Category Archives: Charity

Guest Post: Team One Verse

Race Review: Giving Thanks 5K

This race has outgrown its humble beginnings. It wasn’t clear to me when I registered that this was a “fun run” had I known that I might have chosen a different race or just run with another group of friends. Nonetheless, we had a fun time and enjoyed the beautiful Thanksgiving morning!

We arrived in plenty of time, checked-in, and waited around. There was hot water with instant coffee, hot chocolate, and hot apple cider available. I went for the cider and Nathan, Mike, and Emily went for the coffee – I was the only one who walked away happy. Registration went smoothly and Nathan and I did a warm-up lap around Como Lake. It is about 1.6 miles around the lake and we got a little confused by the mile markers. They didn’t represent miles or kilometers….

Como Lake is a nice setting for a race and it was a beautiful morning. Upper 20’s or lower 30’s and a lot wind, with the lake having a thin layer of ice on top. Some snow lingered around the lake and frost on the little dock. The rising sun would have made for an amazing picture – but I forgot my camera and I’m not good at creating a word picture, so just imagine it!

We made our way to the starting line and waited, and waited, and waited some more. They were waiting to get everyone out of the registration area. The race director made some announcements, but some in the crowd were getting a little anxious to start. We finally started exactly 15 minutes late. The director had tried to help the front of the pack separate into some semblance of finish times which if people actually followed would have made for a decent start. At these races though no one really starts in the right spot unless they are super-fast on the front line!

I was on the far outside 3-5 rows deep and was able to dart out and around a huge chunk of slower runners. Paul, another runner in our group, got stuck on the inside and struggled to get around slower runners. I settled into a comfortable pace and started picking off runners, while dodging walkers. Even during the first lap there was a lot of walkers on the trail. Some were neighbors of the lake, while others were wearing race numbers and should have started behind us… For the first lap it wasn’t too much of a problem because they were in small groups. About .75 miles into the race we turned a corner and got hit by a pretty strong headwind which we faced for about the next mile. Shortly before the first mile mark a father was letting his 4 young boys run around with the runners. They paid no attention to us almost cutting me off a few times. I think if this wasn’t a holiday I may have gotten upset. I tried to stay relaxed and have some fun. I was enjoying slowly picking people off! I ran the first mile in 6:37.

It was pretty much more of the same as we came through the finish line area and back past the starting line. At this point the trail started to really be getting crowded with walkers, strollers, and dogs. I tried to stay relaxed and zigged and zagged my way around them without making any quick movements and trying to run the tangents as much as possible. I was feeling pretty relaxed and comfortable as I came through mile 2 in 6:35.

The last mile was all in the wind again which wasn’t overly pleasant and the runners were pretty spread out while the walkers were getting thicker. I looked up ahead and saw a woman running and a man in shorts and set myself to try and beat them both. So I slowly picked up the pace and worked on my zig zag technique and ran mile 3 in 6:16.

As we turned the corner into the homestretch I still hadn’t caught either of the people I wanted to pass and couldn’t see shorts guy anymore but the woman was with in reach – as long as she didn’t kick too hard! I turned it on and went flying past her and strode across the finish line, pretty happy with myself!! The last 0.1 miles was in 0:32 which is 4:41 pace! Overall 5K time was 20:01. I had no expectations for this race so that was fine… it would have been nice to get under 20 since I was so close, but oh well!!

Talking with people who know the race director they said something like 600 people had pre-registered for the event, for smaller events you plan to double your pre-registered numbers, but there was a 700 participant limit. I would wager that they got pretty close. Since this was a fun run they didn’t have an official timing system or results. In his pre-race announcements the director indicated that next year they will be changing the course so that the runners aren’t lapping the walkers and creating a mess in the middle of the race. That would be a most excellent idea, especially if they can keep it flat! I occasionally enjoy low-key events and this would rank up there as fairly low-key. Charities Challenge is trying to encourage everyone to exercise and it is a hard balance between attracting lots of runners (of all speeds) and families who just want to walk together while supporting a good cause.

A lot of the walkers had pinned sheets of paper on their backs which said, “I am thankful for…” It was a good reminder throughout the race that I should be thankful for my abilities. Many of them were too long to actually read while I ran by, but it is nice to see people celebrating family!

Media Coverage Pre-Race on Kare11

Note: if you zoomed in really close on the map you could see the zig and zag but at the zoom level above it just looks like the same course.

