Day 10: Run Across Ethiopia yields to Hase Gola
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.
But I’ve got news for you. I’ve taken you for a loop. The running was never the true story here.
Today, Day 10 of the Run Across Ethiopia, after jogging a slight 12 miles through hilly coffee country, we met the true gravity of our purpose here — in the form of thousands of excited rural Ethiopians waiting for hours down a rutted dirt road for our arrival in Hase Gola — the hamlet where the first On the Ground Global school is already being built. Immediately upon disembarking from the bus around 1 p.m. today, our entourage was swarmed by an untold number of joyous local villagers, clapping their hands, singing in choirs, dancing with sugarcain sticks, playing whatever instruments they had on the floor of their meager hut. The welcome was beautiful, intense, and seemed both triumphant and tragic at the same time. Imagine the kinds of crowds that turn out to greet the Beatles, or Obama. Now you have at least an impression of what this felt like. I looked from face to face of our contingent — American and Ethiopian runners/journalists/musicians/interpreters, alike — and couldn’t spot a single dry eye. Many of us have traveled extensively to developing countries before; others have rarely left the Midwest. And no one — no one — had ever experienced anything like this before.
Our new friends numbering in the thousands mobbed us as we found our way to makeshift tables where Tadesse Mekala, head of the Oromia Fair Trade Cooperative, Chris Treter and others gave speeches about the importance of this new school for the community. Its construction is already underway. It will include four classrooms, which can hold 480 students (240, twice a day); it will reach 10 different rural communities, and ultimately change the lives of nearly 9,000 people whose sons, daughters, brothers and sisters will attend school here. Music took over after the speeches. Our interpreter Mamoosh danced like a jackrabbit along with the choir. Seth Bernard held hands and danced up and down with the pastor. Timothy and Connor Young joined Ethiopian youth in climbing a tree to take in the scene.
Our entourage was treated to a delicious meal afterward in the new school, including a plate of fresh raw meat from this morning’s animal sacrifice. When offered a gift of luxury in an impoverished village, you never turn it down. so runner Matt Desmond, myself, Maureen Voss, Shauna Fite and Timothy Young tried the raw meat with berbere spice. Whether the cuisine will come back to haunt us is unclear. But what is clear is that today’s powerful visit to Hase Gola will remain lodged in the hearts and minds of our Run Across Ethiopia team. It’s clear now that the run, itself, is only a vehicle, a conductor. The school and the community is what the journey is really about.
Here are a couple videos from the running portion of Day 10:
The enthusiastic choir that performed for us, following speeches, in Hase Gola:
Seth Bernard fires up the runners with his rendition of “Eye of a tiger”
Nigel leads a karaoke tune while running
Hans Voss is hurting, and has been ever since rolling his ankle on Day 3. But he said that the pain in his right leg and matches the pain in his left, creating a sort of equilibrium:
Chris Treter runs like a bowling ball!
Following the 12-mile run, Chris Girrbach analyzes the changing landscapes that we’ve seen throughout this journey. Today we came across pine trees that resembled woods in northern Michigan.
Mary Moore leads local children in a song:
