Luke Dakin Update Jan 10, 2013

Written By Luke Dakin:

Hello All!

            We are about 3 days away from leaving the children’s home to go back to Nairobi and are wondering where the time has gone! It has been a phenomenal experience so far and we are looking to make the most of our final couple of days.

            On Tuesday we had the experience of a lifetime for running nerds such as ourselves. We went to Iten, which has proclaimed itself “The City of Champions”. It was obvious why after our day. We started off by going to the local university to watch a track workout where many of the best runners in the world were training. For example, in one workout the last Boston Marathon winner and the Yokohama Marathon winner were working together. They were doing an “easy” workout to stretch out their legs. 20 by 400 meters at 68 to 72 seconds! That’s averaging 4:40 mile pace!

            We just did a recovery run on the campus of Chepkoilel University which was a neat experience too because we got to see what life was like at a Kenyan University.

Winner of the 2012 Boston Marathon, Sharon Cherop

            After we left there we went to St. Patrick’s Boys School, which has produced an incredible amount of Olympians. They planted a tree outside for every Olympic medalist who had passed through that school and it seemed like there was a forest out front!  There were easily 30 trees outside. As if that wasn’t impressive enough when we went inside we got to take a look at their school records board. Keep in mind this is a high school. The school record in the 5000-meter race was set at the Los Angeles Olympics! My jaw was on the floor at this point. It was a humbling experience to say the least to be at a high school where the school record of the 10000-meter run was over 3 minutes faster than my personal best.

The most prestigious high school for runners in the world.

Accolades

Remember, these are high school boys- all under 19 years old. 

            The best experience was yet to come though at this school. As we were leaving we stopped by the coach’s house on the off chance that we might get to shake hands with one of the most legendary cross country coaches of all time. Not only did Coach O’Connell take the time to say hello when we came over unannounced, he stayed and talked to us for over an hour! Many people who had accomplished what he accomplished would be arrogant and would never take the time to talk to some college students. However, this man was the humblest man I have ever met and we ended up having one of the best conversations I have ever had. He currently coaches the 800-meter world record holder David Rudisha who lives next door to him so he gave us a tour of his home but unfortunately he wasn’t home.

One of the greatest coaches of all time. (We just knocked on the front door of his house)

            Anyway, I could write a short novel about all the cool running stuff I saw but I’ll spare you. There were a lot of other amazing things that happened to us in Iten. The city is nestled into these gorgeous hills that really reminded me of Machu Pichu.  From the town we got to see some pretty amazing views of the surrounding Great Rift Valley. Plus it was far enough away from the big city of Eldoret that we got a much-needed break away from the smog of the city.

            Also while we were driving along the highway the Kenyan National Cycling Team passed us! This was interesting for several reasons. For one, nobody in Kenya is into cycling. Apparently at some point some cycling coach thought, “Hey there are all these phenomenal athletes coming out of Kenya, I wonder if they would be good cyclists…” so now Kenya has a cycling team! It will be interesting following their progress. This was also interesting because driving in Kenya is the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced. There are no lanes, stop signs or stop lights so people just kind of drive wherever they want on the road and then “negotiate” for spots on the road. Plus in an effort to slow down drivers, the government has put in a speed bump about every mile along the highway. However, Kenyan drivers found a simple solution to this. Drive around the speed bumps into the shoulder. These cyclists are far braver than I.

The Kenyan National Cycling team

            The kids here at the Children’s Center just went back to school yesterday so we had a pretty relaxing day. We just did a hard workout in the morning with our Kenyan friends David and David. After they wore us down in that workout we just went back and got a nice restful day.

            Today we got to actually take a tour of the children’s primary school and we had a very powerful interview with the headmaster of the school. The school is a public school, yet a large amount of funding for the school comes from donations from the parents. Most of these parents are very poor and have little in the way of excess income to donate. The school serves all of the children in the area from 1^st grade to 8^th grade. They have 440 students and only 11 teachers. The 1^st grade class has 54 students in it and only one teacher. Everybody knows that at this teacher-student ratio learning is slow and often creates an environment where only those students who can learn fast succeed while the others cannot keep up without the individualized attention. Yet even with all of these cards stacked against them, the current headmaster has succeeded in making drastic improvements in the school’s ability to educate children and send students on to secondary school. His first year they had only 8 students graduate primary school to go onto high school. Yet this past year over 80 percent of those who started 1^st grade at Cheptigit Primary School went on to high school. Much of this success can be attributed to outside donations, which has gone to expanding the facilities, bringing in running water and hiring new teachers.

