The Land

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January 23, 2011

The First Step is Hundreds of Thousands of Footsteps

Posted by kriosconsulting under Chris Treter, Coffee, Community, Culture, Environment, Run Across Ethiopia, Shauna Fite, The Land, Water | Tags: , , , , , , , , |
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POST BY SHAUNA FITE  (Staff Member of Michigan Land Use Institute)

Sunday January 23, 2011

It was pretty quiet after the team headed out of town the day before last. What a journey. Our last day together was spent running 10k to Afursa Waro where another huge celebration was held. There must have been 5,000 people there to greet us, along with music, singing, and dancing.  The team was presented and dressed with beautiful traditional clothing. It was certainly a moment of accomplishment for the blood, sweat, and tears put in by each and every runner. Chris Treter was asked to say a few words and was clear that building a school is really just the first step when he said, “this is not the first time we have visited Afurso Waro, and it will not be the last.”

We are making our way north back to Addis Ababa with the Coop Coffee folks. Yesterday we visited more schools and a birthing and family planning clinic. We also sat with a family in their home as they shared stories and struggles. We were miles away from the main road. The clearest, most dire problem in these communities is certainly the lack of access to water. It’s amazing how many aspects of life are affected by water. It’s not just about drinking water, it’s about kids not having enough time to study because they have to walk two hours each way to get water. It’s about not having dietary options because there is no water to cook with or not having irrigation to sustain food crops, or coffee.

As I sat in the Coop Sol annual meeting, this was only reiterated by each and every farmer that explained the challenges associated with growing coffee. Top three needs – water, roads, electricity. I tried to relate this to my own life, working for an environmental advocacy organization and something became very clear. Our list is not much different, except the title of our list is consumption of water, roads (driving and oil use), and electricity (energy of all forms).

So as Chris said, this is really just the first step. But, there is defintiley something to celebrate when that first step is hundreds of thousands of footsteps across Ethiopia!

www.runacrossethiopia.org

 

January 16, 2011

The Contingent is Now at Full Force

Posted by kriosconsulting under Coffee, Culture, Dancing, Environment, Jacob Wheeler, Run Across Ethiopia, Running, The Land | Tags: , , , , , , , , , |
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POST FROM JACOB WHEELER via the Glen Arbor Sun

Sunday January 16th, 2011

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 turns in the road. As such, the team that ascended 15 miles into the Sidamo coffee-rich region was nearly 20 people strong. We’ve become accustomed to villagers, and children in particular, swarming the runners whenever they pass along the road, but we got lucky today because Sunday meant that many were attending church. Fifteen miles completed today, which puts us at 198 since leaving Addis last Sunday. Only 52 more to go before the victory jog into Yirgachefe on Thursday.

The past two nights we’ve stayed at the stunningly beautiful Aragesh mountain lodge near the remote village of Yirgalem. We’ve slept and dined in a series of round bamboo woven huts that are constructed entirely of local materials and held up by one post in the center of the room. Such architecture reminded me of indigenous earth lodges and was a welcome departure from the urban grit of previous towns. Since Thursday, we’ve traded diesel exhaust, bass music thumping until the wee hours, heinous smells and old condoms found under a hotel room bed, for serenity, long walks into the green valley, locally grown (and sterilized) vegetables, a bonfire pit …. and wildlife.

Around dusk at the Aragesh lodge a groundskeeper throws food scraps down a nearby hillside, which immediately attracts giant vultures and hyenas — more wolf than dog, and the primary reason why Ethiopian runners never train along and before sunrise.

Tonight, northern Michigan musicians Seth Bernard and Mae Erlewine rejoined our crew, and played an after-dinner performance around the campfire. One could almost imagine the hyenas listening curiously from the forest below as the duo offered new songs they had written in Ethiopia, as well as the Johnny Cash favorite “Ring of fire”. Suddenly we looked through the smoke, and in a clearing on the other side of the fire pit, filmmakers James and Jamaica had begun to dance — they had become nymphs from the deep forest, their feet moving so rapidly and effortlessly that they hardly touched the ground. As graceful as Ethiopian marathon runners, I thought, whose bodies move forward always, instead of bounding up and down. Watching this was poetry.

To return to our website please click here, www.runacrossethiopia.org

 

January 10, 2011

Debre Zeit into the Great Rift Valley

Posted by kriosconsulting under Culture, Run Across Ethiopia, Running, The Land
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Monday January 10, 2011

POST BY CHRIS TRETER

Day 2: 28 miles – Debre Zeit into the Great Rift Valley

Today marked the second day of the Run Across Ethiopia. After an extremely busy first day that saw us getting off to a late start due to the logistics of transporting our whole team of over 30 people to the launch, while accomodating a surprising extra 25 well wishers, the team decided to start earlier on day 2 to minimize our exposure to the sun. We thought it best to wait till after sunrise to start jogging as Heinas are known to enjoy the flavor of runners in the night time so we started out at about 7:30 am. The run was much smoother then I thought. The first 15 miles were on the main road from Addis Ababa to Djibouti, a busy thoroughfare where exports and imports make their way between the port and capital. Once we took a right off that road in Mojo and started down the road toward Kenya, things started to be much more rural with far less traffic. That is, minus the one random Chinese cement factory (Chinese are heavily investing in Ethiopia) in the middle of nowhere that filled the road with smoke for a good five minutes of jogging. We covered our mouths and noses with our shirt to avoid sucking in the thick toxic smoke.
On the Run
(No, this is not our rendition of Abbey Road.)
At about mile 20 we continued a slight descent into the Rift Valley, a broad expanse filled with lakes and vast pastures dotted with lumber trees. camel, sheep, cattle, donkeys with a human per herd dot the terrain. Large circular bails of Teff, a nutritious grain that has been around since before 1000 BC, line the traditional homes along the road.  The Rift Valley is said to be an expansive valley that runs through parts of Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya where the tectonic plates have split over hundreds of thousands of years forming a valley dotted with lakes. The first lake we spotted was Lake Komo around mile 22 – just at the point to give us a bit of a push to keep going for 6 more miles in the beautiful, but increasingly hot terrain.
Toward the end of the run, Dan Zemper, our coach and owner of Zemper Restorative Therapy in Traverse City, was sure to keep track of signs of dehydration. Luckily we had an amazing support team that monitored our every move from the bus and was there to hand out water each mile. The run ended beside a family who was out collecting their teff. They hung out with us for a bit in a dusty shoulder of the road while we learned some new stretches from our Ethiopian running teammates. We even took the time to take a team photo with them to remember Day 2.
Tomorrow we are running 30 miles and will be sure to enjoy more of this amazing terrain.
To return to our website just click this link.  www.runacrossethiopia.org
 

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