and other events

Let's get all the exciting events of June in all at once, now that we're in July! Here's the whirlwind tour:

Bible Study: We take turns hosting and I love having it at my house because it saves me the treacherous walk down and back up in the dark, cold, lonely night. When my friends arrive they're always panting and filled with awe over my weekly treks and demanding rehydration for their efforts. On Wednesdays we do a meal and Gladys helped me make the most AMAZING pizzas . . . tomato basil . . . mm . . . anyway, here they are, crammed in my place:
Since we finished a study, we had to CELEBRATE, and what better way than a BBQ? I had a friend drive down my cornhole set so we could have some real summer barbecue fun. First, appreciate the million dollar view:
Dr. Ndasi, our Cameroonian compadre (or ami, actually), manning the grill:
Imma winding up her winning toss:

During this time my friend Meghan was visiting, who works with a nonprofit in southern Kenya. It was great to see her again!

And around RVA . . . we had sophomore restaurant, where the soph class transformed our cafo into a Night in Paris, complete with chicken cordon bleu, a french fashion show, french tunes, and chocolate mousse. It was definitely Kijabe Date Night as all the staff dressed up and left the kids at home and juniors and seniors asked that special girl to dinner . . . I was missing MY date but had a great time with Anita, the Nagles, and the Rebers. I think the window boxes and awnings are adorable. . .
THEN they had a shower for me. It was such a sweet time of sharing and I left feeling so blessed by the women of Kijabe! My sweet senior girls made these awesome cakes as a final project in their cake decorating class:
The entire girl fish survived to come to 4th grade the next day and awe and delight my class.

Then, let's see, what else . . . I ran a marathon . . . and came back to see my Jenny the next day! She flew in Saturday night and was out in Kijabe before lunch on Sunday morning to get a feel for the place. It was super/surreal to have her here and show her my life and her new life! So crazy!

Of course we had to take the typical "welcome to RVA" picture . . .

Had her meet all my friends . . . made dinner with Anita . . . trying to fill J up with mexican food before she headed to ABO.

We had to say goodbye so soon as she had to head off Machakos. We're already planning a visit in December while she's in the U.S.
love it.

ok that's my life.

DID IT!

I've been battling with the internet since Sunday but I'm experiencing my own Kijabe Miracle - uploading pics on dial up! Hooray! So now I can finally give the race update.

Here we are, the traveling gypsies, en route to Lewa. 9 of us in this car: 5 adults, 3 kids, and baby Ava.
We crossed the equator and watched a riveting demonstration of how water changes direction north or south of the equator and flows straight down on the line! Pretty amazing! Below is 4/5 of TEAM KIJABE! Hooray for psych shirts.


When we made it, we set up camp and went for a drive of the course. Below is what we saw . . . that's right, all over the course!




That night they had a pasta dinner for us and we checked out the competition. There were a ton of people running the half, as that was a team event and the real money maker for the event. After dinner we tried unsuccessfully to light the camp stove to boil water for my hot water bottle . . . and just went to bed. We were so tired. It was so unbelievably cold. And not everyone had the same idea of going to sleep in order to rest up for the big race, but I stuck in some earplugs and slept fairly well. Until 5:15, that is, when Linda knocked on my tent and I burrowed into my sleeping bag and choked down a cliff bar.

So . . . a flurry of sunscreen and energy goo and toilet paper and off we went to the start line. We are SO CUTE, I know . . .


And look at us GO! I love this picture of us all starting out together.

The race was a 21km (13 mile) loop. The first half was crowded enough with the halvesies. We'll not dwell on them and their half marathon, one lap jaunt in the park. The park was beautiful! And well stocked with water stations, thankfully, as was SO HOT.


Just a few kms in, Todd and I struck up a conversation with a new friend, Ron, who shared with us his disaster experience at last year's race, collapsing against a tree at mile 25 and finishing in a stretcher. He also pointed out that the hill we were trotting up was part of a 10km succession of hills. We were thankful for his wisdom and impressed that his wife found our crew - they were all together when we crossed the halfway mark! We were all smiles at that point. The first half hadn't been that bad, we were well prepared, having trained at altitude and on difficult terrain.


But it got harder after that and the next loop presented challenges. The heat was intense. Cramps set in on each of us at diffierent times. We took turns feeling death's imminent knock on life's door. Seriously. I know I experienced the worst pain of my life during those grueling hours. It was during one bout of group delirium that we pledged our undying love to each other and vowed to stick together to the end. A wise choice, because miles would pass where we could see no one ahead of us. No one. Just the wild African bush.

