Olympians???

As I said in my last post, I made it to Eldoret on Tuesday, and I have really, really enjoyed my time here.  It's been such an incredible experience in so many ways...I'm going to try to keep this post brief, so let me jump right into what I've been doing:

Since I've been in Eldoret, I've been working with an organization called A-Step, which stands for African Sports and Talents Empowerment Program.  It is an organization partially funded by USAID (hooray, thanks taxpayers!).  But seriously, it's worth it; it's a great opportunity here.  A-Step primary function is to mobilize youth from Eldoret and the surrounding areas and to empower them to live life with a purpose and hope for a better tomorrow for Kenya.  Essentially their strategy is to locate kids from villages who are leaders, they provide them with a football (soccer ball), and tell them to create their own teams from the village.  From there, teams are created from all over and they come together to play in a league.  Thus, young adults who were, not long ago, part of tribes that were killing each other in the post-election violence of 2007, are now playing football with one another.  It's hard to describe to Americans how much value this has: to give young people the opportunity to play football in nice uniforms and for a purpose is not something I can compare for you.  From there, the organization uses the program to instill values, morals, and ethics.  They send representatives into the villages to talk about drugs and alcohol and alternatives to the lifestyle that so many men before them have chosen.  They also do incredible work with victims of HIV/AIDS, teaching them about the options they have for medical treatment and giving them hope that they never knew existed.  Working with A-Step and seeing their commitment to this community has been really rewarding.

Also, the thing that first attracted me to Eldoret was the running community.  Anyway who likes the Olympics knows that Kenya is first-class as far as distance running goes, and Eldoret is the home of the champions.  I got a firsthand look at world-class athlete life this week, and much of my time was spent speechless (yes, it is possible!)  On Thursday morning I jogged down to the track (when I say track I mean a dirt oval) at the city university.  It's the only track in the area right now, so all the athletes do their training there.  My friend Hussein, who happens to be a world-class marathoner (2:10!) invited me to join them.  Let me first say, "If you want to be humbled, run with Kenyans.  If you want to be humiliated, run with Kenyans when you're out of shape."  Basically, I did the warmup and cool down and spent the rest of the workout in awe of what I was seeing.  The track was filled for the morning workout, with about 100 people there.  Hussein was in a group of about 25 fast athletes, doing 10 kilometers worth of speedwork (10 400s and 10 600s).  They ran faster than my race pace but made it look effortless.  Also training that day was Florence Kiplagat (look her up) and many other Olympic hopefuls.  I was in my happy place.

After the workout, I went to lunch with Chris Cheboiboch, a retired Kenyan runner.  He's best known for his runner up finishes at the Boston Marathon and the NYC Marathon.  After all of his running success, he moved back to Eldoret and opened a school.  The place was astonishing.  It was so cool to hear this man's heart and see how invested he was in the youth of this place.  I've seen a lot of brokenness and hopelessness in these last few weeks, but people like Chris and organizations like A-Step remind me to look to the cross, especially today, on Good Friday, and remember that the founder and the perfecter of the hope that's within me is alive and in control of the good things and the bad.

Okay, I've failed at keeping this one short, my apologies.  So much good stuff though...