Kenya update: This Duck isn't a chicken.

You may recall last month that I wrote about how many from the US were electing not to compete probably as they were worried a US bomber flying back from bombing raids over Somalia or might drop its load in the middle of the race. I wrote about it here. Well fortunately a few US runners did go to participate among them a fellow Portlander.

It takes a brave Oregonian and a Portlander none the less to compete in Mombasa, Kenya is what Kenny Klotz of University of Oregon recently proved.Klotz representing the UO Ducks was the leader of the (US) American (junior) team who competed at the IAAF Cross Country Championships last month in Mombasa. My dad forwarded me an article from GoDucks.com with this story which you can read if you want to know more.

Running away from races rather than running in them. I was just in Kenya and find the excuses used to not compete in Mobassa offensive.

This is an older story that my dad shared with me a few weeks back but which I felt would be interesting to share on my blog. As my dad rightly predicted I was very annoyed and frustrated by the reasons these cross country runners have decided not to compete in Mombasa, Kenya later this month. Cowardly, ignorant and unfair are the reasons described below for not attending. I think the US Embassy/government is using this as a chance to push its policies and politics in eastern Africa. If the bombing along the Somali border wasn't disheartening enough when I was there this story is. Kenya's for some reason seem to revere the US or maybe more accurately US citizens (not Americans as Americans go from Patagonia to the top of Canada) while remaining skeptical about the US Government. This is one of those times when the terror in terrorism really wins out. Have fun sitting at home and watching your fellow runners compete from the comfort of your homes, you arm chair chickens.

The first story in its entirety comes from the Oregonian but another from the Florida Sports Magazine speaks further as to the reasons runners have chosen not to compete.

Running notebook Klotz plans to race in troubled Kenya Monday, February 26, 2007 DOUG BINDER The Oregonian

Less than a month before the world cross country championships in Mombasa, Kenya, many of the top U.S. runners have declined to make the trip.

Oregon freshman Kenny Klotz, a qualifier for the national junior team, remains in, but Adam and Kara Goucher of Portland have opted out.

Although huge crowds are expected for Kenya's first IAAF World Athletics Series event, the risks can't be taken lightly, Alberto Salazar, the Gouchers' coach, said.

First, there is a risk of illness. Vaccination for yellow fever is mandatory, and seven other immunizations are recommended.

"I've been to Kenya twice and came back with a gastrointestinal bug both times," Salazar said.

Then, there is the heat. It is likely to be 90 degrees with high humidity for the March 24 races in Mombasa, on the Kenyan coast.

"Running in that kind of heat and humidity, even if you do prepare for it, is a crapshoot," Salazar said.

Security is also a concern. According to Reuters news service, hundreds of Kenyan Muslims marched in Mombasa on Feb. 18 demanding the release of Muslims they say are being held unfairly, and the protesters vowed to disrupt the cross country championship if the prisoners were not freed.

The U.S. Embassy in Nairobi recently issued a strong warning to Americans considering visiting Kenya, saying violent crime was on an upswing and that Kenyan authorities had a limited capacity to prevent it.

U.S. stars Dathan Ritzenhein and Alan Culpepper and Australian Craig Mottram have said they won't compete.

The United States will be among more than 70 countries represented at the event. Klotz, a former standout at Central Catholic who placed second in the U.S. junior 8-kilometer race Feb. 7 in Boulder, Colo., will get the opportunity to wear a Team USA jersey for the first time.

For the rest of the story visit Oregonlive

A wild past two months.

You might be wondering what happened to me from about the 15^th of December until now. The truth is that I was in Mozambique as I told about in a few blog entries posted in early January and then went to Kenya on the 5^th of January and stayed until the 27^th before flying from Nairobi to Johannesburg. I was so busy in Kenya and most of the time in places with no internet or such slow internet that I chose to check email only sporadically and only wrote one entry, January 10^th, while on the road. I had a great time in Kenya traveling as far as Migori/Lake Victoria in the western part of the country and also getting to know people and places in an around Nairobi. I got a chance to spend some time at two schools started in Kenya by groups of Christian Scientists and it was nice to get to know faculty, staff and students at these schools. I was even asked, on the spot, to teach an English lesson to 5^th and 6^th graders at Petals bringing me back to my days of teaching English for the Peace Corps in Mozambique. I will try and edit some of the hundreds of photos I took in Kenya and Mozambique and post them over the coming weeks. As I am going in to my second week of work here at Iracambi things are looking to get busier and I already have a long list of work to do. Also, colleagues are starting to go on vacation for varying lengths of time so I will be covering for others over the next month while still trying to define my work as program coordinator. I start my official SIT practica this Friday the 23^rd and do it for three months. At the conclusion of this I will still have 2 ½ months here but will be one step closer to completing the requirements for SIT. These are exciting and busy times and I should get back to my work before the day is completely gone.

