Running with (well, at least closer to) the Kenyans

Today was a big breakthrough day for me.  For about the past seven Thursdays I’ve been going to the group fartlek run.  “Fartlek” is Swedish for “speed play” and the Kenyan fartlek is usually one minute hard followed by one minute moderate or two minutes hard followed by one minute moderate, repeated for 30-60 minutes total.  To add to the challenge the run is mostly uphill.  It is a hard run for all.  Usually I see the lead group for about 10 minutes, and then run with a goup of women and some straggling men.

There were over 100 runners at the workout today.  I love the energy of running with so many people.  It’s quite congested at the beginning, but things clear up within about 3 minutes.  Wilson Kipsang, who ran 2:04:57 for the marathon last fall (that’s 4:46 per mile, folks!), is the leader of the group.  He said we would be doing 25x1:1, and counted down so we could synchronize our watches.

I wasn’t feeling particularly good during my 30 minute warm-up, and as usual I started the workout near the back of the group.  I had a goal of 15x 1:1, and I wanted to finish on an uphill section a little higher than I’d gone before.  After about 5 minutes I caught up to Carol, who I have run the last two fartleks with.  I was surprised that I was running quite a bit faster than her.

I kept catching up with people, including several men.  At about 15 minutes I realized with surprise that I could still see the leaders.  Yes they were about a minute ahead of me, but I could see them!  There were about 40 people in a tight group, followed by smaller groups and individuals who had fallen off the pace.

We reached an intersection at about 25 minutes.  In an earlier workout I remember wondering which way the leaders had gone.  But this time I could still see them.  As we climbed the hill I was planning to finish on, I saw the leaders and checked my watch: 28 minutes.  I arrived at that spot less than 2 minutes later.  I was so jazzed I decided to do two more, so I finished at 34 minutes.  I caught up to a group of men who had been with the leaders but finished their workout at 30 minutes; they were cooling down.  About two and a half miles of easy jogging brought me back home.

Now, I still think it’s a distinct possibility that the group’s pace was lower than it has been in previous weeks.  And it’s probably a good bet that the people in the lead group were running a lot easier than me.  And of course, most of them ran for 50 minutes, while I stopped at 34.  However, it was great to be in sight of the group of world class runners on a hard run.  I was almost running with the Kenyans!

A Visit to Rashid's Place in the Tugen Hills

On Monday Anders, Isak, Paul and I rode the morning matatu to visit Rashid’s house.  Rashid is my neighbor in Iten.  He is hoping to go to college in the U.S., and I’ve been helping him prepare for the SAT and contact coaches.  He took the SAT in Nairobi on Saturday and then went home for a few days.  He invited me to come visit him.

Rashid met us in the city of Kabarnet, about an hour from Iten.  We had to travel about 8km farther to the turnoff to Rashid’s village, Kapkemoi.  We rode in a van that was filled with flour, baking powder, and oil.  The van stopped to unload all the food.  After being told this was a bakery, I bought a bag of “Rock Cakes,” which were actually a hard roll that was still warm from the oven.  Despite the name they were quite good.

We got out of the van shortly afterward at the turnoff for Kapkemoi.  Rashid, Anders and I would run, while Isak and Paul would walk to the village, 3km away.  The running was quite different from Iten.  First of all, it was seriously hilly.  Second, the area is much more sparsely populated.  We passed mostly through forest.  Our route, which was part of former marathon world record holder Paul Tergat’s standard runs, passed Rashid’s village and descended to another village.  We turned and climbed back towards Kapkemoi.

Rashid took this picture after dashing by.

Rashid pointed out a sudden left turn up a very steep hill.  We were climbing Morop, one of the more prominent hills in the Tugen Hills.  The climb was much like Manastash Ridge, but without the moderate parts and at 7000 ft.  Rashid, who is much faster than either Anders or me, bounded ahead, took pictures as we passed, bounded ahead again, and repeated this several times.  I was breathing hard as it was a struggle to remain running, especially near the top where there is a scrambling section.  Near the top I was stung by a bee on my left hamstring.