While I was dying, this is what Ava was up to:

We didn't see many animals on the run, save zebra and warthog. The sky was stocked with planes and helicopters that buzzed the course to keep the large game away. Motorcycles would buzz the ground and deliver water towards the end, and there were people spread out to offer assistance, more sport drink, water, oranges, and the life-saving sponges of cold water. I felt like a real crazy runner, letting a stranger pour water over my head.

So, the inevitable finally happened: we made it to the finish.


Best Friends Forever.Sweet success. While our time of over 5 hours is nothing to brag about, I WILL brag about it because I'm so glad I DID IT! The results are here: http://www.lewa.org/2009-safaricom-marathon.php. That's right, I placed in the top ten women! Never mind there were only 18! And I suppose I agree that this should be one of the hardest races in the world. It was rough and tough. But I'm feeling awesome now.

The rest of the day is a story in itself . . . packing the car, the 6 hours home, oh my word, I think that was worse than the race. Did some heavy praying as we drove through some carjacking opportunities and some loud rejoicing when we finally unloaded the car at 10:30pm.

Thanks for your prayers.
I think I can run another one someday . . . maybe on pavement, in the fall . . . any takers?

marathon prep

It's this weekend!

Tomorrow we'll caravan out to Mt. Kenya and beyond to Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. By "we" I mean my traveling buddies: Phil and Linda and 2 of their kids, an extra tag-a-long kid, Todd and Allyson and their baby, and me. The other car contains one of my students and her family - her dad is running. So we are Team Kijabe. We're going to drive the 21K loop and get a feel for the "4 small hills and 1 big hill" we get to run . . . twice . . . during the course of the race. I'm excited for our mini-safari and hoping for some good animal sightings while I have my camera on me.

That night we'll camp out under the stars. Restful, for sure.

Saturday morning we'll hit the pavement . . .er . . . dirt track at 7:15. And sometime that afternoon we'll trickle in, flop into the car, and begin the 5 hour ride back to Kijabe.

Sound crazy? Oh, it gets better.

Celebrity sightings: hoping to see the recent Olympic champion Samuel Wanjiru, who is running the race.
Last year's results: Linda noticed there were only 4 people in her age category. She could place! We're kind of counting on not having to stay for a medal ceremony, however.
Let's go back to the camping the night before: "The campsite is equipped with water points, cold showers, firewood and long drop loos," according to the official site. Did I mention the baby going with us?
Wildlife: Running through a conservancy. Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Running buddies: Let's remember that during the half-marathon on PAVEMENT in lower-altitude Nairobi, a) Todd passed out and had to be hooked to an IV b) I got a stress-fracture and c) Linda carried me to the car.

PRAYER POINTS:
* safety and sanity all the way there and back
* health (so many fevers this week at RVA!) and safety and injury-free running
* that we could get back to Kijabe Saturday night
* for a FUN time!

I'm excited . . . too excited to want to sleep right now. I've been in prep-mode, making Team Kijabe t-shirts and homemade granola bars, guzzling fluids for days, reading new Runners World, fresh from America. And then when I get back, my girl Jenny arrives! Pray for HER and the others that are leaving the US this weekend for a new life in Africa!

So that's the update. More later, I hope, with happy pictures. The ladies of Kijabe had a shower for me last weekend, which deserves a marvelous blog tribute, for sure!

see you on the other side . . .

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Look what the rains have brought! Flowers, flowers, everywhere. As I was stretching after my run today, I decided to finally act on my constant desire to photograph everything around me. These flowers all grow within the hedged-in area my house shares with three other duplexes.

These mushrooms started it all:

They were just so BIG, I had to pull out my camera! Now, I know what most of these are, but not all. We have quite the variety! So if you are comment-happy, you can prove your gardening smarts by labeling them for me. It's like a GAME.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

(i don't know if you can see how big these are - they're on steriods. We get BUSHES around here.)
10.

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13.

14.

15.

16.

Obviously it's a good day if I can get 17 photos in one post. Whoa. Sorry, I went a little crazy. Guess those other pictures I took should just wait for another day.

Meanwhile . . .

. . . back in the United States . . .

* my fiance has moved to our HOUSE and is fixing up anything that needs fixing. What a handy guy.
* my sister has finished her first year of high school (and also got voted Student Council Rep for her class, the little overachiever.)
* my brother has neglected to email me recently so I'm not too sure what he's up to. He did make some (i'm told) impressive videos for Elyse's campaign. Check them out on facebook. Also, if you got to see the video of ME out here . . . he made that, too. Skillz . . .
* the whole family got together for my grandma's SURPRISE 80th birthday in Cinci. I got very jealous when I heard the sounds of cousins, aunts, and uncles all having a good time on the other end of the phone line!
* my dad continues to provide for our family and travel to random places like . . . the netherlands . . . and provide encouragement and organizational thoughts in the whole wedding planning sheme.

