Most of the kids were less than 10 years old, I'd guess. Our students were initially quite shy, and frankly I didn't blame them, so I suggested that they start off by introducing themselves and explaning a little about KenSAP, and why they are all working together. Everyone introduced themselves, then Steve got up and apparently said that he wanted the kids to guess his name. This broke the ice. All of the communication was in Swahili, so much of what happened while we were there went over my head, but I could tell from everyone's reactions that they were having a great time. Though I am no fan of bribery, we had bought our students a couple bags of candy to hand out, that that was a huge hit. Our students asked trivia questions, told stories, had the kids tell stories and jokes, and gave them candy for their correct answers and good efforts. I'm sure the candy contributed (or was even the main reason) for their enthusiastic participation, but everyone seemed to be having a good time. Although all of the students took a turn getting up and doing some of the entertaining, a couple of them were real stars, and they were so good with the kids.

At the end, one of the KenSAP students, Catherine, got up and gave the kids a motivational speech about getting good grades. Then they borrowed a jump rope and spent the rest of time having the girls jump rope.

While two of the students were running the jump rope session, some of the other students and I sat with one of the girls' teachers, Janet (who was great), and asked questions about the center. One of our students, who grew up in an orphanage, was particularly interested to hear where they got their funding, and how the Center operated. He told me later that the orphange where he grew up has much more funding, its own school, and modern buildings. Though the facilities at the Children's Rescue Center were modest, I really got the sense that the children are well cared for there, and they are relatively happy, given the circumstances. Timothy, one of the students who did a great job entertaining the kids, told me, "We did not expect the kids to be so joyful."

Janet told us that many of kids at the center are HIV positive and that some had been raped or abused by family members or family "friends." She pointed to a small girl, who one of our kids had been holding in his lap for much of the session, and asked how someone could be hateful towards such a harmless little person. We didn't have an answer for that.

When our two hours were up, Janet expressed regret that we had to go, and told us to come earlier and stay longer next time. She said that the kids love visitors and they are so happy to be distracted and to forget their unhappiness for a few hours. She said that because of the trauma they have experienced, kids will just spontaneously start weeping during class, for no apparent reason.

When we were done, I compared notes with Sarah and Wendy, who had been over on the boys' side. It sounds like the girls were a little easier to entertain, possibly because there were fewer of them, but the kids had been a hit over there as well, particularly one boy, who really stepped up and performed like a hero, teaching the kids songs and telling them stories.

Over the weekend, I have asked the students to write something about their experience at the Children's Rescue Center. I told them that if they didn't really have thoughts on the matter, they could just write, "I have nothing to say." But if they have anything to say about the experience, we want to hear about it. Part of me thinks that this could be something that ends up going in some of their college essays, but mostly I just want to hear what they thought of the experience. We will go to the Children's Rescue Center two more times before we all leave on August 15th, and I hope that our next two visits are as successful as the first.

Today is my parents' 41st wedding anniversary. I am very lucky to have the parents that I have. They are both amazing people in their own ways, and I can't imagine more selfless parents. They always put their children first, and made parenting seem effortless, though I know it wasn't/isn't. I am lucky that they have stayed together through all of these years (they started dating when they were about 15 years old). I also feel like any success I've had can be attributed to the manner in which they raised me. In fact, given all of the advantages I've had in life, I sometimes feel like I should be accomplishing far more.

Yesterday, Wendy taught the morning session and Brother Colm drove Sarah and me into Eldoret to meet with a woman called Sister Helen (who is, it turned out, an American from New York). I really enjoyed being in the car with Brother Colm for the 90 or so minutes that the trip took. The more I learn about him, the more I respect the work he does and has been doing for the past 30 years. He is an incredible man. I'm looking forward to digging up the New York Times article about him that I believe was published earlier this year. I didn't read it carefully at the time, but it'll be interesting to read after meeting him. Before I forget, I also want to mention this fun fact (if there were such a thing as Running Trivial Pursuit, this could be one of the questions)...he told us that the American actor Jerry O'Connell is his cousin.

