Marathon Stuff

Results are up on the Accra Internaational Marathon website. Men's and women's full and half marathon results are posted, as are photos!

Mali in the news

I was reading a few news pieces recently that I thought might be interesting. The first focuses on Nigerian women being kidnapped and brought to Mali for prostitution, something that the Malian government is working to stop. To read, follow this link

The second article talks about the French asking for Mali's help in releasing hostages captured in Niger and help in northern Mali by Al-Qaeda. The area that they are supposedly being held in is quite far north, an area that Peace Corps does not occupy because of the instability of the area. The kidnappings occurred in mid-September. To read this article, click here. Last July a hostage was killed in the north after an invasion of the French to free him. Ironically, the French worked with Mauritania to facilitate that movement instead of working with Malian officials. This article can be found here.

Finally, a third article speaks to how the kidnapping threat has affected aid and specifically local aid in Mali. Peace Corps has already had to close down many sites in the last few year that were far enough north to be affected by terrorist activity, or that were deemed unsafe by our safety and security officer. This article goes further to touch on other aid campaigns and how they will be changed as a result of the newest activity. To read more, click here.

Ghana Marathon

It's come and gone, and two weeks later I am still a bit fazed that I did it.

On Sunday, September 26th, I ran in the Accra International Marathon in Accra, Ghana. As new volunteers, my friend Jeremy and I had heard about this marathon and talked about doing it. This April, our friend Colleen put together training info and we started our training in May. Through the heat of hot season (think mid-90's to 110/115 daily) and the down pour of rainy season, we trained with this day in mind.

Jeremy and I decided to go to Accra a bit early while everyone ele came into town on the Saturday before the race. When we arrived in Accra, we were thrown by the language (English!) and the fact that the YMCA hostel really was only for young men; I spent the first two mights of our trip hiding, sneaking in and out of the hostel so that the other "young men" wouldn't see me. We explored the city - which is enormous - discovering the following: in fact there is not a zoo in Accra, but there is a large prayer forest that is home to previous zoo animals and their respective enclosed habitats, a journey to which our taxi driver accompanied us; the markets in Africa tend to all be the same, but the Accra market was far and away the most overwhelming market I have ever been in; Accra is so huge, it is necessary as a tourist to take a taxi most everywhere, and they are not cheap; there are more ice cream shops, Chinese and Indian restaurants and cell phone companies per capita than any other city I have ever been to; and surprisingly, there were almost no motorcycles, although the drivers were just as scary.

By the time our friends arrived in Accra, we were almost experts on the area of Osu. In addition to the Mali volunteers, were joined at our hostel by volunteers from Ghana and Togo. PC/Ghana had ten runners, as did PC/Togo, a mixture of marathoners and half-marathoners. Our group was made up of 4 marathoners, 2 half-marathoners, and a large group of "rowdy spectators." As we prepped for the race the night before, Gloria and Chris prepped their own bags with water sachets, bananas, power gels, cameras and extra clothes for the runners. the runners prepped with a dinner of pizza, pasta, and ice cream.

The night before the marathon, I was anxious and didn't really get much sleep, but the next morning as we took our "before" photos and loaded the bus that was to take us to the starting line, I began to feel less sleepy and more excited. Wishing Ali and Josh, our half-marathon runners good luck, we dropped the 200 or so half runners at their starting line. After what felt like much more than 13 miles, we disembarked the bus and got assembled at the start line. An hour late and 3 false starts later, the gun finally went off and the race began.

I am known for starting too fast, so I was careful to go out at a steady pace. Through out the whole race, I felt pretty good, and at about mile 6 I began to pass a few people here and there. Of course, the problem of passing other runners on a poorly labeled course, is that they were your markers and now you become lost much more easily. Many times I wondered where I was going, and where I was leading the people running behind me, and just when I was sure I had gone the wrong way, I would see someone in the orange shirt we were given running ahead of me.