Lake Baringo from Morop

The view from the top was spectacular.  The Tugen Hills are between the two branches of the Rift Valley.  Morop, one of the highest points in the Tugen Hills, has panoramic views of both branches of the valley and the opposite sides.  The Tugen Hills themselves are quite rugged.  Rashid pointed out the villages of two of the fastest marathoners of all time: Geoffrey Muthai (2:03:02 2011 Boston) and Paul Tergat (2:04:55 2003 Berlin).  Rashid also outlined some of Tergat’s training routes.

Kapkemoi village in the foreground from Morop

We ran carefully down the hill, and we met Isak and Paul back in Kapkemoi after about 65 minutes of running.  Kapkemoi is a tiny town.  The road is rough, and only few vehicles pass by each day.  Kapkemoi is not on the electric grid.  It is an idyllic little town, slightly lower than Iten.  Bannanas, Mangoes and Papaya grew in the farms.  We all walked down the hill past Kapkemoi Primary school, where the kids flooded out of the buildings at the sight of us white people.  Rashid said that they might not have ever seen a white person before.

I told you it was idyllic!  Note banana trees as well.

We arrived at Rashid’s “younger father’s” house.  This was the house of his father’s younger brother.  Rashid grew up here.  His mother died when he was about 8.  Rashid’s uncle is an army officer so has a very nice house which includes a solar panel.  Kristin, Rashid’s aunt, served us chai and a delicious lunch of beans and rice.  We relaxed for a while, and then took some pictures when Rashid’s cousins came home from school.

Rashid, his cousins, and aunt

It was time to head home, and we opted to cross Kirandich Dam.  The reservoir was built by the Italians in the 1990s.  This is the source of Kabarnet Spring water, which is sold widely in Kenya.  A solid climb took us to the paved road, where we got a car to Kabarnet, and then a matatu home in time for dinner.

New Arrivals

We have two new people in our place in Iten: Isak and Paul Bergman.  Isak ran at Ellensburg High School and graduated in 2007; he is the school record holder in the 800m and 1600m.  I had heard that he was interested in getting back into training before I came to Kenya.  As soon as I arrived, I thought “Isak would love this place!”  A lengthy email exchange ensued, and last Friday Isak arrived here after two days of travel from Ellensburg.  Isak has been immersing himself in the running culture, meeting many runners and beginning his own training.  He is the ultimate friendly mzungu, taking the time to talk to everyone he sees.

Accompanying Isak is his uncle Paul.  I had met Paul once before when I stayed at his house before the Portland Marathon in 2007.  Paul is inquisitive and thoughtful; in the car ride from the airport he was already asking questions that I not only couldn’t answer, but hadn’t even thought to ask.

The first few days of a 10 hour time change are pretty rough, but Isak and Paul have been much more upbeat than I remember being!  Paul is here for two weeks, and Isak is here for four.  We’re looking forward to sharing many adventures together.

Lake Baringo

It’s taken me a while to post this.  This trip was about a week and a half ago:

After returning from the Kakamega Forest, we took a day at home and then headed off to Lake Baringo for three days.  We figured we should get a big dose of travel while the kids are out of school.  Instead of renting a car, we took local mass transportation, matatus.  The trip from Iten to Baringo is a like a spectacular enormous sized roller coaster.  The Rift Valley has split into two branches; first we dropped 1000m into the Kerio Valley, the western branch.  Then we climbed 1000m to the city of Kabarnet in the Tugen Hills.  Famous (and infamous) people from Kabarnet include former marathon world record holder Paul Tergat and former President Daniel Arap Moi.  From Kabarnet we drop 1000m into the eastern (and main) branch of the Rift Valley.  About this point the roller coaster ride was too much for Apollo, so we pulled over for him to throw up on the side of the road.  He takes after his dad, who did this many times (once in the backseat of my dad’s boss’s new sportscar.)

