It's The Reason We Did This In the First Place

Tuesday January 18th, 2011     DAY TEN

RAE Daily Update; posted by Bill Palladino, Executive Director of On the Ground

After more than 200 miles running in a foreign land, and with the end of their quest just around a few more bends in the road, our team is experiencing the real purpose our work. Understand that for each of the runners the act of running 250 miles through Ethiopia was a significant challenge, and for most its that challenge that brought them to our organization.  Without their love of running, and their belief in themselves, we would never have been able to raise the money necessary to build the schools we've committed to.  We are all grateful for their courage and conviction to do this.  Earlier today, because of a bad internet connection, and a resultant lack of posts coming back from Ethiopia I created this short status update on our Facebook page.  It said simply, "The cultural and emotional lessons of the RAE Team experience are much more important than any athletic struggles they will endure."    A few hours later my patience paid off with two marvelous posts, one from OTG founder Chris Treter, and the other from journalist Jacob Wheeler.

Here's what Chris sent us:

"Since the first time I stepped foot into the coffee growing communities of Yrgacheffe, Ethiopia I have been conflicted. I earn a living, in part, from a community of people that cannot send their children to school (as there is no school), where the average life expectancy is only 51 years (as there is no health care), and where life-threatening diseases arise from lack of access to clean drinking water.  I can sit in a nice cafe listening to music, leaning back in a comfortable chair, sipping on a latte, or breve’, or cappuccino, while I know, first hand, that the farmers who produced that coffee spend their days toiling away in fields, eating false banana (known as the famine buster for its ability to stay edible for a long period of time) and only having access to the food which they grow or kill.

Most coffee growers' lives are bound by poverty, while the product they produce, some of the most sought after coffee in the world, is placed in the hands of the rich – the 20% of the world’s population that controls nearly 80% of the world’s wealth. That is, you and I, those in the United States, or Europe, whose entire population lies within the wealthiest segment of the population.

The Run Across Ethiopia was first conceived to help support the coffee growers of Yrgacheffe, knowing that although Higher Grounds, and many other coffee companies in Cooperative Coffees, pay above fair trade prices, a price will never be enough in a community so stricken by poverty. Fortunately the idea of the Run has taken off and many people in our global community have jumped in to combat poverty. (Editor’s note: Cooperative Coffees is the buying coop that Chris’ company Higher Grounds participates in to buy Fair-trade coffee in a large quantities from around the world, including Ethiopia.)

The Run Across Ethiopia is funding a four classroom block in Hase Gola that will serve 480 students a year coming from 8 feeder schools in 10 villages, thus benefiting a total population of over 8700. This project is in conjunction with the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, the organization with which Higher Grounds has formed a long-term relationship.

It will be constructed and furnished to the standard of Oromia Regional Government and handed over immediately after completion to the Government to administer the school. This is extremely important as in Ethiopia, 86.3 percent of the population lives in rural areas such as Hase Gola. They subsist on agriculture which accounts for 55 percent of the GDP and creates 80 percent of employment and 60 percent of exports.

According to international poverty line estimates, 46 percent of the Ethiopian population gets below $1 a day. In such a context, access to health services, modern transportation, clean drinking water, education, & other activities and services are beyond the reach of the majority of the population.

The school project in Hase Gola is the first (of many) major successes in the Run Across Ethiopia. And while our runners today received a joyous and overwhelming reception from over 2000 people, it is just the first step toward a community reaching long term sustainability. Thanks to many of you who have contributed to helping the community of Hase Gola begin its walk down the path of sustainability. Your generosity will serve nearly 500 students who will now receive a secondary education!"

(The data above was sourced from UNICEF 2003)

Jacob Wheeler was also obviously moved this day.  His post comes from a decidedly different perspective than what he sent the previous nine days.

Day 10: The run yields to Hase Gola

"For the past nine days, my blogging has focused on running — that is, the 10 harriers running nearly 250 miles across southern Ethiopia. I've catalogued their aches and pains, daily mileage and terrain, and how the runners have interacted and boosted each other through this painstaking endeavor. In other words, I've been a sports reporter.

But I've got news for you. I've taken you for a loop. The running was never the true story here.

Today, Day 10 of the Run Across Ethiopia, after jogging a slight 12 miles through hilly coffee country, we met the true gravity of our purpose here — in the form of thousands of excited rural Ethiopians waiting for hours down a rutted dirt road for our arrival in Hase Gola — the hamlet where the first On the Ground Global school is already being built. Immediately upon disembarking from the bus around 1 p.m. today, our entourage was swarmed by an untold number of joyous local villagers, clapping their hands, singing in gospel choirs, dancing with sugar cane sticks, playing whatever instruments they had on the floor of their meager hut. The welcome was beautiful, intense, and seemed both triumphant and tragic at the same time. Imagine the kinds of crowds that turn out to greet the Beatles, or Obama. Now you have at least an impression of what this felt like. I looked from face to face of our contingent — American and Ethiopian runners/journalists/musicians/interpreters, alike — and couldn't spot a single dry eye. Many of us have traveled extensively to developing countries before; others have rarely left the Midwest. And no one — no one — had ever experienced anything like this before.

Our new friends, numbering in the thousands, mobbed us as we found our way to makeshift tables where Tadesse Mekala, head of the Oromia Fair Trade Cooperative (spelling?), Chris Treter and others gave speeches about the importance of this new school for the community. Its construction is already underway. It will include four classrooms, which can hold 480 students (240, twice a day); it will reach 10 different rural communities, and ultimately change the lives of nearly 9,000 people whose sons, daughters, brothers and sisters will attend school here. Music took over after the speeches. Our interpreter Mamoosh danced like a jackrabbit along with the choir. Seth Bernard held hands and danced up and down with the pastor. Timothy and Connor Young joined Ethiopian youth in climbing a tree to take in the scene.

Our entourage was treated to a delicious meal afterwards in the new school, including a plate of fresh raw meat from this morning's animal sacrifice. When offered a gift of luxury in an impoverished village, you never turn it down. so runner Matt Desmond, myself, Maureen Voss, Shauna Fite and Timothy Young tried the raw meat with berbere spice. Whether the cuisine will come back to haunt us is unclear. But what is clear is that today's powerful visit to Hase Gola will remain lodged in the hearts and minds of our Run Across Ethiopia team. It's clear now that the run, itself, is only a vehicle, a conductor. The school and the community is what the journey is really about."

I want to thank Jacob and Chris for their rich words.  We hope that these posts will help you, sitting at home like me, to change in some small way.  To have your perspective on one small part of the world shift.

Please remember these are only excerpts of posts that our team has provided us.  All of these people represent the heart of the Run Across Ethiopia, those of us still back in the States are proud of how they serve our mission.  To read full-length stories posted by our RAE Team members please visit our blog pages at http://onthegroundglobal.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=e86f86882c25bcdcfe0bda552&id=1e6c06aca8&e=7b6f7ef5c1

Remember too that you can follow us on Facebook and on Twitter where we post frequent, if short, snippets about the adventure.