On the way into Eldoret, we grilled Brother Colm about how he ended up in Iten, why he decided to stay, the post-election violence, Kenyan Athletics, the Western influence on Kenya, and much more. He told us that if we want to make a difference in Kenya, we have to think small. He said that if we thought too big, we would only get frustrated. He also mentioned that a lot of well-intentioned Westerners come here with the goal of helping, but they don't always succeed. Most importantly, he said that in order to be truly helpful in Kenya, Kenyans must own the problem and the solution. We can't come in here with our Western logic, apply it to what we see, and tell Kenyans what they need. Additionally, we can't just throw money at a problem and hope it will fix itself.

I see the logic behind this, and it's a great point, but it makes me wonder how we can be useful here. It also makes me question the KenSAP program. On the surface, from a Western perspective, it sounds like a great thing that we're helping bright Kenyan students gain access to elite U.S. colleges. However, from another perspective, we've also taking some of the smartest students away from Kenya. If they go to the U.S. and never return to Kenya, which some fear will be the case, how have we helped anyone in Kenya? The first class of KenSAP students will be graduating from college soon. Some of them will stay in the U.S. for graduate work, but hopefully most or all of them will eventually return to Kenya. Some Kenyans I've spoken to seem skeptical yet hopeful that they will return.

As I said, Brother Colm drove us into Eldoret so that he could introduce us to Sister Helen. We were interested in having the kids in the program do some community service while they are here. My original idea was that since we were unable to integrate the program (to include non-Kalenjins) this summer, we could do something to help non-Kalenjins. John and I agreed that helping at the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps, where those who were displaced by the post-election violence in December are currently living, would be ideal. There seems to have been a little miscommunication along the way, so that's not going to be an option. However, Sister Helen directed us to another organization in Eldoret, the Children's Rescue Center, which might be able to use our help. Brother Colm was kind enough to drive us over there, and we met with a couple of men who seemed very happy to take us up on our offer.

As of now, it looks like this might not get off the ground, but I'm going to keep trying. We only have 2-1/2 more weeks here, and it looks like the plan could be thwarted by the simple fact that the phone number I got for our contact there doesn't seem to be working. I'm going to try again tomorrow, and maybe I can find my way back there if the phone doesn't work. Though this is something that was sort of "forced" on them by their teachers, the kids seem relatively enthusiastic about the idea. We want them to come up with the plan for what we will do there, because it sounds like we can do anything from playing games with the kids to teaching them anything we want. I really hope we can make this work, because I think that no matter what you have in life, I think it's an important to remember that you can always help others. I think some of our kids know this very well, and others could use a gentle reminder.

Before I close this, I need to add one more "small world" story. While he was still here, John Babington found a place that we can get online in Iten. You would never find it without assistance. You walk a mile or so into Iten, pass the post office, keep going, and then turn down an alley. At the back of the alley, there is a small room with four computers, and you can get online for about two shillings a minute (which would be less than $2 per hour). I made my second visit there yesterday, and as I was sitting at a computer, the owner of the place came up to me and asked if I was Alison Wade from Amherst, Massachusetts. He told me that he had heard I was coming. I was pretty baffled until he explained that he knows Bob and Jon Rosen (who I've mentioned in earlier entries). I didn't understand every detail of the story, but it sounds like Bob and Jon (a father and son who I know from living and running in Amherst) were instrumental in helping Wilfred get his business off the ground. During our very enjoyable conversation, Wilfred also mentioned that he ran a 3:45 1,500 last year...in Iten, everyone's a runner. If Eugene is Track Town USA, this is definitely Track Town Kenya, which doesn't have the same ring to it.

It's getting late and I should go to sleep. Now that all of the men are gone (half of our group), Sarah and I have a lot more work to do. Also, as our time here winds down, we are increasingly aware of how much more we need to accomplish with these kids before we go.

Last night we went next door to Kerio View, one of the only resorts for tourists in this part of Kenya, and had dinner. Kerio View, as the name would suggest, has a very nice view, and last night's sunset was particularly nice. We had been invited there by Jon Rosen, a Tufts alum and Amherst High School (my high school) graduate. Sarah knows him from Tufts, I know him from Tufts and Amherst, and John Manners had corresponded with him a bit in the past. We just happened to bump into him the other night, and he's only in Iten for a few days. He is here visiting Philemon Terer, who I believe is now a 1:02 half marathoner. Jon has been helping Philemon get his running career off the ground for several years, and Jon wrote about this for mensracing.com when I was running that web site. So basically, it's a small world. Jon and Philemon brought their significant others, as well as Philemon's adorable and very happy son.

