Terry's Musing on the run

Jan 25

Its Sunday morning, we have been in Africa 10 days and in Kakamega for 8. I have emerged from my mosquito net to do my own bit of blogging on the computer.

So many areas to blab about: the People, the Scenery, the Projects, the Environment. Each is worth a blog in itself.

We are at 4500 feet so Im not feeling like a running superstar. Im getting out everyday (sometimes twice) and each run is a new adventure. The roads here do not exist on any map and to be called roads is a bit of a compliment. I basically leave out our front gate each morning and try to take off in a different direction in the hopes of getting lost and then finding my way home. I run shirtless; I love the heat, about 20 degrees in the morning. No matter how many back roads and paths I take I attract lots of attention: from blank stares to “OBAMA!” and go, go go. There is no place to go without people. The terrain is so rough I have to concentrate on my footing, instead of returning all the greetings I get.

I was surprised at first not to see scooters and 3 wheeled tuk tuks here, as in India; just bikes and motorbikes. This seemed odd because motorbikes are much more expensive. But now I realize that the roads are simply too rough. So people walk. Rush hour traffic here is wall to wall pedestrians and bicycles with just enough cars and motorbikes to keep it interesting.

For running that’s a good thing, dodging people and cow dung is less intimidating than dodging vehicles.

We have such a nice place this feels like a holiday, as it is. Its funny how being literally next door to slums and major poverty feels normal to me. It feels more normal than being in Courtenay where people think we actually have problems, like the homeless. Or I think about the Habitat for Humanity house that was built in town for a family of five. The cost to help that family was probably around $100,000.00. That amount of money could change the lives of 250 kids here by letting them go to school, instead of staying home in the dust. As I run through the slums I fantasize about being a millionaire or Warren Buffet and just helping everyone I see. Same thing I day dream about on my runs in Courtenay .

As we go from project to project we see and meet the kids that are looking for school money. They aren’t even looking really. Their parents are dead and a local do gooder is trying to help them by asking for money from us (‘Us’ as in the rich). I wish we could smell a scam, but there just isn’t any catch. Not even the drug excuse we have back home where the poor and needy often came from good homes, but got carried away by drugs. Or where they came from bad homes and got carried away with drugs. These kids here have no drug problems, they don’t even have enough money to smoke, just a history of being really poor with dead parents.

Well not the most cheery blog, but its what I think about most here (actually I think a lot about it at home too which is why Im here, partly). I wonder why I don’t sell everything off to help as many as I can. We are planning a safari that will entertain us for 3 days, for the same cost we could put 9 kids though primary school for a year. And we are going to go. And probably not feel too guilty about it. The human being is a selfish animal. Its not that depressing, it just is what it is. For some reason we humans, including yours truly, can spend money on home renos and $4 coffees, knowing full well that people are starving to death just a plane ride away. And Im human. No excuses. No point trying to figure it out. We’ll try to help a lot of humans while we are here, within our personal means and comfort, and with Rotary and other groups many thousands are being helped. So many groups are here doing good work. A lot of those donor dollars are getting gratefully received. When people say “Im worried my donor dollars wont get to the source” I think it’s a good concern, but donate (with discretion) anyway. How many dollars that get donated to Wal mart and Starbucks profit margin go to a good cause? We knowingly pay Nike $100.00 for a sneaker that cost them 10 cents to make without worrying if the extra $99.90 went where it was needed most.

Im off for a run, not sure what I’ll see today. Yesterday we saw a big leafy (like a giant fern) tree full of huge black storks. It looked like a scene out of a Tarzan movie and it was about 5 minutes from here.


author: Terry