There are many large lakes throughout the Rift Valley.  Because water drains into the lakes and then evaporates, most of the lakes are saline.  Baringo is an exception to this and supports a wide variety of aquatic and avian life.

There are many Kenyans around Baringo eager to sell boat rides, bird walks etc.  Prices vary widely, but are typically hugely inflated for foreigners.  There is an entry gate for the town on the lake, Kampa ya Samaki, where about 20 entrepreneurs were sitting in the shade waiting for vehicles to stop.  When I got out of  the car to pay the entry fee, several people stopped to offer their services.

We stayed in a banda at Robert’s Camp.  The first thing Uhuru and Apollo exclaimed was “Look!  Mzungu kids!”  There was a Dutch family and an English family staying there.  Except for the Finns, these were the only white kids they’d seen since we arrived in Kenya.  Roberts Camp was very nice, with a luxurious banda and lots of wildlife.  It felt a bit like a white refuge from the rest of Kenya, with gates so the salesmen can’t come in.  But it is nothing like the ultra-luxurious Samatian Island Lodge which at several hundred dollars per night is the kind of place Prince William might stay in Kenya.

The Dutch kids padded a little raft out about 20 feet to a raft and then back to shore.  A crocodile surfaced right where they'd passed.  I guess the signs are not to be ignored.

The crocodile just offshore at the campground.

The wildlife right inside the camp was amazing.  Birds, monkeys, crocodiles, lizards, hippos, bats!  I wish we’d had a bird book!  Here are a few pictures of wildlife.  Perhaps some of our biologist friends could help us identify!

This guy was sunning in the campground.  He is about 1m long from nose to tail tip.

When this bird took off it left a huge feather which the kids collected.

Crocodile eyes.

I wonder where this one was tagged.  Europe?

One thing I enjoy about Kenya is the simplicity.  Uhuru and Apollo are pretty into the Kindle and iPod respectively.  But we left those behind in Iten.  Uhuru found a tangle of fishing line and they played with it for hours.

Of course, there were several kittens in the campground who came around when it was time to eat.  The kids got very attached to them as well.

Each morning we woke early to watch hippos in the campsite (we saw them in the water, not on land.)  The second morning we took a boat ride.  Our guide, Ken, pointed out many species of birds.  We met some fishermen who sold us two fish.  When we got about 400 meters from the nest of a pair of enormous fish eagles, Ken whistled and threw a fish in the water.  The first eagle soared over and grabbed the fish.  Ken threw the second fish and the other eagle repeated the performance.  Ken took us into a grassy part of the lake where we saw a family of hippos.  Hippos live in families and are guarded by the mother.  The males are solitary.  I was snapping pictures when the mother hippo suddenly submerged and a menacing wake appeared above her as she headed towards our boat.  Ken was alert; before I could process the danger he had driven us away.  Although we saw many crocodiles in the water from shore, we saw one out of the water from the boat.

Protective mother hippo on the left.

It was quite warm in Baringo.  We spent the afternoons at the pool at the Barringo Club.  The first afternoon a thunderstorm blew in.  We took shelter inside for long enough to see a little of the royal wedding.  The skies cleared, and we went back in the water.

Waterfighting!

After some time in the pool on the last day, we headed for home.  It felt quite cool in Iten as it is 5000 feet higher than Lake Baringo.  On the way from the matatu stand to home a neighbor stopped us and told us he had missed us and asked where we’d been.  When we got back to the house all the neighbors welcomed us back.

Recent News

I thought I’d give a few updates on news, ranging from global to family.

First the global: we woke up Monday morning to the news that Bin Laden had been killed.  A group of our neighbors crowded around a television to watch Obama’s address live.  Viewing the news were Carey and me, a Tanzanian, several Kenyans, and three Somalis.  People were very interested in the news and many people watched for quite a while.  I wondered how we looked through the eyes of those from other countries.  I felt a little embarrassed for the college age students behind the commentators dancing to get their faces on TV.