            We have been very moved by what we have seen here and are hoping to do our part to help out. A teacher’s salary in Kenya is roughly $600 a year. We are currently attempting to figure out a way to raise enough money to hire a few more teachers to reward a school that is doing truly miraculous things. Hopefully we will have good news to pass along soon!

That is what we have been doing the past three days, thanks for taking the time to follow along!

Luke, Rob, David and Coach Misch

Scrivner Update #3

Hello all! Time for another update. Things are finally beginning to settle down a bit for us, and I think we are all finally fully adjusted to the Kenyan time zone. While the first few days of the trip were chalk full of business, these last few days we’ve had the chance to rest and spend more one on one time with the kids here at the children’s home. I think it’s probably important that I make a correction that should have been made last week- we’re not actually in Kapsabet! We all thought Kapsabet and Kaptagat were the same area (that Kaptagat was the county). We were mistaken. The city that GOGCH is in, is actually called Kaptagat.

            KAPTAGAT is twenty-something kilometers away from Eldoret. Small blurb  here—Eldoret is awful. Like…worse than Detroit! Worse than bee-stings! Worse than the feeling you get while you’re scraping the bottom of a jar of peanut-butter! The speed limit in Kenya is 80kph (which is pretty fast), and there are no rules of the road here. No stop signs or lights. We asked our driver what the rules of the road are, and he responded: “No rules, just negotiation”. What this equates to is just one big GIANT MESS. As of this morning, there have already been 85 people killed in car accidents here since new years. 85 people in 4 days.  Walking through Eldoret is comparable to playing Frogger (people still know what that is, right?)…but in real life. Also, there are hardly any trash cans in Eldoret, so people just throw their trash on the street, and every now and then someone sweeps it up. Whenever you need to go into a supermarket, you have to surrender any bags to a “luggage check” counter, then they wand you down to make sure you’re not carrying anything dangerous. It is illegal for motorcyclists to carry passengers, but it isn’t against the law to have people in the bed of a truck. Today we saw a truck with over 10 people in the bed, and a full cab. If a motorcyclist is pulled over with a passenger, they can just bribe the police officer, and get off the hook. The police force is unfortunately very corrupt. It’s ridiculous—the whole city—but that’s enough about it.

            Yesterday, we sent Nick on his way, because his classes start soon and he had to be back in Michigan for practice this week. The kids surprised us all with an unbelievable good-bye ceremony. They all danced around Nick, walking in a circle around him and singing. Also in the circle was a table with something covered with a cloth. They uncovered it to reveal a cake—shaped and decorated to look like the children’s home. They had Nick cut the cake into small pieces, then they started to sing again while he had to go around and feed each person a chunk of cake. Afterwards, the older boys fed cake to him, and the singing and dancing continued. Then, 4 or 5 kids gave him different necklaces and pendants, each symbolizing something different. He was taken aback, and we ended the ceremony by all laying hands on him and praying for him and his journey home. They never cease to amaze us here at the home.

            Today, we got to experience the coolest cross-country meet I have ever been to in my life. Nothing like this exists in the States, I’m sure. We arrived early to the Eldoret Polytechnic campus for the meet, and were surprised to see very few people there. Regardless, we started our hour-fourty long run, while Luke got himself ready to race. We ran the course, which was on a 2k loop (the race is 8k, 4 loops) and were absolutely shocked. The entire course was marked by tape on both sides. There are about 5 huge cliff-like dips that the runners would have to negotiate. Also, there was a fallen post that they would have to hurdle. The grass was knee high, and there were holes in the ground that would twist an ankle instantly. The race was supposed to start at 9 (so we thought) and ended up starting just after 10:00. We are learning that Kenyan time is it’s own beast, and you can’t trust what anyone says when they give you a time schedule. The race finally went off, and the “Junior” athletes dominated the 8k course. The winner finished in a scorching time of 23:19. For those of you who aren’t so great with math, that comes out at an average of 4:40/mi. over 5 miles. Dakin ran tough, and can gladly say he beat a couple of Kenyans!

