Late this morning Ethiopian time (eight hours later than in Michigan), the Run Across Ethiopia reached the rural hamlet of Afursa Waru, which is six miles from the coffee-rich town of Yirgachefe. A joyous, but meticulously planned celebration unfolded among local dignitaries, village elders and perhaps thousands of residents — who greeted the 10 American runners and six Ethiopian harriers who had completed a 250-mile jog over 12 days from Addis Ababa.
Journalist Anne Stanton and I visited Hase Gola, the scene of yesterday’s raucous welcome celebration and the site of the first school that On the Ground Global will build here. Hase Gola is desperately poor and largely cut off from the outside world. The purpose of our visit was to meet local coffee farmers and learn about their daily life and needs, and how a school will help improve life in the village.
For the past nine days, my blogging has focused on running — that is, the 10 harriers running nearly 250 miles across southern Ethiopia. I’ve cataloged their aches and pains, daily mileage and terrain, and how the runners have interacted and boosted each other through this painstaking endeavor. In other words, I’ve been a sports reporter.
Here are a few videos that I’ve taken during the Run Across Ethiopia over the past week, which feature some of the best Ethiopia has to offer — and how to consume them.
Earthworks musicians Seth Bernard and May Erlewine joined the team for today’s 16-mile run, which took us into the Yirgachefe coffee region, and a mere 36 miles from our ultimate destination on Thursday. At every water and food stop along the road, Seth and May lit up the crowds of villagers and children, who clapped, danced, and engaged in the sort of cross-cultural love and understanding that music knows best.
The Run Across Ethiopia expanded today, with Timothy Young’s daughter Stella, and Hans Voss’ wife Maureen and daughters joining us on Day 8. Filmmakers James and Jamaica Weston have returned to us after spending much of the past week in Addis Ababa. And even our local support crew — nurse Mamoosh and interpreter Egga — donned sneakers and left the van to leg out a few miles. As such, the team that ascended 15 miles into the Sidamo coffee-rich region was nearly 20 people strong.
With four consecutive 30-mile days in the rearview mirror, and the distance between Addis Ababa and Yirgachefe now 67 percent complete, the Run Across Ethiopia harriers took it relatively easy today. They slept in (until 7 a.m.) and enjoyed a restaurant sit-down breakfast, before legging 15 miles (24 kilometers) through hilly but beautiful, jungle-like terrain south of Hawassa. This journalist’s left knee felt recovered enough to join the team for seven miles. Tonight and tomorrow night we’ll stay in the gorgeous Agadash lodge, which overlooks miles of lush green foliage, and where we can literally feed wild hyenas (there’s so much food in this valley that the animals won’t hurt humans).
How did 1,000 ganja-loving Jamaican Rastafarians show up in a rural village in southern Ethiopia? The Run Across Ethiopia harriers learned how on Day 6 of their 250-mile run to Yirgachefe. Former Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie (“Negus Negusti”, the “king of kings”) gave land in the village of Shashomane, north of Hawassa, to 300 Jamaican Rastafarians in the 1950s. Rastafarians believed that Selassie was a prophet from God.
Coach Dan Zemper — a late but very important addition to the run — held court with an allegorical story about how Canadian geese fly faster in a tight V formation because they remain in a pack, draft behind one another, and never let a single goose fall behind. The runners took Zemper’s words to heart, remained in a pack today, and finished strong despite a vicious midday sun that beat through a cloudless sky.
Today, the Run Across Ethiopia harriers and local Tesfa team runners faced a third straight 30-mile run through the Rift Valley to Lake Lagano. The team that awoke this morning before 5 a.m. hobbled, limped, crawled and pranced their way to the bus for a predawn breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and coffee — some of their toes bound in tape and sore ankles and knees wrapped, their stomachs victims of the local cuisine, and looking battle-weary like soldiers returning from the front.