Thursday January 13th, 2011 DAY FIVE
RAE Daily update, posted bu Bill Palladino, Executive Director of On the Ground
I forgot to give you a the Family Update last night, so I'll include it here. The family wave all made it safely to Ethiopia. Kathy Young and her two children Connor and Stella, Maureen Voss along with Aiden and Lucy, Shauna Fite and her fellow "Benzoid" Amalia Fernand. The entire entourage showed up in Addis Ababe late Wednesday night where they were greeted by James, Jamaica, Seth, and May. Now there's a crew I want to hang out with. But the schedule left these folks little time to settle in before pushing them out the door to experience the wonders of Ethiopia's capital city.
Food, dance, music, and the intense closeness of this urban "new flower."
The family crew followed along as Seth and May went to a local school to work with students on Art to Music, a program developed by Grand Rapids, Michigan native Stephanie Schlatter in her capacity as director of the Art Aid International component of the Tesfa Foundation. Stephanie led the children through a purposeful process of first listening to music that Seth & May would play, then making art right on the spot based on what the music made them feel. Stephanie was also joined by Benzie County, Michigan native Amalia Fernand who brought her depth of environmental education knowledge to the school. Amalia worked with the children to create fabulously colored monkey masks representative of the animals common to Ethiopia. It is evident from the joyful expression on their faces that everyone loved these exercises.
Food, dance, music, and the intense closeness of this urban "new flower."
The family crew followed along as Seth and May went to a local school to work with students on Art to Music, a program developed by Grand Rapids, Michigan native Stephanie Schlatter in her capacity as director of the Art Aid International component of the Tesfa Foundation. Stephanie led the children through a purposeful process of first listening to music that Seth & May would play, then making art right on the spot based on what the music made them feel. Stephanie was also joined by Benzie County, Michigan native Amalia Fernand who brought her depth of environmental education knowledge to the school. Amalia worked with the children to create fabulously colored monkey masks representative of the animals common to Ethiopia. It is evident from the joyful expression on their faces that everyone loved these exercises.Amalia took some terrific photos of the day's events. I'll include one here, but please go to our Flickr site to view all the photos in their best resolution. This is my favorite photo of one of the children making her way home with her fashionable mask firmly attached to her head. Our team obviously made a great impact.
And here's a sweet, short video of Seth being literally mobbed by children who've just made artwork based on the music he'd been playing. A new fan club! This is from the Old Sarum School in Addis Ababa. Click the image of this link to see it. http://65.161.179.184/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://onthegroundglobal.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e86f86882c25bcdcfe0bda552%26id=cc090ad5a3%26e=7b6f7ef5c1b4
The look on Seth's face tells the whole story.
For the runners it was one more grueling 30 mile day on the road between Ziway and Lake Lagano. Jacob Wheeler wrote the following for his blog on the Glen Arbor Sun's website.
Today, the Run Across Ethiopia harriers and local Tesfa team runners faced a third straight 30-mile run through the Rift Valley to Lake Lagano. The team that awoke this morning before 5 a.m. hobbled, limped, crawled and pranced their way to the bus for a predawn breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and coffee — some of their toes bound in tape and sore ankles and knees wrapped, their stomachs victims of the local cuisine, and looking battle-weary like soldiers returning from the front.
Meanwhile the runner we all refer to as "pizza man", Chris Girrbach, sent this update.
The day started out as any other day when you are getting up at 4:45 to eat peanut butter and jelly for the 5th day in a row to prepare for another memorable run across a country that has seen many foot prints left upon its surface. We were all chipper as usual (Ha Ha) and spirits were high as we set out on our journey. We crossed another part of the country that was filled with children that only wanted to run and sing with us. It is a humbeling sight to to have children running barefoot faster that us for mile after mile. The day was a hit with all of us finishing in a blistering time of just over 6 hours. One more day of thirty mile then we get a bit of a break only 24 miles. We are all excited of what is to come and want to thank every body at home for the support. (we really do appreciate it). Well time to go as breakfast is at 4:30 am and we all need our beauty sleep so TA TA for now.
This final update I'll leave you with is from Claire Everhart. She is our youngest runner, but also so very thoughtful as she passes through a country very foreign to the place she left behind.
That's it for now. We'll have plenty more tomorrow, including a nice long piece by Michigan Land Use Institute staff member Shauna Fite.
Day six on Friday promises more stories, and more adventures.
The look on Seth's face tells the whole story.
For the runners it was one more grueling 30 mile day on the road between Ziway and Lake Lagano. Jacob Wheeler wrote the following for his blog on the Glen Arbor Sun's website. Today, the Run Across Ethiopia harriers and local Tesfa team runners faced a third straight 30-mile run through the Rift Valley to Lake Lagano. The team that awoke this morning before 5 a.m. hobbled, limped, crawled and pranced their way to the bus for a predawn breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and coffee — some of their toes bound in tape and sore ankles and knees wrapped, their stomachs victims of the local cuisine, and looking battle-weary like soldiers returning from the front.