Everyone is very excited and positive about the news.  I met another parent today while taking the kids to school.  I told him I was from the U.S. and his response was “Ah, the great nation that killed the evil terrorist.”  Al-Qaeda carried out an embassy bombing in 1998 that killed 250 Kenyans.  Even last week there were warnings that a terrorist from al-Shabab, an Islamic extremist group from Somalia, had entered Kenya with intentions of carrying out an attack.  A friend of ours who is a police officer had to stay on duty over the weekend because of the warnings.

The Somalis are very positive about Bin Laden’s death.  We have three Somali neighbors, all of whom fled Somalia to live in Europe.  Mohammed, who left Somalia most recently about 2 years ago, said that in the past Somalia was suffering from civil war and warlords.  Recently, Islamic extremists have come from other countries and are bringing a different kind of violence to Somalia.  Mohammed said that extremists have created a bad image for Muslims everywhere.  “Sometimes even when I tell people my name, it is a problem,” he said.  Overall, people are very excited and positive about the news.

Puddles after a steady rain last night.  Neighbor Sammy (2:11 marathoner) walks by.

Second, the local news: We are in the season called the long rains, but so far it has been pretty dry.  We’ve had some evening showers, but overall the water has evaporated quickly without infiltrating the soil.  There is so much subsistence farming here that a drought can be devastating.  We’ve had pretty good rains in the last week: two nights of heavy rain (about an inch a night) and last night a steady Seattle-esque rain all night (almost another inch).  The roads are muddy, but the farmers are loving it.

Waiting for the morning matatu on the first day back to Salaba.

Finally, the family news: Apollo and Uhuru are back at school at Salaba.  They are going to attend for the next 4 weeks.  Classes run from 7:20-3:10.  The school bus comes at 6:15, so instead I’ve been riding with them in a matatu (we can leave at 7:00 and make it there comfortably).  After school they have games and then they take the school “bus” home.  The bus is a pickup truck.  Most students sit in the back under a canopy.  The dashboard is missing and there is a snarl of wires.  It takes a while to start.  But it drives slowly.  Yesterday the roads were muddy so the head teacher sent everyone home before games.  They usually arrive home about 5PM.

The children stay in the same room while the teachers move from class to class.  The students stand when a teacher enters the room.  The following dialogue occurs at the beginning of each class:

“Good morning,” says the teacher.

“Good morning sir,” say the students in unison.

“How are you?”

“We are fine, thank you sir.”

“You may sit down.”

“Thank you, sir.”

There appears to be a lot of copying lessons into their lesson books.  There are very few facilities; a blackboard is painted onto a wall in each room.  Salaba is unusual in that it has a computer lab with about 15 computers.  I was shown the lab, but neither Uhuru or Apollo has had computer class yet.

I’m very proud of them for attending.  Apollo has ended up in 4^th grade (he was in 2^nd in the U.S.).  Uhuru is in 6^th grade.  It is challenging for them to understand the Kenyan accented English and to make themselves understood.  It is also difficult for them because they are really the center of attention.   Despite the fact that Salaba is a private school, I think Uhuru and Apollo are the first white children that many of these students have ever talked to.

Kakamega Forest

There was no school last week so we’ve taken the opportunity to do some travel.  After visiting Carey’s village, we went to the Kakamega forest.  The Kakamega forest was once connected to the Guineo-Congolian rainforest and stretched from Kenya across Africa.  Growing population has caused most of this forest to be cleared and turned into farmland.  Carey’s village would have been part of this rainforest, but now it is farmland.  The Kakamega forest is an isolated island remnant, cut off from the rest of the Guineo-Congolian forest.  To the east of the Kakamega forest are the Nandi Hills, which rise to about 8000ft.  Farther east the land drops into the rift valley, which is in the rainshadow and therefore much drier.  So the Kakamega forest is the easternmost part of this mostly deceased rainforest.