Off to spend three weeks in the land of the Maasai, Lake Victoria, the Great Rift Valley and the 2007 World Social Forum! Packing for Kenya.

Jambo! As you might recall back on October 29^th I announced my plans to travel to Kenya for a few weeks mainly to attend the World Social Forum (WSF) from January 20^th to 25^th in Nairobi. Well the moment has arrived and the time to travel will soon be upon me. I am excited to get to visit Kenya for the first time, see old church and university friends, make new ones along the way and get to experience my first East African country (Moz is kinda in between south and east) It should be a great time from tomorrow the 5^th until Saturday the 27^th. I will be in Nairobi for the first few days and then head with my friend Jared Ogega (see about his school) to Migori in the western part of the country near Lake Victory and stay there for a week or so before retuning to Nairobi a few days before the WSF. I have made contacts with many people in Kenya mainly in Nairobi (see about another Christian Science school in Kenya) and the area in and around Migori so I will have lots of stories to tell when I get back, photos to share and more. I would write more but I gotta run and keep working on my packing and prepping for Kenya. I will try and write a few times while there but as in Moz I might just get carried away and not take/have the time to do so. Catch you on the info superhighway in the near future!

Battle of the Bulge. Chókwè might be experiencing a mini drought but that doesn’t mean they don’t know how to treat long lost sons to tons of food!

That is right I am back from Mozambique and off to Kenya in 1 ½ days time. I got back this afternoon and was picked up by my friend Ernest Karanja at the airport. It was nice to be in Moz for almost three weeks to see friends, eat some great food, spend the holidays, survive the heat, dance the night away, feel like a rock star again, matar saudades and come home with some great music*. It was good to go back but now I have not idea when I will be back but I know for sure I will go back. I of course didn’t see everyone I wanted to as some were visiting friends/family for the holidays, others out of country studying or working and sadly many have passed on since my last time in Moz two years ago. That seemed to be the only real “novidade” (news) in fact besides more children, potholes, the heat and of course lots of bebidas (drinks) due to the holiday time.

I am tired so I won’t write too much now but just wanted to put something up to announce my return to the Republic of South Africa. I will be busy tomorrow with all kinds of stuff before leaving for Kenya on Friday at 11:30 AM. I need to download all the photos I took, load the music I got onto my computer and start listening, get rid of the virus that got onto all my flash cards in my camera, charge my batteries, catch up on some emails, finish up my prepping for Kenya, do some laundry and sit with computer which I have missed these past 3 weeks. In fact it was nice to be gone and if I hadn’t been busy, cheap and not wanting to miss a minute I would have written while in Moz. I might post a few times in Kenya but it all depends. I will have lots to catch up on when I get back to the States later this month but I will have 8 jam packed days before going off to Brasil! The reason for the title of this blog is that I was very much so over fed my whole time in Chókwè. I had at least four full meals a day and plenty of snacks on the side and people kept offering me soft drinks and juice on top of that. I didn’t have the heart to tell most that I don’t drink soft drinks and was relieved when they just offered me water. I have never eaten so much in my life

*That is right Tober (and any others who are interested) I have about 8 GB of new tunes from Moz. A mix of passada, marabenta, hip hop, etc. from the likes of Ziqo, MC Roger, Neyma and Lizha James. Como e nice esta musica! If you want me to burn you some CDS just let me no. Holla mbique!

Calling for help, suggestions and contacts in Kenya. I want to make my first visit a productive and memorable one so let me know any tips or contacts.

As I have mentioned a number of times I am going to Kenya in January for the World Social Forum that will take place in Nairobi from the 20^th to the 25^th of January. I plan on going to Kenya after being in Mozambique for a few weeks from mid/late December to the week after the New Year. I will probably spend about 2 ½ to 3 weeks in Kenya and would love any I have a good list of people, churches and organizations that I have contacted before when looking for a practicum/internship and am sure I will get some great leads with this list but anything you might have to share would be great. There are two schools in Kenya for Christian Scientists and I want to visit both of these as well as some NGO’s and other orgs in and around Nairobi that I know. Any thoughts and suggestions would be great and if you plan on being in Kenya during this time or are there already, especially if you are going to the World Social Forum let me know so we can meet up!

African Women: Pioneers of change?