In this manner, I made my way through the run, passing a huge group of our friends hanging at a beach bar around mile 16 and later, Chris and Gloria at mile 20-something passing out water, bananas, and GU. Before I knew it, I was passing more milage signs, although they were not really marked so all I knew was that I was putting more miles behind me. Around what I think was mile 24, I hit my wall. My legs got tired, and my mantra of "this doesn't hurt, you're not tired, you're almost there," turned into something much more obscene and much less optimistic. It was around mile 25 that another volunteer caught up to me, a woman that I had thought was way ahead of me. After struggling to keep up for a bit, she passed me by, and just behind her was a Ghanaian woman. I watched them ahead of me, both in bright green shirt, waiting to see when they stopped running, thinking it had to be close.

Finally after running for far too long through traffic and smog, with random people telling me to "try hard, run fast," telling me the other runners went that way, I came to the turn off, to mile 26. I was able to pick it up a little bit, finish in good form, and crossing the finish line, I felt strong. It wasn't until I was lead to the race tables that I realized that those two women were the only other two ahead of me, and that there had only been 10 people total ahead of me.

I met up with Ali and Josh, both of whom finished their half strong, and we waited for the other Mali marathoners. Soon enough, Colleen, Kat and Jeremy came into view, and we watched them cross the line. Although we were hot, sweaty, sunburned and blistered, we all made it. After all of our training, all the sore muscles and dehydration through training, the early mornings of waking up before the sun, the nights we turned in early while others stayed up, the ways we sacrificed our bodies and our sanity, we all finally made it.

I am so proud of us all, proud to say that I did it. While I set a new personal record and placed for the first time, I am more proud of the time I put into training and the fact that I ran it all. I was also really proud to say that I was part of such a supportive and determined team of runners and spectators. And of course, not an hour after crossing the finish line, we were discussing the rumor of another marathon in January...

Food Security Conference

I came into Bamako to present at a conference on food security in the middle of September. I was asked to represent the Health Education sector by presenting on my garden project to many NGO representatives who have an interest in food security and in working with the Peace Corps in this capacity.

Alima, my counterpart came with me and we were the first to present. After a few technical difficulties, I had to begin my presentation sans power point and photos, but the presentation was still a success. Alima began by greeting the crowd and explaining who we were, where we were from, and our working relationship. Then together we explained the process we used to assess the communities need and the ways that we started our project.

We began by using PACA, the participatory analysis for community action model. This is a series of activities and sessions that first ask the community to identify what they are proud of as a community. Then we move on to what the community sees a need for, the priority of the different needs they identify, and their ability to fill that need.

Through this series of activities, we identified a need for school and medical supplies, for food security, and the interest in working to teach the children at the first cycle school gardening techniques. This directly coincided with my interest in teaching the children about healthy eating and nutrition.

From this meeting, we also identified a community partner in the director of my first cycle school, Djakary Dja, who helped us to develop a budget and a plan of action. I applied for the grant through Peace Corps while also working with Djakary Dja and Alima to discuss the community's contribution to the project. Through this specific grant, the community is responsible for 33% of the total budget.

With our approved project proposal, we are getting ready to begin the building of the fencing and when school has started and the ground is ready, we will start the planting of vegetable. The children will be able to learn about the different planting techniques and options while working the land themselves. The goal is to educate the children on gardening practices, which they will use to cultivate the land and harvest their crop. The vegetables will be sold at our local market, providing a new variety of available foods, and a source of income for the school caisse. Initially the money will be used to purchase the medical supplies that the school needs, a basic first aid kit that will help with small cuts and bruises, things that would usual send the child and teacher all the way across town, if the family could even afford the treatment.

Eventually, monies will be used to purchase school supplies, and then be kept in the school caisse to help to meet the schools needs for things like pump repair and other minor needs. The garden will continue to be a source of learning and achievement for the children.

Our project was well received by the group and Alima was proud to have been invited to present on our work. She was eager and able to answer all kinds of questions from the crowd, shedding the shyness she sometimes resorts to among strangers and important people.