Continuing the NESCAC connection, we were joined at dinner by Matthew (who is just Matt in the U.S.) and Edgar (a KenSAP alum), who both go to Williams. John Babington, who is part of our group, is also a Williams alum. Last but not least was Brother Colm, the legendary coach who used to coach at St. Patrick's High School.

During dinner, Brother Colm told me a little about Mercy Kosgei, who I have been supporting through the KIMbia Foundation this past year. They matched all of their donors with athletes, so we could see where our money was going. I don't know if I will get to meet her while she is here, but her story was very interesting (nothing I can repeat here) and she sounds great. While we were there, we saw two other famous coaches, Renato Canova (who is apparently out of jail now!) and Dieter Hogen, but I did not meet either of them.

The more I hear about Kenyan athletics (and Athletics Kenya) from various sources, including the newspaper, the more I think it's amazing that Kenyan runners are able to accomplish what they accomplish. It's almost as if someone sat down and said, "How can I make this as hard for the athletes as possible?" And based their plan off of the answer. I hope Kenya has a great showing in Beijing, but if the country doesn't, I will understand why.

We are in Eldoret today to run some errands and check email. John Manners and John Babington are leaving today, and Bill, the English teacher from NYC, left yesterday. Now it's just Sarah, Wendy, and me in charge of the KenSAP students. I'm looking forward to getting to know the kids better and being a little more useful.

This morning, Mike Boit (KenSAP co-founder and Olympic medalist) visited the camp and gave the kids some words of advice. He basically encouraged them to focus hard on their studies and running, be appreciate of this experience, be nice to their parents, and make sure to work hard even when we're not here to make sure they do. When the kids go to Nairobi on August 15th to take the TOEFL exam, Mike will put them up at Kenyatta University, where he works, and arrange for their transportation to the exam center. Sarah and I fly out of Nairobi the night of August 15th, the kids take the TOEFL exam on August 16th, and then they go home for several weeks. In September, they will come back to the High Altitude Training Center, and John Manners will come back to do intensive SAT preparation with them. Now that Sarah and I will be the main teachers here, I think I will have a much better sense of what we need to be doing. We're going to sit down and straighten all of that out this weekend.

The other day, we went to the track because we had heard that there would be at least 100 runners there at a certain time of day. As John B. put it, there were about 85 no-shows, but we got to see some of the KIMbia runners working out. I took some photos, which came out decently well. I will post them when I return. We met Peter, a journalist from California who is writing an article for Running Times. When I introduced myself as Alison, he said something like, "You're not Alison Wade are you?" I mostly find this to be amusing because it impressed the people who were sitting around me. I think if they fully understood how small the running world is, they would not have been impressed at all.

I have so much more to write about, but I will save it for another time.

I talked to Gerard Hartmann briefly at breakfast this morning. I did not realize that he ran for John McDonnell at the University of Arkansas. He is currently traveling all over the world, treating athletes. I asked him if he usually travels to the athletes or if they usually come to him. He said they usually come to him, but because it's an Olympic year, he doesn't want to take them out of their training settings, particularly for those who are training at altitude. We talked to Lornah last night after she had received some treatment from Gerard. She said that he only uses his hands to treat people, but the treatment is incredibly painful--more painful than a hard workout or racing. But I believe they said that Gerard usually does two hours of treatment in the morning, and two hours in the evening. He apparently has some magic hands. Lornah was unable to do a workout the other day because of some pain she was experiencing, but after one session with him, she was good to go. I think it would be incredible to be that good at what you do. Lornah and Pieter said that Gerard's clinic is like a museum, and that he has a bike and a yellow jersey from Lance Armstrong. It's interesting to think that one person can have so much influence over the outcome at the Olympics. There is a world-class athlete living in Iten right now who would benefit tremendously from being treated by Hartmann, but he can't afford it.

On another note, if you ever feel like you've lost perspective in life, I highly recommend a visit to Kenya. So many of the people we've encountered here have so little, yet they seem to be quite happy. In the U.S., I know a fair number of people who comparatively speaking have everything, yet they are still unhappy. Poverty is a fact of life here, and it makes me want to bring every spare item I have to Kenya and provide more people with the basic necessities. But somehow, I find the poverty here to be less depressing than I thought I would, possibly because Kenyans are very resourceful people and many of them seem quite content. On my run this morning, I was approached by one of the many children we see every time we go out. I thought she was just going to shake or touch my hand, but as I put my hand out, she grabbed it and wouldn't let go. We ran maybe 30-40 meters holding hands. Though there are times when I just want to be by myself on a run, or I'm suffering and don't really have the energy to respond to all of the how are yous, but I always try to at least wave, smile, or respond. The kids of Kenya really shape what our experience is like here. If they threw rocks at us every time we went out for a run, it wouldn't be fun to be here. But since everyone seems quite happy to see us and we get a lot of friendly greetings, it makes the experience a lot more fun.

Where to start? I am writing this entry at an internet "cafe," unlike all of the other entries which I wrote on my laptop and brought with me via a USB drive. Sarah and I are taking a chunk of time off today to catch up on our e-mail. We've been to "Makdonald Cyberworld" (our favorite place to get online, and it costs just over a dollar an hour) three times now, but this is the first real time I've had with an internet connection. The first time we were here, we couldn't stay online for more than a couple minutes because of connection problems all over Eldoret. We were here briefly on Sunday, but we only had 15 minutes. Since all of the other "adults" will be leaving next week, we'll be spending a lot more time teaching beginning next Monday. We wanted to take advantage of our chance to get online today, while our schedule still permits. From now on, we'll probably just come to Eldoret once a week, probably on Sundays, to check email, buy water, and a few other groceries.

I think I wrote another entry which I forgot to bring with me. If I did, I'll bring it next time and just backdate it. I have recovered from my illness. It was definitely the malarone (anti-malaria drug) that was causing it. Now I'm just using bug repellent, sleeping with a mosquito net over me, and staying away from mosquitoes in general. It's very unlikely that I'll get malaria in Iten. This is what Lornah and Pieter say, and I trust them. There is another guest at the camp right now who is very sick. He spent last night in the hospital. It sounds like he might have malaria, but he spent time in Mombasa before coming here, and apparently this isn't a good time of year to go to Mombasa, malaria-wise. Lornah said last night that if you are taking anti-malaria drugs and you get sick, they can't tell if you have malaria or food poisoning, so they have to treat you for both. At least if I get malaria they'll be able to tell :-) I didn't realize how many elite Kenyan runners have suffered from malaria, but in talking to JM, it sounds like it is a common roadblock for many of them. He says that though anti-malaria drugs are readily available and quite effective, Kenyan runners refuse to take them. This is one of his arguments for why he thinks that Kenyan runners would never take performance-enhancing drugs, period.

We got to watch the Paris meet where Shannon Rowbury ran 4:00.33 the other night. We went over to Brother Colm's house and watched the meet with two runners who have apparently been named alternates for Kenya's Olympic team--David Rudisha and Isaac Songok. Another one of Brother Colm's athletes--Augustine Choge--was running in the meet. He won the 1,500. Choge was doing something funny with his hands throughout the race. Brother Colm got a call after the race and learned that what he was doing was adjusting his shorts, because they were in danger of falling down. I had a hard time staying awake during the meet, since it was past my bedtime, but the whole evening was a surreal experience. We got a ride over to Colm's house from Lornah and Pieter, watched the meet with celebrities (including John Babington, a member of our travel party, who is someone I've always looked up to), and then got a ride home from Colm. It's neat to get this celebrity tour, courtesy of JM, because if I came here by myself, I'd probably be too shy to introduce myself to anyone. Speaking of celebrities, Gerard Hartmann is staying at the HATC right now. He arrived last night. He's here to treat Lornah, and there's another physiotherapist here to treat Pieter. Only one other person at our dinner table truly appreciated this bit of news. I had to explain to the others that he's the physiotherapist (aka physical therapist) to the stars.