It is a good feeling to be able to be so proud of a place where you spent many formative years and with which you really enjoy being associated. For me one such place is my undergrad Principia College, a college for Christian Scientists located on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River in Elsah, Illinois. Prin is located on a gorgeous campus with hundreds of acres that the US Air Force once wanted to commandeer to build the Air Force Academy but fortunately it was left to be preserved and conserved for more peaceful and educational purposes. I studied Mass Communications and World Perspectives at Prin and it was during my time there in the spring quarter of my senior year in 2000 that I got to take an abroad to South Africa with 20+ other students, David Winder one of my Mass Comm profs and Bente Morse, Prin’s International Student Coordinator and all around amazing lady. To see more about the abroad you can go to SA Abroad Program website. I think it is awesome that abroads dating back to 99 are still online. The 2002 trip to China, Vietnam and Tibet is worth a look as my sister Ashley was on it along with two friends who were in SA with me in 2000.

Okay so on to the reason for writing this blog I wanted to share about the Pan African Conference that will be held at Prin again this coming weekend. The topic is the subject of this blog “African Women: Pioneers of change?” and I think it should be a great day full of interesting and relevant information gathering and sharing. I think that women really hold the key to Africa’s success and it is up to the men to realize this and give women the credit and power they deserve. It has been my experience in Mozambique and South Africa that women do a lot more good for their family and friends then men. If you happen to be in the area and would like to attend just email me and I will get you in touch with the people who can hook you up with a chance to participate.

I took a weekend off from SIT last fall to go to the conference and was not disappointed. I even got the amazing opportunity of spending most of a day with Paul Rusesabagina the “hero” of Hotel Rwanda. Got to get him from the airport with a Principia employee, have lunch together and talk in the car on the way up to the college. It was an awesome opportunity and I am sure this year’s conference with some amazing speakers including Wangari Maathai who will be the keynote speaker on Saturday night will be great too. Maathai who was one of the originators of “The Green Belt Movement” in Kenya and is the first African women to win the Nobel Prize is an amazing and inspirational leader. She is on the board at SIT and I hope to meet her one day and maybe that day will be when I go to Kenya in January for the World Social Forum. Well, for a college of 550 Christian Scientists located in the rural Illinois countryside I think it is pretty awesome to have an annual event like this one that brings such high caliber of speakers and attendees together to talk about various topics related to Africa.

Its my blog so I'll write what I want to...

I must apologize for having a mind of my own and choosing this blog as one way to share how I see and understand the world. Sorry, if I am not content to watch “reality TV”, accept all the lines that mass media and our governments are feeding us and live just to get my own “almighty dollars”. I have tried to balance my geopolitical persuasion (perversion to some) and view on socioeconomic conditions faced by people around the world with updates on my work in South Africa and photos of friends and happenings but it is high time I get back to sharing what I know and learning more through the process of this information exchange.

I am not afraid to say that in US American political terms I am a very left leaning Democrat bordering on being a Socialist. I think it is only fair to give you a general sense of where I stand so that you can read or not read what I write with this in mind. That said I don’t think it is fair to try and categorize people like I just did to myself but for simplicity's sake I chose to do so in this instance.

I just wanted to share a few websites with you that I think offer a good alternative to the mainstream and “alternative” media that many of you might be logging on to, tuning in to or turning on. The first is Dissident Voice which I came across while researching a blog entry that I will post in a few days. The word dissident is almost dangerous here in South Africa and for some brings up negative reactions due to Thabo Mbeki’s stance and approach to dealing with the huge and growing HIV and AIDS problem . Interestingly enough I found an article at the Dissident Voice on “The New South Africa…” which talks about “post apartheid” South Africa and the governments embracing of Neo Liberalism and the negative impact on everyday South Africans.

Also as previously mentioned I plan on attending the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya from the 20^th to 25^th of January. The World Social Forum (WSF) was started in Porto Alegre, Brasil in January of 2001. It has been held in various locations in South America, Africa and Asia but this is the first time that the entire conference will be held solely in Africa. The two main websites for the forum are http://www.africansocialforum.org/english/index.htm and http://www.socialforum.or.ke/ Both have valuable info to find out more about the history of the World Social Forums and the one coming up in January. Last January a dozen or so of my colleagues at SIT (http://www.sit.edu/) went to the WSF in Caracas, Venezuela which was particularly interesting due to Venezuela’s political situation with Hugo Chavez as president. Two interesting articles one from each of the main WSF sites are worth looking at and they are “Globalization of Civil Society” and WSF 2007 in Africa must build a mass movement against Capitalism. I hope you find these articles interesting and I will surely write more about the WSF in the coming weeks and months and give a full report when I go.