            Now, the real exciting stuff- the Seniors 12k. This race was packed with celebrity runners that some among you may find familiar. Geoffrey Mutai, Asbel Kiprop, Boaz Lalang, even the man who holds the world best time in 12k, Lineth Chepkurui. Boaz and Asbel planned to drop out early on, as they were only trying to get a workout in.  It was a wild race, but everyone there seemed so nonchalant about the whole thing. These Olympians and world champs are just like normal dudes to the natives. They see these guys in town and on the roads training every day. Apparently most of them even come to the track on workout days and encourage the younger athletes. We were honored to meet Boaz before the race, and Asbel afterwards, and they were both so humble and considerate. They may be super-human athletes, but they are also down to earth, genuine people as well.

            {Hey it’s Luke, just thought I would say a few words about the race. First of all, a major theme throughout our trip has been what we like to call “Kenyan time”. Kenyans do not feel the need to deal with the stress of being on time so they just pick a time to meet and arrive whenever they so choose. An example of Kenyan time was the manager of our camp took our coach to a ceremony and then to pick up a cow that we had donated to the children’s home. The manager said they would be home by 1 in the afternoon. They arrived at 11:30 at night. In my case, I was told the race would start at 9 so I warmed up at 8 and when I got to the starting line I was the only one there! Nobody showed for two hours until we finally started the race. When the race started though it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Even though I did not do very well in the race it was such an incredible experience racing alongside over 100 Kenyans. The race went out much faster than it usually does back at home. Many of the Kenyans have a very risky strategy where they go out very hard knowing that they will either drop out or do something phenomenal. And that is what happened. Many people dropped out but many people ran faster then I thought was humanly possible. Many of these racers were even running barefoot! I thought I would be the only Muzungu (what the locals call white people) in the race but was surprised to meet a diverse group from Canada, France and England. I had an amazing experience and it was so much fun to be a part of that race.}

            The children begin school again on Monday morning, so there will be more down time for us ahead. In the coming days we have plans to visit Iten, the home of many MANY Olympians, and also to tour a nature reserve. Until then—Harambee. (See below for an update from Nick upon arriving back in the US).

Scrivner now wears a hood everywhere he goes. 

This is David Lagat's home that was mentioned in a previous post. (graduation present)

The children just love to follow us and play with us wherever we go.

The gang with Asbel Kiprop after the xc meet.

The man 3rd from right is the head coach of Kenyan Athletics (Track and Field). He came to the home just to meet us.

Harambee the cow, our gift to the children's home. 

January 6th, 2013:

Hello! I'm writing this from my home in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Today is Sunday, it is 34˚F and my front lawn is snow covered. I left Kaptagat on Friday, and got into Detroit Metro last night, Saturday, around 5:00PM; I was traveling for about 24 hours. 

On the day of my departure everyone was extremely helpful and nice. Our hosts, Uncle David and Auntie Sarah along with the kids, did a departure ceremony with a cake and gifts and singing and dancing, it was a lot of fun and it was a great way to say bye to the people I had lived with and gotten to know for the past week. 

In reflection on this experience that has truly augmented my worldview, I can say that it will continue to have an impact in the way I think and act, and hopefully bring me back to Kenya and the people of Kaptagat in the future. I urge anyone who can and is willing to, to check out their website at www.graceofgodchildren.org

Asante-sana to all the people at the Children Centre and to the crew from UCCS, I hope you continue to have a great experience! Hopefully the Michigan and UCCS crew can meet again, perhaps on a trip to visit the Davids next year!  Good luck to you guys in your Track season, and good luck to David Kibet and David Lagat and Paul Maiyo in your future running endeavors, hopefully I'll see all of you guys in the future. Thanks again!

Nick Kern

Coach Misch/ David Marino Update #3

Misch-Kenya blog entry 1-4-13

Led by the two David's- they destroyed us on this run. 

