Amoeba Races

Sorry for the blogging delay. There is not much to report on when you are hampered by an Amoeba in the stomach. We took our first dose of Cipro (The equivalent of carbourator cleaner for the tummy). It takes you down for a bit and then brings you back to life. I guess that stomach egos were slightly uplifted when we learned that the whole house had it and that it wasn't just the white folk. While it did not completely put us down for the count, it was enough to plan for short days and to make sure that a bathroom was close at all times.

One of the highlights of the week was meeting with all of the CTM Network pastors/leaders. Several of them just graduated from a local urban leadership program. We enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate with them in their hard work. It was great to sit in a circle of leaders that have lived their call in commitment to their respective communities. Many of them have had opportunities to “move up” and “out” of the informal settlements but have remained committed to their people. What an admirable and courageous undertaking!

The week of Amoeba would have been complete without the Nairobi 10km! Our week of training leading up to the consisted of walking up the stairs, to the kiosk markets for a Sprite and several trips to the restroom. To our benefit, there were a few glitches in the race that made things a bit easier on our end. The race had a great turnout...about 12,000 runners...most of whom were a bit discouraged by the end of the day. The course for the 10k was an out and back that led us through the finish line within 5-6km. There was no one telling us at that point that we needed to continue through and do an additional lap in the other direction. 90% of the people (including Mandy, Gideon and myself) stopped, walked around a bit in confusion, got a cup of water and then...realized that there was another lap to do. So...we turned up the throttle a bit and finished the last lap of the race. Walking away from the finish line the 2^nd time, I looked at my watch and learned that I had just completed a 10km in 33 minutes! The excitement was killed a second later when I realized that there is no way that I was running 5:20 miles. The well deserved buzz from the front runners reamed the race organizers for a poorly managed race. Not to mention, the prize money that was compromised. All mistakes aside, it was a great run and the shirts are great!