The Half

This post is dedicated to Linda. It is due to her help and support that I finished the race.

Sunday morning, 6:45 am.

From the hills of Kijabe, we descended on Nairobi. We’ve eaten our Cliff bars and have Gu in our pockets. We’ve trained and have goals. Watch out, Kenya.

Around 15,000 people lined up at the starting point as the announcer cautioned, “Please do not push!” And, we were off!

Ava stayed behind to cheer for her daddy, Todd:

I had a goal of finishing in 2:00. I hadn’t actually made it up to 13 miles before the race, but we’ve been running at a higher elevation and over some hilly, rocky terrain, so I was counting on the 2,500 foot drop and a nice, flat, paved course to cut some time off. Things were going pretty well for about 5 miles, when I felt a weird twinge in my right ankle. Over the next mile it spread up my calf and by the halfway point I was struggling to walk, much less run.

Oooh, I was angry. And hurting. A bad combination when you’re watching people stream by that you worked hard to pass for the past 50 minutes. I hobbled along by myself for a good two hours, trying to talk myself out of a serious depression and making small goals. At this point I doubted that I could finish and was trying to scheme a way to get a ride to the finish line. I debated catching a ride on a wheel chair. . .

Then, from the sidelines, I spotted her – Linda my Lifesaver. A friend from Kijabe, she was supposed to meet me at mile 10 and run the last three miles together. She heard that I was struggling and met me at 8 or so. This improved my mood exponentially, so see a familiar face! We hobbled through the next 5 miles together, sometimes doing a little trot-run but mostly just walking. And talking, making plans for our next race. The marathon course doubled up on ours so it’s always encouraging to see them pass you . . . and know it’s their second time around. Of course their legs are ridiculously muscular, and this is Kenya. But it really put it into perspective when a marathoner in wheelchair pedaled by. Sheesh. Finally we rounded the final bend and I insisted that Linda join me for the final lap around Nyayo Stadium. We even managed to pass a few people wearing jerseys that indicated they were part of the “Greatest Race on Earth” – a circuit including Nairobi, Singapore, Mumbai, and Hong Kong. Small victories.

But the fun wasn’t over yet! As we looked for everyone else, we got a call that Todd had gotten dehydrated and had to be shuttled to the finish in an ambulance. Thus began The Search – asking the police for help finding the ambulances wasn’t too successful. Linda found an ambulance driver and asked her for help, “Our friend was dehydrated and taken here in an ambulance. Where can we find him?” “Ma’am, if he’s dead, he’s in the mortuary.” Such compassion . . . finally we found Todd inside the stadium, getting an IV.

Back in August, three of us decided to train for this thing together. Todd was definitely the rock star. He always showed up for our weekend long runs excited to be there. He was constantly ready to run farther or faster. Matt is a good runner, too, but had some issues with dehydration and took some serious time off during the 4 weeks before the race. I was the girl runner, so normally I’d slow down towards the end and the guys would circle back to keep me company, but at least I’d had the advantage of running a half before. So the end results? Todd is so awesome that he had to pass out before he quit, 2k from the end. I get some random injury. But Matt tore it up in 1:50. Way to represent! I'm proud . . .

We spent some time with Todd and I got an ice pack for my mystery injury. At one point I looked up to see a camera man for SuperSport5 zooming on Todd’s face as they hooked him up. And then the interviews began - Dr. Rich first (the race is a lot like life) and then me! I said a bunch of stuff that would get me on TV – a privilege to run with the world’s greatest marathoners, I’ll be back next year, inspiring, blah blah. Hilarious. I wish it was on youtube.

When it was time to go, the ice and rest caused my leg to seize up and I was really struggling to walk. This is where Linda went above and beyond. After hobbling at a snail’s pace, Linda offered to piggy back me to the meeting area. And I took her up on it. So not only did she keep me company for half the race, and run through the stadium with me, but she carted me around as well. And bought me a water bottle. She is awesome.

So this is where I should pull out a life lesson on perseverance or something. I guess that’s true . . . I’m glad I finished, even if it wasn’t the finish I’d hoped for. The injury is feeling better, but I won’t be running for a bit. In the end, I don’t even know my time since there was no clock at the finish line. I’m thankful for Linda, thankful Todd is OK, and that everybody else did well. And I’m ready to kill the next race.

Multicultural Day

Multicultural Day is debatably the greatest day in the RVA school year for the following reasons:

1. Everyone dresses up to represent their home country and acts crazy.

2. From chai to lunch, we get to play outside.

3. We have a parade of nations that involves flags, different languages, lots of cheering, and 33 nationalities represented on stage.