Big Tree in Kakamega Forest

The Kakamega forest is small.  The primary forest, the old growth, is smaller still.  The land is managed by two entities: the Kenya Wildlife Service and the Kenya Forest Department.  The Kenya Forest Department allows some farming and logging in its section, and most of the growth is secondary.  We headed to the Kakemaga Forest National Reserve, managed by the Kenya Wildlife Service.  This section is protected from exploitation by armed guards.

We arrived at the main gate where we were greeted by a guard in a military uniform.  There are three tiers of entry fees: Kenyan citizens, Kenyan residents, and foreign visitors.  The prices for foreign visitors are as high as U.S. National Parks and are given in U.S. dollars: $20 per adult and $10 per child.  These are shockingly high prices: we spent about the same amount entering the park as we do on a month’s supply of food here.  But it is important that locals see that there are economic advantages to preserving the rainforest.

We stayed in a banda, a circular structure about 20 feet in diameter with a grass roof.  I had tried to reserve a banda by phone, but the numbers in both of our travel books didn’t go through.  We also didn’t know if we’d need sleeping bags or cooking supplies.  In the end we brought sleeping bags (which we didn’t need) and left our cooking supplies (which we did).  A kind man named Shem was in charge of the bandas.  I found him watching TV with his wife in his house, which is also in the reserve.  He lent us some pots, plates, and a kerosene stove.

As we entered the clearing with the Bandas we saw about 6 black and white colubus monkeys in the trees.  The afternoon rains started shortly after we arrived.  I went on a short walk with an umbrella and saw a blue monkey as well.

In the evening we sat in the banda playing Monopoly Deal, when Uhuru caught a moth.  She opened the door to let the moth outside, and about 30 more moths came in.  Carey had the idea of turning off the inside light and turning on the outside light to attract the moths.  This didn’t really work, and we ended up with about 100 moths in the banda.  They flew around energetically for a while, and then their wings started to fall off.  We had seen piles of wings outside previously.  The dewinged moths crawled off to die, mate, or both.

Moth Mayhem!

The morning was clear, and we hired a guide to show us the forest.  This was also expensive, but again we figured it was helping to preserve the forest.  Our guide, Benson, was from the village just outside the Reserve.  He explained that the guides take schoolchildren through the forest every Saturday.  He explained that the children needed to see the forest so they would want to protect it later.  As poet Baba Dioum said, “In the end, we will protect only what we love.  We will love only what we understand.  We will understand only what we are taught.”

Benson, our guide.

Benson sported a huge pair of Nikon binoculars and was good at spotting wildlife.  We saw numerous birds, butterflies and monkeys (black and white colobus, blue, and red tailed).  He also explained the properties of various trees.  As we walked through the primary section of the forest, he showed us one massive tree where the bark had been stripped from the base.  The bark has some medicinal properties, but by stripping the bark the locals had killed the tree.  This is the kind of situation that Benson said he would like to prevent through education.

Fig tree climbing and surrounding another tree.

The big trees aren't the only plants which reach the heights of the forest canopy.  Vines and parasitic plants cling to the big trees.

Climbing jungle vines, a highlight for the kids.

We proceeded into the secondary growth forest, which was also rich with wildlife.  The trees were small though.  Benson said the area was farmland before the Reserve was created in 1985.  We climbed a lookout for lunch that had an expansive view of the forest.  The steep south side of the hill was rippled with gullies.  Since the clearing of the forest there had been dramatic erosion.  Some cedar trees had been planted for erosion prevention.

Finally, we visited Isiukhu Falls, a 2m drop on the Isiukhu river.  Uhuru and Apollo jumped across the rocks until Apollo fell in the river.

Leaping across the river, right before the plunge.

The walk back took us past the village.  I asked Benson about people going to the forest for firewood; after all the forest was only a few meters from some houses.  He said people feared the guards, but also that some gathering still occurred.  We ended our walk at the guides’ center.  Solomon, the guide manager asked us if we would like to make an additional donation to the Reserve.  Uhuru thought this might be a good project for her fundraising back in the US.

