Saturday, May 17, 2014

S2A Class Work...

It has begun! We will see how it goes in the end. Fingers crossed the kids like the book choice I made. 

Sunday, May 11, 2014

A running coincidence.

Yesterday morning was one of the rare days in which I was actually able to pulled myself out of bed at the appropriate time to run in the morning rather than just sleeping through my alarm. I hit the streets for my usual 20 minute route at 7:15. Half way through my route, I passed another runner headed up the same hill as me. He asked if he could run with me and so we started chatting as we jogged along, even though I know my accent was hard for him and his English was good, but a little broken. I learned that he "used to be an athlete" and that now he coaches, I thought he said the 1800 which makes no sense, so I am guessing the 1600, at a sport club here in Kigali. He laughed when I asked if he was going to run the Kigali marathon next week and looked aghast saying "I'm a coach!" as if coaches are suppose to be retired from races. He asked if I was going to run it, and I said I was interested in doing the 5k fun run or the half, but it didn't know where to register. Enter chivalry. As we were running past the main entrance into the stadium, he offered to show me where the office of the Ministry of Sport and Culture is, because I can register there. So we ran in through the main gate, past a team of basketball players all sporting the same blue track suit with "Rwanada" emblazoned on the back, through a hallway and out onto the track inside the national stadium. Where he did not take me to the office, but instead we started running laps around the soccer field on the track in the presence of quite a few other runners. Some of people were clearly part professional or semi-professional clubs who meet on the weekends for practice, other people where there to just jog. My tour guide seemed to know many of the people there and was calling out greetings (or being called to) by all the other coaches. To be fair, he was running with a muzungo girl who seemed to be somewhat in shape (in comparison at least to other 2 muzungos at the track that morning), which probably got him more attention than he type ideally receives. I had no idea that the track at the stadium was open to the public (he had taken me there to show me I could on it) or really that a running community existed here, but I've finally found my people! Ever the coach, after jogging for 2 or 3 laps, my guide suggested we do a short work out. Yikes. I run for about 20 minutes a day here,which isn't much, and none of it is workout quality running, because I don't have the energy or daylight to run much more after a full day of teaching and I haven't done any sort of workout for about 6 months now. But I still found myself sprinting the straights and jogging the curves for a mile paced by this random guy. After the workout, naturally, we had to stretch which I've learned is always a production here. I have met 2 PE teachers and now a coach and they all seemed to learn how to stretch from the same person. For whatever reason, these guys all want to start stretching the head and neck after running or playing basketball with a further emphasis on stretching the arms and shoulders. What about the legs folks? Those things that propell you around the court or track? That's where I tend to focus my stretching energies, personally. Then he showed me the office I needed which turns out to be inside the stadium. In typical African fashion, the secretary who was on the phone, was forced off of it to greet me and even though I just wanted to know where the room was, a staff meeting was interrupted so that I could meet and get the business card of the National Technical Director of Athletics in Rwanda who personally gave me a map of the course even though I said I would be back on Monday to actually register because I didn't have any money with me. Then I had to head back home because what I had originally intended to be a 20 minute jog had turned into a 45 minute outing and I was late. The professional assessment of my random running buddy/impromptu coach: stick to the 5k next weekend, don't go for half. Something I already could've told him before my workout. I am not in good shape right now and I know it, though to be fair, the actually running part wasn't so bad, my breathing was just out of control which might have more to do with sprinting at 5000ft of altitude rather than being out of shape. He didn't know it, but I have been well trained in my past and know more about how to train myself and others than the average runner, but I was happy to be a trainee again. I was also happy because when I meet people I am always on the defensive here (more than at home) because I never know if they are simply being nice or if they want something from me (usually money). When he suggested we do a workout, the thought occurred to me that it is possible he might expect compensation from me for his expertise, but he never asked, it appears that he was just another kind running enthusiast who was helping a muzungo out.