4. It counts as one of our 180 school days.

Some of my students had been practicing a Korean fan dance for weeks:

The Titchies singing away (notice my Swiss girl in her awesome wig!):

Some of the 33 flags on stage:

And then, game time! The whole school was split into four colors: red, yellow, black, and white. Hilariously not PC, but the theme of the day was "all our precious in His sight." I was team leader of Red Team 1 and, while no one wanted to do any cheers with me, we still won a lot . . . contributing to an overall win by the RED TEAM! (We got to go to lunch first.)

Students competing against teachers in sumo wrestling:

Showing off some mad tininkling skills:

Giant games of twister:

We had a beautiful morning outside playing games . . . and then the rain poured all afternoon, perfect for relaxing movie time. That night it cleared up again for FIREWORKS! I was actually quite impressed with our little display, teachers running around the field lighting fuses while the whole community watched from the bleachers. My Swahili teacher, Tabitha, told me later that her mom thought it was gunshots . . . guess it needs to be advertised a bit better next time.

Wordle

Because I can . . .

Wordle's interpretation of my blog. Wordle.net

S.E.W.

It’s Spiritual Emphasis Week at RVA! Actually, it’s the last day of S.E.W. but true to form, it’s taken me this long to write anything about it. That does not diminish the fact that God has been working on this campus. Our speaker, Bay Forrest, is an interesting character – 6’10 former Phoenix Suns player, former RVA dorm dad, and now works with his wife at Focus Ministries. He’s connected very well with the students and God has used him to touch hearts.

On the third day of sessions, Bay spoke frankly about living a Christian life without actually being a Christian. He challenged the students to search their hearts and after praying, invited those who had accepted Christ for the first time to stand up. As I sat and listened, I thought about how I would feel, going to a Christian school with a whole bunch of Christian students and teachers and missionary parents and Christian everywhere. Who was going to stand up? I thought maybe one or two brave souls. And in the next instant, students around me stood up all at the same time, popped out of their chairs to stand before their peers and the school. It was an incredible moment.

I’m not sure how many kids stood up, but it seemed like a lot, around 50. And the more I thought about it, the less surprising it was and the more thankful I became that God reached these kids now, at this time. Bay quoted the passage from Mark 7:21-23.

21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

The kids here face the same challenges as any other high school, and even more . . . consider those ripped from their comfortable lives in the States or wherever else to become a dorm kid where ‘home’ is now a village in Uganda. If they didn’t know Christ as Savior before, the temptation is to blame Him as the one who upturned their lives and took their parents away. Or even the kid who grew up here at RVA . . . it’s possible to not be a Christian at a Christian school with Christian parents and a Christian ministry. Accepting Christ is a personal decision, and for a good many students here, that decision wasn't made until this past weekend.

Today is the last day of S.E.W. and Bay will be boarding a plane soon. We know he is not credited for the changes here, God is. Please pray for students as they continue to search out truth and for staff as they attempt to guide and mentor these kids.

Mombasa

Last weekend was our Midterm break - already halfway through our first term, which ends on Thanksgiving Day. Wow! I decided to live our 4 days off to the fullest, and head for Mombasa with some other RVA staff and short-termers. So Friday we headed to the bus station, got on an overnight bus at 10pm, and woke up in Mombasa. Or rather, I REALLY woke up around lunch time on Saturday . . . thanks to Dramamine, the wonder drug.

The beach was gorgeous . . . white sands, Indian Ocean, framed by a reef.



We had a lot of interesting encounters with the locals. This is Dennis, who owned a shop on the beach and was eager for conversation. He appreciated my halting efforts in Swahili and the fact that my missionary occupation afforded a meager budget.



My absolute favorite part was snorkeling. We tried to swim out to the reef and were astounded by the multitude of sea urchins - it was like a minefield! Made me nervous to play in the waves later, but during high tide we were far away from them. The next day we opted for the glass-bottom boat, captained by Ali and Adam. We puttered out to a sand bar and dropped anchor amongst a fleet of sunburned tourists. I was dubious about the quality of snorkeling, given the laarge amount of neon snorkels bobbing around the area - but I was pleasantly surprised!



Ali started the entertainment by feeding the fish underneath the glass of the boat. When it was time to jump in I donned my rented snorkel gear but was surprised by a small crustacean in the tube . . . "Ali, there's an animal in my snorkel!" Ali also thought it was fun to throw pieces of bread at my face so that the fish would swarm me and dart at my eyeballs . . . but the snorkeling was good! Besides a host of regular tropical fish and starfish and urchins, we saw two lion fish, a family of clown fish, an eel or snake, and a giant dying fish that I was quite impressed by. And I got a picture under the boat:


The hotel provided some night entertainment, including traditional dancing that of course included audience participation. Contrary to what the picture might convey, I was not the only white person up there . . .


And they had a giant chess set. Here I am with Amber, modeling the African carvings . . .



And of course, camels on the beach.



Here we all are, the beach gang, happy and tan!