[tags] Thanksgiving, 5K, Race Review, Charities Challenge [/tags]

World Vision Wrap-Up

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Image via Wikipedia

I can’t say how thankful I am for everyone of you who supported me through the marathon and especially through my fundraising efforts for Team World Vision. It was a humbling honor to run on behalf of my African friends and to share their stories with you over the last months.

It really has been fun to combine two of my passions into such a powerful event. Thank you! I am excited to announce that as of writing this post, we have raised $2,086 for Team World Vision!!! This exceeded the $2,000 goal!! Thank you!!

Below you will find a list of the posts where I shared about my passion for Africa and my experiences there. You can also read all of the posts by clicking on this link. In the order they were published:

That pretty much sums up Team World Vision. I’m not sure when/if they actually close down the fundraising page, but you still have the opportunity to give today. Thank you!!

Team World Vision

Team World Vision is a fund raising arm of the organization which uses ordinary people like me, to get ordinary people like you involved in ending poverty and injustice across the world. I have decided to commit the 26.2 miles of my first marathon to the memory of and in honor of the children I have met during my international travels. I can’t remember all of their names, but I have many pictures and stories.

On the right side of my blog there is a widget that will allow you to support me during this race or you can visit this secure page. I have set a goal of raising $2,000 which will help children have a chance at living to become adults across Africa.

Technorati Tags: World Vision, Team World Vision, Africa , Ghana

Blog Action Day: Texting with my sponsored child

Reflections on South Africa

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I couldn’t find my journal from South Africa, so I’ll show you some pictures and tell a brief story about each. This might be more enjoyable for you anyway!

In South Africa we spent a lot time in the classrooms at various schools. We split up into small groups and “taught” various classes. We talked about goal setting, child abuse, HIV/AIDS, drugs and other topics before opening the floor for questions they had for us. Many of these related to the USA, 9/11 (we went January of 2002), what we liked about South Africa, and more. This is a picture from one of the classrooms.

At a different school a group of kids really wanted me to go to the store with them. Ultimately, I relented and we walked a short distance to a “convenience” store. The big draw for the students was an arcade game. I can’t recall the name of the game, but I remember the shock I felt when I realized that these students were giving up their lunch money to play this stupid game. It was upsetting to me, but ultimately it was the student’s decision to make that choice. But why store owner would you do that to kids?

We did have time to stop and reflect on what we had experienced as well as the opportunity for some “touristy” type activities. This included a little safari one day where we spent some time driving around in Safari style trucks, equipped with an elephant gun, just in case! This was on of the giraffes we saw. We also saw some elephants, a lion, lots of warthogs, and some random other animals.

One week was spent in the northern part of South Africa, near the Botswana border. For the most part we ended up spending a large chunk of the week playing with kids. We spent time playing soccer with some older kids and visited a drop-in center for street children. These children had no place to go and couldn’t afford school.

The drop-in center provided food and structure for them. Staff would teach and counsel them, while helping them overcome their addictions. Most of these kids were addicted to sniffing glue – it helps take the edge off the hunger pangs.
We spent a few hours playing and interacting with them, before we were supposed to go to a village. As we were preparing to leave the center director decided that his kids should come with us and had them all get in the back of his pick-up truck. He then offered for a few of us to ride with them. We did and had the opportunity to interact with the kids a little more directly.

This is a group of villagers from the village we visited after the drop-in center. We spent a few hours playing soccer and interacting with some of the village youth. As we were leaving we saw this large group of villagers loading up a wagon with their personal belongings. Through our interpreters we discovered they were preparing to go out to the fields for a month. They were leaving their homes for a month to try to scrape out a living.
They were very enamored by us and wanted us to hold the babies, thinking we would be able to magically heal and bless them just by our touch. We struggled to communicate with them but some of the group was able to interact.

This last picture is a random village that we drove by. I put it here to show you some of the conditions that people live in around the world.It was seeing places like this that rocked my world and opened my heart to those who have nothing. Before this trip I knew I wanted to be involved with changing communities, but thought that meant the inner-city or rural American communities.

After seeing places like this I realized that there is something bigger that needs to be done around the world so that the poorest of the poor can have even the basic things that we take for granted.

