Making my garden

One day my brother Niko and I decided to go down the dambo (a kind of dried up marsh) to clear a particular area for my garden. We used our hoes a bit, we also used this thing called a slasher to cut down the tall grasses. So we are standing there looking at a pile of grass, so we decide to burn it. Niko who is 17 handles the fire, because in their eyes I am mildly irresponsible. I am relegated to standing with inkondu (6ish) and doug (7ish). So we watch, and Niko starts a fire and it kind of got bigger than we expected.  If you can picture Niko and I now standing on blackened earth (doug and inkondu ran to get the family) with a ring of fire spreading outwards. I was like “Niko is it going to go out?”, and he was like “um, yea.”  So we started working the soil, each of us looking up now and then, trying not to let the other notice our apprehension (the flames were about 10 feet high now). It didn’t go out, and then when we saw 8 family members running down we kind of freaked out a bit. Lots of running, lots of swatting with sticks. To properly put a fire out you take a slender tree limb with green leaves and sort of swat at the ground next to the fire. That rather lasted a long time, about 6 hours. Funny thing is all the kids thought it was fun, and the parents didn’t seem to mind. I kind of got sick, when I was working to long I would go lightheaded and everything looked like an over exposed photo. I think it was smoke inhalation or heat sickness, either way I vomited later. All in all the fire took up about 300sq. Yards or so of area.   

Race Preparation

I went to Lusaka about a week before the race to pick my brother (Wednesday). I managed to impress even myself when I was down in Lusaka. On the day we traveled to town, my friends Matt, Alan and I managed to close down the local bar that we like going to. The thing is I didn’t even know it closed.  At 6am we had to go, so I was tired so please take that into consideration for the following emotional swings.  That day Alan and I decided to hang at the movie theatre all day. Before the movie, we went to the grocery store and it took me an hour of wandering around to decide I didn’t want what they were offering. We managed to see Fantastic Four at 11, Ocean’s 13 at 15, and Pirates of the Caribbean at 18. Maybe it was sitting in the movies all day but the end of Pirates hit me extremely hard.  Once every ten years, and the green flash and all that. Honestly, why do Will Turner and Elizabeth Turner (Swan) have it so rough.? Seriously, this wreaked me for a few days. I don’t know why this got me so bad but it did, and at the end of the credits it showed their little Turner, too much. I decided I needed to stay in Friday night, just relax cause I couldn’t take much stress. Unfortunately, Sled Dogs was on TV. All I needed was a movie about dogs dying.  I can’t watch surgery on TV, and I can’t watch animals especially dogs die. After the once every ten year thing, watching the dogs run around the snow starving was the last thing I needed. I was in a pretty dark place at this point. It was Friday night and I couldn’t think about running. I picked my brother the next day (Saturday), and this helped to improve my mood. Nevertheless, there are some terrible things that happen to you some times that will never completely go away. This might be one of them, or I could have been really tired. I am not sure. Anyways I was able to move on, and I took my brother out that night with some of my friends. I was in a better mood, but I got fleeced by someone in a bar. They ran off with my phone, so I spent the next day (Sunday) purchasing a new one. We managed to get on a bus at two that afternoon and we got into Serenje at 8 or so. So rested up we relaxed on Monday, getting ready to race the next day. Unfortunately, the power went out at 4 that afternoon, nixing any hope of a good dinner.    

Marathon

I ran the marathon and I really don’t see what the big deal is. I thought it was easier then some swim practices I have had. I ran the race in 4:20, which is fine by me.  Everything was fine except one of the turn around points wasn’t properly marked so I ran about 2 miles past it. I was in the lead than, and once I figured out what had happened I was alittle upset, but I still caught up to everyone again. I ended up running about 28 miles and walking another two. I was short of the finish line when I judged I had run enough, so walking was the option. I over shot the running part just to make sure that I ran enough, we had a map at the house which was marked out with mileage I referred to later. Either way it happened I won. No, it wasn’t my fault that I ran too far. The Race Director changed the turn around point, with out the approval of the Event Director (me).  We had cycled the route earlier and when she later went to finalize the course she (RD) made a grievous error. It is unfortunate that the mistake wasn’t realized until after the race but the travesty was rectified by her immediate dismissal.  I also gave her the silent treatment for a good two hours and then I told her it was all her fault. Either way it happened I was able to dance the night of the race. In fact I was able to play Ultimate Frisbee the next day, and dance again that night. I even managed to strain some muscles in-between my ribs diving for a Frisbee.  So whatever.

good bye,  dan.