More Shots from the waterfall

The flooded roads from heavy rain the week before we arrived

We frequently find ourselves in the back of this tiny truck. ,,,It's awful.

Children who wait outside of the ATM area hoping for money.

Us with Lydia Cheromei (center), winner of the 2012 Yokohama Marathon

Nick, who just left for home early.

Well I figured it was time for me to post an entry to the blog so here we go. As I sit here typing this on David Marino’s laptop (hopefully before it runs out of juice) the guys are finishing up washing their laundry outside while listening to Kenyan tunes on the radio from the Yellow Submarine (that’s the 1997 Toyota truck that the camp uses). It’s a beautiful sunny day here so our clothes should dry quickly. Then after lunch, some of the guys are hitching a ride into Eldoret (about 16 miles from our camp) when Nick Kern heads to the airport and that’s where they’ll post this blog entry while getting caught up on e-mail, etc.

I however will be spending the afternoon reading, writing and hanging out with kids after having spent all day yesterday after our morning training on a 15 hour adventure across the back roads of Kenya with David Karos and Philip Maiyo. There is so much to write about that adventure that it would take an hour or so. But in short at one point we had 17 people in the Yellow Submarine, I ended up a guest speaker at a ceremony for one of David’s sons and we spent about 10 hours traveling to the  Nandi Hills and back including a stop to pick up the cow that our team bought (we named the cow “Harambee”) for the camp. The story of how we came to buy the cow and transport it in the back of the pick-up in the dark is a story for another day. But our crew felt like buying a cow was a worthwhile investment for the camp that will pay itself off in about five months and produce milk and birth calves for about 10 more years. “Harambee” was very happy to be untied and let lose in the small pasture with the other cow next to the camp and today seems like she is doing well after her long journey last night.

Other than that the days have been filled with training in the mornings, plenty of things to see and do with the kids and locals and walking all over the place to visit others while basically take care of the normal activities of life. As for the camp itself, life is slow and a lot of quality time with the kids reading, playing, cleaning, building, etc. There are plenty of projects to keep busy. And as for the running scene, as I always tell the guys “running is running” and just like everywhere else in the world you put one foot in front of the other. There are a few training camps in the area so we see a lot of runners on the roads each morning when we’re training. We are training with a couple of the guys from Coach Maiyo’s group (David Sr. and David Jr.) and they have been great. Overall things have been good and we’ve been knocking the workouts and minutes on the miles of rolling dirt and clay roads around us.

Well the guys just said lunch is ready so I’m going to close this out. Tomorrow we’ll be headed to the Kenyan Discovery Cross Country Challenge in Eldoret. Not only will it be great to be at the meet, but our own Luke Dakin will be mixing it up in the 8k race. Go Dakinator!

Take care and God Bless – Misch



Take Two: 1/4/13

David Marino here, and indeed the laptop did die before we were able to post. However, my laptop has a safety feature that auto-saves my session before the computer shuts down. Yay! Windows for the win!

However, as I sit in our familiar internet café we have dubbed “The Fort” (as it sits above the main floor, to get to it, one has to climb a sketchy set of stairs to a landing that doesn’t have a solid floor feel… kind of like a rickety old tree house a couple of nine-year olds tried to piece together) I have the intention of describing the animal presence in the orphanage and surrounding areas.

Subject 1: Maggie

If you’ve been keeping up with our blog, you might have read a few days ago the miracle of Maggie, the dog who lived. Before the incident, Maggie was an extremely social and energetic dog who for the life of her couldn’t keep herself from jumping all over you. In fact, when we did laundry today I washed her paw prints from the neck of my shirt when she first laid her little brown eyes on me. After the incident, however, her personality has mellowed and her paws stay planted on the ground for the majority of the time. She walks cautiously towards you when you call instead of her old uncontrolled puppy run. This may be the case, but she still holds a good amount of excitement, enough to cause the tail half of her body to sway to the cadence of her wagging tail when she greets you. She stands just a few inches below my knees and can’t weigh more than 15 pounds. Her ears rest like a folded triangle when she isn’t engaged in anything, but when you call her, they fold back revealing her sharp face and submissive look. Black and brown sack of skin and bones run against our legs at lunch waiting for someone to give her either food or attention. With other dogs, if you happen to run a finger against their fur they might not notice and carry on. With Maggie, if you so much move your finger in tiny circles on her fur, she clings to your side as if you were giving her a good ear scratch. She’s a gentle creature who I personally wouldn’t mind taking home with me. However, I say that about almost all seemingly nice creatures I tend to come across.