This past weekend, we went on a journey to tea country and stayed overnight in Kericho. The trip there wasn't too bad, because we made a lot of stops. The roads in Kenya are pretty dangerous, and the driving is horrible. There are places where the road is so bumpy that it's easier to just drive on the dirt shoulder of the road. There was only one time when I felt unsafe this weekend, but others in the vehicle felt that we had three or four near crashes. I am just glad to be back in one piece, and I don't plan to travel via the roads much more if I can help it. The good news is that these wouldn't be high speed crashes, because you can't get up much speed when the road is full of potholes. We got stuck in the mud twice and had to be pushed out by a handful of Kenyan men, but I see all of this as just another part of the adventure.

We stopped at JM's friends' houses along the way. First we made a stop to check out the headquarters of Peter Rono's program, which sends a lot of Kenyans over to run and get educated in the U.S. They have fewer resources and different objectives from our program (theirs is more about running and a little less about academics), but it was interesting to see what they're working with. Next we had lunch at the house of someone JM has known for a very long time, who we had already met in Nairobi. They made about a week's worth of food for us and entertained us in their house and gazebo (with a thatched roof) which are quite nice by U.S. standards, so not typical for Kenya. We were told that Kenya's current 800m sensation, Pamela Jelimo, was from this area--Nandi Hills. When it was time to go, the six or so women who were there sang us a farewell song and gave the three women in our travel party these great shawls. It was so nice of them.

Next we stopped off for tea at the house of Mike Boit's sister and brother-in-law. They, too, were quite hospitable, and we got to meet with a girl who had been turned down by KenSAP, partially because we think she can get into a U.S. college on her own. The thing that left the greatest impression on me at this stop, however, was the three-legged cow. I think the cow somehow got tangled up with the dog and lost part of his or her fourth leg. Poor cow.

Dinner was at a fancy country club, with one of JM's old friends who he taught while he was in the Peace Corps. This guy was quite the host. The following day, he took us for a tour of the tea factory where he used to work. I have lots of photos which I will post when I get home. (We saw thousands of acres of tea plants this weekend--it was pretty interesting, even though I originally stated that I only wanted to go on this trip if we'd see fast runners or animals.) We stayed overnight at a hotel where the accomodations were similar to our setup at the HATC. After lunch at our host's beautiful house (we definitely didn't see the average Kenyan home this weekend), we began the long journey home, which ended up taking about five hours.

I'm glad we got to see more of Kenya, but now I'm looking forward to mostly staying put for the rest of the trip. I need to go now because we have more errands to run before heading back to Iten for the afternoon exercise class.

From now on, I will try to compose my blog entries in advance so I feel a little less rushed. In short, I'm having a great time here. I think that this is definitely one of the places in the world that is worth visiting, and if you come here, bring any spare stuff you have, because it will be put to use!

A couple days ago, I was worried that I was going to have to leave Kenya early. Luckily, I am doing much better now and I am basically back to normal. We've figured out that the anti-malaria pills I was taking (malarone) made me very sick. Initially I only had mild symptoms, but then it got worse and worse, to the point that I was losing fluids far faster than I was taking them in. Two nights ago, I skipped dinner because I didn't have the energy to get out of bed, and when I sat up my stomach would roar like there was a monster inside. During dinner, I threw up three times, and I knew that if things continued on this course, I would have some serious dehydration problems. Luckily that was the low point. Lornah and Pieter were able to provide some sports drink (I felt bad that one of them had to go home to get it) and that was the first thing I was able to keep down. Everyone was very helpful when they realized how sick I was. They moved us to another room where the toilet worked, brought us plenty of toilet paper (we had been having trouble getting enough of it up to that point), gave us the name of a Ukrainian doctor we could see in Eldoret, and made me some tea. I had stopped taking the malarone about 36 hours earlier. I haven't taken it since, and if I do resume taking it, I won't take it every 24 hours. It's very unlikely that I would get malaria at 8,000 feet, and I'm going to avoid mosquitoes as much as possible, within reason.

This morning was my first run, and I wasn't able to run much since I took the group with the slowest runners. I got them to run for 16:30 without stopping to walk, which was the most they've done so far. They did much better than they have been doing. I added on a little bit, but not much. This afternoon, I am hoping to do a 7k loop, which will hopefully be a first step in getting back into some decent training again.