Team World Vision

[tags] World Vision, Team World Vision, South Africa, Africa[/tags]

First Impressions and Reactions in Ghana

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Homemade Cargo Bike

Below is a journal entry from my first day in the rural village in Ghana where I spent my eight-week Master’s internship. A quick background on what I was doing – my internship was working with a Multi-purpose Community Telecentre (basically a community center with a technology focus). I was mostly helping them with program evaluation and did some teaching. A lot of my time ended up being about experiencing the culture and learning about village life.

The below excerpt was my first day in the village but also a major event for the Telecentre. One of their projects is teaching bicylce repair and selling new and used bicycles. I’ll try to insert relevant links if I can find them if I can. Johnny is running the bike program, Osei was my supervisor, Samson was a news reporter from Ghana TV and John represented ITDP.

June 4, 2003

Today is a big day for the center. I didn’t realize how big until later. Today was the big bike show, the chance for the center to showcase the converted bikes as well as the new bikes being sold. A whole bunch of us began by putting together 20 of the new bikes so that they could be ridden. Johnny had done a great job training his students and they made the process go very quickly if not haphazardly because of the lack of tools. Many people were arriving and they bike ride began.

Homemade Tall Bike

I rode, it was funny because almost everyone took off like a bullet! I took it slower and began passing people, especially up the hills! Ghana Information Services (a Land Rover with a microphone) proceeded us down the road so many people were near the road! Many started cheering Obruni [Twi for White Man] when they saw me so I would wave and say hello. Also some of the groups would cheer m on to pass someone while others would cheer for the guy I was passing. We rode to Konongo which is about 8 miles round trip with some good hills.

I did take my time, letting people pass me until they would look back and smile! When we got back I was very hot and very sweaty! The show began with a prayer in Twi. John, Johnny, and Osei all spoke. Osei was very powerful and inspiring. Also the Deputy Minister of Roads and Transport spoke as well as some other officials from the national government. All praised the program as innovative and an example to the rest of the country. The program was recorded for a segment on Ghana TV next week.

Also during the program a group of girls did some traditional dances which were interesting, they were poetic. Also the chief and his elders were present wearing full traditional garb. A single piece of cloth wrapped toga like around the body and was held together by the left hand. Each was unique but the chief’s was very intricate looking and it had some gold pieces and very colorful. Also there was an umbrella that was held over him. I learned later that the size of it represented his power. Chiefs have authority over the land and are to be respected in the community. It runs parallel to the state government. Samson wants me to write about about the psyche of development to understand the people working in development and also to understand what development does to the people being affected. After the program

ITDP's Bike by Trek

I did a little dance with some of the girls who laughed hysterically!

I met one of Osei’s students who lives in Konongo. He will be working at the centre as well so that will be a great learning experience. Unfortunately, I forgot his name. I also met Effa, one of Johnny’s good friends who offered to show me around the area and also to help understand the culture better. I am a little concerned that he is more financially motivated than truly wanting to getting know me and show me his culture. Samson and I continue to have great talks. He is very interested in using his TV skills to help his country develop. I gave him some ideas of things to look into such as micro-credit lending and also Mister Rodger’s Neighborhood to interact with the kids. We had a brief talk about the transforming power of Christ and how we can be joyful despite suffering. Later John, Johnny, and I did some welding. We just messed around with some of the steel tubing but it was an interesting way to spend part of an evening. I’m beginning to feel tired of being the only one not drinking, while I know I can I feel it is a conviction I must hold on to.

Pa ni (sp?) = respected elder

Nsu = water

I also realized that while water inside a satchel [plastic bag like container] is filtered, there are probably plenty of germs on the satchel itself as you squeeze the water into your mouth. There are lots of little lizards running around. Also there were a lot of crows this morning. All black with a little white stripe just behind the neck. Also something I never thought about before today’s bike ride was having to watch out for wandering goats on the road!

Galatians 2:10: Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Thank you for taking the time to read some of my rambling thoughts on one of my first days in Ghana. This is also a good insight into some of the great things that are happening across Africa.

Team World Vision

[tags] World Vision, Team World Vision, Ghana, Telecentre [/tags]

Team Cross Runs and…

Follow the path of a runner, running where runners run! And so much more!

Category Archives: Charity

Guest Post: Team One Verse

Race Review: Giving Thanks 5K

World Vision Wrap-Up

Reflections on South Africa

First Impressions and Reactions in Ghana

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