Subject 2: Tracy

Tracy the cat is 2 pounds, grey with barely visible black stripes and is about the length of a forearm. She looks like a kitten, but rumor has it that she indeed is fully grown and descends from the fierce cats of the savannah themselves. The most striking feature about this kitty is most definitely her eyes; a vicious green that is so intense it almost seems cartoonish. In the morning, she always makes herself known with a series of long meows… more like subtle screams that pierce through the morning silence. As she becomes more comfortable with us, she chooses which person she wants to pet her and which lap to jump on, usually unexpectedly. In the mornings and at night are the times which we are blessed with her highness’ presence, especially after dinner when she jumps on the counter where all the dinner dishes wait to be scraped to get her fair share. Not a single malicious bone in this cats body… so far. For now, we are under her spell when she situates herself on our lap in a furry, purring mass of cuteness.

Subject 3: The Rooster

Nobody. NOBODY likes the rooster. All of us are sleeping so soundly when the call of the rooster sounds at the unearthly hour of 4 a.m. Needless to say the next 3 hours are full of muffled curses loathingly whispered into our pillows. This continues though out the day as well, however it’s more like white noise when we’re busy talking with the kids or playing soccer. Thankfully, the rooster made it into our meal a couple of nights ago, and there was much rejoicing (cue the Monty Python jubilee). However, in Kenya when the day is lived by the rising and setting of the sun, the rooster plays its role much as it did in our own American history. The work ethic displayed in the orphanage and even in the farms around the orphanage is nothing short of astounding. Ask an American kid to clean the fields of debris or clean the floor and they might laugh thinking it as a joke. Of course there are good kids out there in the States, but here at the orphanage, I have never heard a single child cry, complain (looking for the tone on this one) or rebel in their duties to the establishment. Truly a sight to see.

For now, the plan for the day is to finish up at the internet café, go back to the orphanage to spend some more quality time with the kids. That’s all folks!

Barely keeping up with the Kenyans,
David Marino

  

Robert's Post #2

Well, look like I once again have the responsibility of updating the blog. This time, I will be writing from in the internet cafe, so I don't have as much time as last-- which is a shame because we have experienced SO much.

I'm unsure where to begin. Yesterday, we woke up early for a nice easy 60 minute recovery run, led by our two guides both named David. The Davids live in a training camp together with other boys who train VERY intense every single day. Both of them are in the process of getting scholarships, visa's, and other paperwork to attend Universities in the states. They are SO excited to come to our country. I decided this morning that they are the most incredible, honorable men I have ever met. The younger one took us to his small home today to show us where he lives while he's not in the camp. His brother built it for him with money from his parents, and they surprised him with the small house as a graduation gift after high school! Quite a gift! He lives there by himself.

Anyway...we went out for the "easy recovery" and eventually found ourselves being throttled by the two young Kenyans, cruising at about 6:15/mi. ...Not what I think of when I think recovery, but for them this was effortless. Again, everywhere we went, the children would run along with us, so amazed at our skin. It's like we're aliens from outer space. None of them have ever seen a "Muzunga" in their lives.

Later, we went on a hike, and were absolutely amazed to find the most beautiful, ginormous waterfall! Luke, David, Adam, and I were daring enough to go down near the river. Luke ended up sliding most of the way down in the mud, and his nice gray pants are now nice brown pants.

Last night, the kids celebrated the new year by each saying what they are thankful for. They blow my mind. Eventually I will be able to write an update just about them! Every night, they sing and dance, and pray, and read...and...it's just awesome. They are so cool.

This morning, some guys did another easy run, and David, Coach, and I did a workout. Of course, the kids lined the road to watch us run, screaming "MUZUNGA! GO! YEAH!" As I was finishing my workout and cooling down on my last "off" interval, I held hands with two small children and ran to the end of the road. They smiled the biggest smiles I've seen in my life, and it got me all choked up. I was able to hold back tears until coach opened his mouth. He said, "Scrivner, do you remember last year at almost exactly this time, you came to that indoor meet at Mines and met the team? You weren't sure if you would be able to go to school? Now look at you. Here in Kenya." ...Opened up the floodgates. Ha! I can't even believe the blessings I've experienced this year. The Lord has been so good to me, and so many people have helped me along the way.

Only a few hours ago, we got to experience one of the coolest parts of the trip...and of course, our cameras were broken! The tribe we are staying with has a tradition of sending the males into "The Bush" (forest) for a month, where they are isolated, and learn many skills. They learn about respect, and how to be a real man. It is the "coming of age" tradition- and after they complete it, they are real men. They can work, own property...do anything but be married. They can only marry when they are stable and ready to settle down. The biggest moment of this process is (horrifyingly)...circumcision. Yes, 14 year old boys- circumcision. So, they have this big ceremony to celebrate- that happens tomorrow. But today, we went to a ceremony to celebrate them coming out of the bush, and reuniting with the families. They were wearing these big coverings, so we could only see their eyes. Hundreds of people danced, and did traditional...stuff around the young men. It was...wild.

I'm running out of time...and this is pretty long winded. But, wow. What a crazy few days. Enjoy, and as always-- HARAMBEE.

Update 2

Written by Robert Scrivner

I am in awe. This place is absolutely incredible. The last 3 days feel like they have just been an incredible dream. Words cannot possibly describe what we are experiencing, nor could any photo or video. This update will be one of the longest, I’m sure…because the last 24 hours have been unreal for us.

Yesterday, after David wrote his update while we were still in Nairobi, we hit the road in a small van that they call a “mutatu” and headed north to Kapsabet. Kapsabet is a small area just south of Eldoret, which is about a 7 hour drive from Nairobi. The things we saw on the road were amazing. On both sides of the van, you could look out the window and see herds of sheep and cows, being led by shepherds. Whenever we would hit heavy traffic, vendors would be wading through the traffic trying to sell you their goods through the car window.

            We drove near a beautiful lookout, where we could see the entire rift valley, and we got out of the mutatu to take pictures and see the beautiful view. Almost as soon as we were out of the van, vendors trying to sell us souvenirs bombarded us. Each of us was confronted by a different man or woman, with samples of their handmade products. A man approached me with beautiful hand carved animals. I told him I was interested, so he walked me over to his small shop and showed me all of his merchandise.  I only wanted one thing, but he was ruthless and wouldn’t take no for an answer! We bartered prices on about 5 different things, and he just kept trying to sell me more and more. When I was finally able to get out, ANOTHER man pulled me into his shop and again, convinced me to buy more cool items. When I finally left there, a woman desperately tried to pull me into her shop, but after much insisting, I was able to make a run for the van and escape. These men and woman make their living selling these beautiful creations, so they are desperate to sell more and more.
            Back on the road, we could see hyenas, zebras, and antelope running in the beautiful valley. We drove past a huge lake, which has many flamingos around it. I was hesitant to get in a car after 30 hours of straight flying, but the chance to see the countryside was worth every extra minute of travel.  

            We had our first experience with Kenyan food at a small restaurant on the way to Eldoret. When we walked in, there was a butcher chopping the beef right in front of us. I ordered something that was written in Swahili, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I got was a large helping of beef, cabbage, a spicy-pico-de-gallo sort of sauce, and Ugali. Runners refer to ugali as “Rocket Fuel,” and say that if they go two days without it, it is like they are a completely different person with no energy. Apparently home-made ugali is much different than the stuff we got at this restaurant. I certainly hope so, Ha! It is a biscuit shaped ball of mush, with no flavor. The food was totally different- and it was so cool to know that these people had raised the cow themselves, and I could watch the butcher prepare it before us.