At about 3:00 the afternoon rains began again.  It rains a lot more here than Iten.  We got back into our spaceship and headed home.

Preserving habitat in Kenya is very different from the United States.  In Kenya people live in or around the areas that are being preserved.  Their cooperation is essential if preservation efforts are to succeed.  In Nepal we saw a similar thing in the Chitwan area.  The local community realized that the economic benefits of tourism hinged on preventing poaching and habitat loss.  This is very different from Mount Rainier for example, where few people live near the park borders.

Visiting Lugulu, Carey's Home for Three Years

On Monday we rented a car to go visit Lugulu, where Carey taught secondary school for three years with the Peace Corps.  Lugulu is in Western Kenya, near the border with Uganda.  A rental car here is even more expensive than in the U.S., but to use public transport we would have to take about 7 different matatus and would probably spend most of the day waiting.

Instead, we had a tiny red Toyota with tinted windows and lots of decals: “Hot Blooded,” “Phat Farm," "When I grow up I want to be a Hummer," "Don't Touch! Red Hot!" and others.

Our car, "the alien spaceship," parked on the road between Carey's house and the school.

Our trip was smooth.  We left our house shortly after 7.  The quality of the roads varies.   The main road to Uganda is a two lane road and sees a lot of truck traffic, and they really tear it up.  I’d see a red patch in the road ahead, and it could either be a little dirt on the road or a foot deep pothole.  On some of the hills there had been attempts at repairs that had turned into washboard asphalt.  Still, Carey remarked that the road is much better than when she had last traveled it.  Then it was hard to tell it was paved, and cars wove around the road and the shoulders to avoid potholes.

This is the main road to Uganda.  Some of these asphalt washboards are big!

We turned off the main road onto smaller and smaller roads as we approached Lugulu.  We stopped for  a drink in Butula where Uhuru and Apollo found a skinny cat on whom to lavish their affections.  Butula was the town where Carey would stash her bicycle when traveling from home because that was the nearest town with public transportation.  About 5km from Butula, we crested a hill and arrived in Lugulu around noon.

Lugulu A.C. Secondary School is right across the street from Carey’s old house.  We parked our car, which we had begun to refer to as our “alien spaceship.”  There was almost no vehicle traffic through Lugulu and our “landing” in Lugulu would cause a stir among the primary school children.

We first walked around the secondary school, which was on holiday.  We saw the library that Carey had constructed, which was now converted to a classroom.  There were many new buildings at the school.  We saw about a half dozen monkeys playing near the boys dorms; Carey hadn’t seen any there before.

New science lab at Lugulu AC High School

There was almost no one around the school, so we went across the street to Carey’s old house.  A teacher at the school was living there, and he invited us in.  Carey said the house looked pretty much the same, but that the walls were dirtier.

Inside Carey's house with current residents

Lugulu is known its boulders.  There is an enormous boulder on the grounds of the primary school.  Carey used to walk out the back of the high school and sit on top.  There was a new fence, so we had to enter the front gate of the primary school to reach the rock.  Four white folks climbing the rock outside the school proved much more interesting than lessons, and the entire school poured out to see what we were up to.  We met some of the teachers and apologized for interrupting their lessons.  Carey gave a short talk to all the students.

Students leave class to see what the mzungus are up to.

All the people that Carey is in touch with (both students and teachers) have moved on.  One of her roommates is a judge in a larger city.  Another has moved to Nairobi.  The former headmaster died.  A good friend moved to the Maldives and died of meningitis.  We met one of Carey’s former students on our way through Nairobi. 

Lugulu is way off the beaten track, and there are few white visitors.  Even in Iten, which has more mzungus, children rush out to greet us yelling “How are you?” as we pass.  So we were quite a curiosity in Lugulu.  We left the primary school, climbed into our alien spaceship, and drove off to find lunch.

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