But once aboard the bus, the music cranked, and the mood shifted to anticipation of feet on the ground. The pranks, the jokes, the light trash-talking resumed. Nigel the Brit’s early morning karaoke acts, Chris Treter’s tank-like running stride, Chris Girrbach’s feet that seem to attract sharp objects as if they were magnets. This is the kind of self-deprecation that carries one through hell intact … or a 250-mile, 10-day run through Ethiopia. And a little adversity ain’t gonna stop these cats.
The gang tried something new today: music from the support van’s speakers to pick up the runners whenever they felt down. First, Beyonce, Eminem and icons of American hip-hop; then this journalist was asked to produce a thumb drive of reggae, Latino music and (Hans’ Voss request) Rammstein German techno music. I sat out the 30-mile run today. After jumping into the fray and running 8 miles, then 10, then 17, then limping toward 12 yesterday — without training for any sort of marathon — my left knee felt as though it had been stabbed by a knife. So I played DJ, assisted Coach Dan Zemper and nurse Mamoush in preparing the water and food sustenance breaks for the runners, and shot videos. The team has now run 138 miles (20+28+30+30+30), which means we’re over halfway to 250! One more 30-miler tomorrow, and the hardest stretch will be overcome — though the low mileage altitude climb is yet to come.
Nigel Willerton thought it was time to introduce us to the impressive group of distance runners representing Team Tesfa.
This Run Across Ethiopia would not be possible without our Ethiopian friends and guides from TEFSA who will build the schools with the money we raise. They run with us every day keeping us safe and focused. I really do not know how we are all holding up so well during these runs. I have been very fortunate not to get injured or sick like some of the incredible people I am running with who are toughing it out during Run Across Ethiopia give a new meaning to HTFU.
They are from left to right, Meheron, Zinash, Xilahun, Abera, AbdulQadir and Bekolech.
Meanwhile the runner we all refer to as "pizza man", Chris Girrbach, sent this update.
The day started out as any other day when you are getting up at 4:45 to eat peanut butter and jelly for the 5th day in a row to prepare for another memorable run across a country that has seen many foot prints left upon its surface. We were all chipper as usual (Ha Ha) and spirits were high as we set out on our journey. We crossed another part of the country that was filled with children that only wanted to run and sing with us. It is a humbeling sight to to have children running barefoot faster that us for mile after mile. The day was a hit with all of us finishing in a blistering time of just over 6 hours. One more day of thirty mile then we get a bit of a break only 24 miles. We are all excited of what is to come and want to thank every body at home for the support. (we really do appreciate it). Well time to go as breakfast is at 4:30 am and we all need our beauty sleep so TA TA for now.
This final update I'll leave you with is from Claire Everhart. She is our youngest runner, but also so very thoughtful as she passes through a country very foreign to the place she left behind.
We just completed our 5th day of running, also our 3rd of four 30 mile days. It was brutal but we made it! Believe it or not, the first 20 miles go by fairly quickly, it's the last 10 that seem to take forever. We had several moral boosts as crowds of children in every village we passed through ran with us, some for over a mile, gliding over jagged rocks and thorny bushes in bare feet as though they were running on lush grass. Their skinny figures, tattered clothing and obvious lack of dental care does not stop the chorus of laughter that surrounds us the entire time they're running. Many will often grab one of our hands while they run, or say "you! you!" If we say it back they just double over in giggles. Matt Desmond has a quite a way with them. He often can get the whole group repeating him in unison, as he shouts team member names or soccer teams. It is quite heartbreaking, however, when they all beg for our empty water bottles. One runner can often be surrounded by 20+ outstretched hands and only one empty water bottle to give out.
We have all been reminded of how easy it is to take for granted water always coming from the faucet. Most here don't even have faucets, and those who do, cannot count on water always coming, we didn't have any water for several hours where we're staying tonight, what a harsh difference from the states.
This video was shot by Jacob Wheeler of Claire during a short break on Day 5. Click the image or this link, http://65.161.179.184/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://onthegroundglobal.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e86f86882c25bcdcfe0bda552%26id=7cd293948b%26e=7b6f7ef5c1
This video was shot by Jacob Wheeler of Claire during a short break on Day 5. Click the image or this link, http://65.161.179.184/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://onthegroundglobal.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e86f86882c25bcdcfe0bda552%26id=7cd293948b%26e=7b6f7ef5c1Day six on Friday promises more stories, and more adventures.
To read full-length stories posted by our RAE Team members please visit our blog pages at http://65.161.179.184/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://onthegroundglobal.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e86f86882c25bcdcfe0bda552%26id=373302acdd%26e=7b6f7ef5c1
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