            After a rough drive, on a very rough road, we finally arrived in Kapsabet. None of could have imagined what we would experience after that. We pulled in on a picturesque red clay road, and arrived here at Grace of God Childrens Project at about 5 pm, and the Children’s faces lit up when the saw us. As we got out of the van, each child came to shake hands with every one of us. There are 17 children who live here and they are wonderful, beautiful children. We unpacked our gear, and went for a quick “shake-it-out” run, accompanied by 5 very young boys. It got dark while we were gone, and when we came back dinner had been prepared already.

            Most of us were expecting electricity, or at least running water. I’ll quote David Marino who said, “Uh…was anyone else under the impression that there would be wifi here?” to some up how shocked we were. There is no electricity. No running water. Water is collected by the rain, or drawn from the well. It is heated over a fire, and the children pour it from a pitcher over your hands before meals. There is a restroom outside, which was also a shocker. When you open the door, there is a deep hole in the ground, and a roll of toilet paper on the wall. We also got to experience a wonderful, luxurious “bath.” A basin of warm water is brought in, and you splash it up on yourself, soap up, and splash more to rinse. IT IS AWESOME.
            This morning, we went running at 7am, following our incredible guide, David. David is 19 years old and lives in a training camp, chasing his dream of attending a University in the U.S. He led us out onto the clay roads, and down to the tarmac road that leads to Eldoret.

As we were running out, the pet dog Maggie followed us. When we reached the tarmac road, Maggie started chasing after cars and scared us because of how close she got. Eventually, as we were afraid, she was hit by a motorcyclist, who just drove off without stopping. We rushed to help her, and ended up leaving her with David while we all ran back to get someone with a truck to go pick her up. It was about 20 minutes back, and when we got there we sent help. She is shaken up, but recovering.

We decided to finish our run on a new road, away from the tarmac and ran passed many shacks. As we ran by a shack, we would hear children from 400 meters away screaming “MUZUNGA! MUZUNGA!” (White man, white man!). Then they would come charging towards the road, faces plastered with enormous smiles. Some would run alongside us, most barefoot and very young-maybe 7 years or younger. It was absolutely wild!

This afternoon, we gave the children all of the gifts we brought for them. It was also so amazing. They were so delighted, and thankful. I cannot describe how grateful they were to receive new clothes, toys, and candy. They are all outside now playing with the new soccer balls after having a big dance party in the hallway.

My heart is so full. Being here puts things into such a new and wonderful perspective. It is such a blessing to stay here with these amazing children, and brilliant people. This afternoon we are heading to town, where I will post this on the blog. For now, I am off to play soccer- no, excuse me: FOOTBALL.

Harambee,

Robert Scrivner

 After we gave our gifts to the kids

 One of the Vendors Shops

 MMmmmm...Ugali

 The group crossing the equator!!

 Victor hanging out on the tire swing!

The children are creative!

After around 26 hours of flight time, airport navigating and toting 50 pound bags for the orphanage, we arrived at the Scripture Mission Conference Center in Nairobi around midnight. On our morning run, some of the locals were happy to jog along side us. From here, we now travel by van to Kapsabet where we will be staying at the Grace of God Children's Center for the duration of the trip http://www.graceofgodchildren.org/  Even though we're exhausted and slowly adjusting to the 10 hour leap forward in time from Colorado, we couldn't be more excited to be in this beautiful area. Rumors on the plane stated that the air in Kapsabet was clean and the area was very different from even the Nairobi area. At breakfast this morning, we were greeted hearty cuts of bacon, fresh eggs, a few cereals with some bread and cheese. What I put on my plate today would have been roughly a quarter of my regular breakfast after logging morning miles, yet it was enough. I have a feeling that even though we might not be presented with copious amounts of food like in the States, our bodies will learn to be more efficient with the nutrients.
For now, its onward and upward to Kapsabet!

Your blogger, David. 

Okay, update #1. This is short as we are about to board the flight to Nairobi. We are currently in Amsterdam and have now met up with the Kern brothers from Michigan so our group is six men (Mark Misch, Luke Dakin, Robert Scrivner, David Marino, Adam Kern and Nick Kern). So far so good, we got all of our bags on including the extra 50 lb. bags for the orphanage and David and we got confirmation that Coach Harmer shipped over the two boxes from UCCS. More later, but gotta jet for now. Onward to Kenya!