We went into Eldoret for the first time yesterday. We had our first real matatu experience. Until then, we had hired a matatu to take us everywhere, which meant it was just the people in our party and the driver. Going to Eldoret involves a "public" matatu experience. Sarah and I were accompanied by John Babington, which was nice since he had already been in a couple times and was, comparatively speaking, a veteran. I was very impressed that we managed to squeeze 24 people into a 15-passenger vehicle at one point. We weren't all technically in the vehicle since three of the passengers were hanging out the open sliding door. We were told in advance of coming here (when we asked about the dangers with regards to the post-election violence) that the most danger we would face would be on the roads. I haven't felt particularly unsafe yet, particularly since the road from Iten to Eldoret is relatively quiet, but the matatus do tend to swerve all over the road in order to avoid potholes, and passing can sometimes be scary.

Speaking of the post-election violence, this seems like such a peaceful place, so it's hard to believe what took place in late December and January. We had one applicant for the program whose father died of a gunshot wound in January. We did not confirm this, but we suspected that it happened during the post-election violence. On the road from Eldoret, we did see the refugee camp which was set up for those who were displaced during the violence. There were basically just a bunch of tents in a field, as far as I could see (we drove by quickly). We also saw a burned out building or two, but for the most part, I assume that things look just about the same here as they did last July.

The Americans involved in this program have been talking about how we can provide more support for these kids once they get over to the U.S. We'd like to find people to take them on their initial shopping trips to buy winter clothes, general college supplies, and so on. Some of the kids get money from their schools to buy such things (laptops, for example), but most of their money comes from their on-campus jobs. Some of us have also discussed how great it would be if some of these kids could spend an extra year in the U.S., essentially doing a senior year of high school. In Kenya there is a two-year gap between when you graduate from high school and when you go to college. The kids who we selected for this program finished high school in November of 2007 and won't be attending school again until the fall of 2009. It might ease the academic transition if they could come to the U.S. for a year, live with a host family, and fill in some of the gaps in their education. None of this is cheap, though, so the program would have to secure additional funding. Right now, the program is funded by a Canadian investor, but the funds are limited. In the near future, KenSAP will be earning tax-exempt status, which will hopefully open up some new possibilities.

I'd love to get a shoe sponsor for the program, for example. It would cost a shoe company almost nothing, and you should see some of the shoes these kids are running in. We've been able to buy a couple of second-hand pairs for the kids, and Monica also provided a couple pairs, which I believe originally got to Kenya via Toby Tanser. You should see how happy some of these kids are just to get a pair of running shoes which probably already has 400 miles on it. Right now, we have a kid who is a severe pronator, but we haven't been able to find even a used pair of shoes which is the right size. Our fastest girl from this year's class has very small feet, so we haven't been able to find anything for her to wear. Right now she's running in borrowed shoes which are probably a half to full size too big for her, yet they are a huge improvement over her old pair. I'm planning to leave one of my pairs of shoes here when I go (I'd leave both, but I need to wear something on the trip home), but none of these kids fit into an 8.5.

For reasons I'm not going to explain here, we added a new student to the program today. We are now up to 14, which is our absolute maximum capacity, since we only have 14 SAT books (two of which were supposed to be for the instructors). Hopefully having 14 students won't reduce the amount and quality of attention each student receives. I don't think it will.

We are going on an overnight "field trip" to see some tea fields this weekend. I'm sure it will be interesting, but I am kind of reluctant to go. I hope to be proven wrong, but I am not convinced that driving 150 miles (which takes hours and hours here--not the two hours it would take in the U.S.) on dangerous roads to see some tea fields is worth it. However, when presented with the alternative option--staying at the camp with hardly anyone--I relented. They promised they would sing and entertain me on the long journey. We have a hired driver, so it won't involve the traditional matatu experience.

On another note, Sarah and I have befriended one of the guards here. He has a wonderful sense of humor and I think Sarah has placed him on her Top 10 Favorite People of All Time list. I wouldn't go that far (nor do I have a list), but he is entertaining. He gave us his phone number, and we provided our e-mail addresses today, so we can stay in touch, maybe. (He doesn't have a computer, so he probably doesn't get online often.) He has two kids, ages three and six, and he hopes to go to the U.S. someday. He practices his English on us (it's among the best we've encountered) and he is teaching us Swahili. I am not a very quick learner, but I'm glad I did some studying before I came over here.

It's time to get ready for class again...