(can you tell I miss them?)

and finally, my MOM . . . my mom, between finishing school and caring for the family and being wedding planner extraordinaire . . . my mom managed to get on the evening news. Check it OUT, ladies and gentlemen . . .
http://www.okcfox.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/kokh_vid_2521.shtml

Oh yes, "a match made in . . . Africa."

I hope it works for you . . . I'm actually unable to watch the whole thing but I thought it was worth sharing.

Midterm and More

SORRY it has been so long since my last posts. There have been some challenges BESIDES being busy . . . like power surges and internet failures and I thought my modem was broken . . . turns out I had used up all the megabites and had to buy more credit. Simple solution, thankfully. So here I am, back at it.

Life has been interesting and crazy and we really appreciated our midterm break of 3 1/2 days with no students on campus! Ahh, silence . . . except for the local church filming a music video on the basketball court. Imagine the same song, ALL DAY LONG. Hilarious. But that was the day I was out tearing up 20 miles so I missed most of that. I might wax eloquently on running at a later time . . . it's kind of a big deal and it's while I'm running that I compose blogs in my head so I should do some sort of tribute. We'll see.

Anyway, midterm included my LAST trip to maasai market to get my African curios, a long long run, another trip to Kitengela, and some quality time with Chuck. No, not a new friend, the TV show that some of us like to watch. When the Nagles and Anita and I couldn't finish it Sunday night, we got together for a pancake breakfast and the last three episodes. =) So, a wonderful relaxing time. I am so thankful for these friends! I think I've scored a couple of life-long ones out here. Unfortunately I have no pictures of them at the moment. But here's a few boring shots from Kitengela . . . the glass place . . .

funky giraffe statue

bizarre and HUGE live pig.

the glassblower working his magic. Seriously, magical.

a class update

Here's what's going on in my 4th grade class!

Scientists: Dissecting a huge ox heart and 4 little sheep hearts was a highlight this month. It's evident who are the surgeons' kids. They were SO into it! This week we talked about smoking and actually lit up some cigarettes and "smoked" them with a bottle contraption to look at the tar that collects after just one smoke.

Historians: We've started studying the American Revolution, which is slightly odd since half my class isn't American and we live nowhere near there . . . so interesting frames of reference are used, such as the fact that Kenya used to be a British colony, just like the 13 Colonies. They wrote hilarious letters to the Queen yesterday petitioning for a right they thought was important. I was thinking they'd go for staying up later or extending Titchie bounds or something like that. I typed up their letters to read at the end of the post. Such darlings, they are.

Chicken pox: only 2 of my students have succumbed thus far. It's still trickling through the school, taking out teachers and students slowly . . . I'm expecting a couple more to fall prey to it as their siblings have gotten it. It's kind of old news now but it's still around. One of my boys has it. His mom came from TZ to stay with him and has taken on another girl. They have their own house - the "itchy Titchie" zone.

Party lovers: Last weekend was midterm, which means PARTY in Andersonville. What good is a half day if you're not eating popcorn? My kids always bring in the best snacks, and this time we took it a step further and had SOUP at 9am in honor of our novel, The Tale of Despereaux. Which is a wonderful book, and next Friday we get to watch the movie and have MORE soup (their idea, I promise I'm not trying to NOT be fun. They love it). Yet another wonderful use for the crockpot.

So that's a little fourth grade update. Still LOVING them to death, they constantly amaze me. Yes, they are normal kids, but I think they are so special. It is a priviledge to be their teacher.

And, to finish up, some letters to Queen Elizabeth:

Dear Queen,

Please let the people in Kenya have the right to shoot and ill game. We need the privilege to use the meat to feed our families and the poor. We also need the meat to help feed and save the orphans. Please let us have guns, too.

Sincerely,

Team One

****

Dear Queen,

We want the right to drive on Kenyan roads without getting stopped by the police because they stop us all the time for interesting reasons. It is really annoying if you are in a hurry and you get stopped for writing in red pen on your license. It is annoying to get stopped for the weirdest reasons.

Sincerely,

Team Four.

******

Dear trustworthy, wonderful, beautiful Queen Elizabeth,

Please allow us to cross through countries freely, so we can help people in need of help. And to give water and food, to make churches, houses, orphanages, hospitals, and farms. They are in desperate need of support.

Sincerely,

The Government of Titchies, Lead Judges

I'm not saying anything for their grammar, just their dramatic flair and their little tender hearts. :)