Some last thoughts from the weekend

I got up at 6 AM to watch the sunrise over the Rift Valley.  No one else was there, until Evan came about six thirty or so.  It made for some very interesting thoughts and pictures, which I thought I would share:

"Sitting at Robert's Rock at 6 AM looking over the Kerio Valley as the sun begins to rise, thinking about the first humans to go down into the Rift Valley, listening to the sounds of the valley as it awakens, the sound of someone working already, roosters crowing, cattle mooing, talking one to another, all the sounds of humans and their beasts, imagining the first humans overlooking the Rift, with elephants and giraffes making their way through the valley, through the forests, all gone now with the coming of humans, forests replaced by maize fields, houses, roads, the traces of humanity, all within the relative blink of an eye, a world transformed, all beginning right here, looking down into the valley of the great rift."

Kerio View

We had a very relaxing weekend out at Kerio View Hotel, in Iten, Kenya, overlooking the Kerio Valley, which is part of the Great Rift Valley of east Africa.  The place was built several years ago (you can google their website), by a Belgian who came to Africa.  It is a beautiful place, and the food was great.  Evan and I were looking forward to the food in particular, having gotten a little tired of the tough beef at the Moi University guest house.  It was all quite pleasant and a nice break from campus.  We didn't do a lot of hiking or anything (which I think suited Evan in particular, after last weekend's march through Kakamega Forest), but what we DID do a good bit of is talking about and thinking about running, as you will see in the pictures!

This is the restaurant, a two story affair with a very well stocked bar.  The food was just as good as we had imagined!

This is the building that we stayed in.  Our room was the bottom one on the left hand side.  It was comfortable, but not spectacular or anything.  That's Evan in front of the building.

 Evan relaxing in the room, doing what he does best.

The mother and brother of two of the Canadian girls came to visit them in Kenya.  This is the brother, Todd, with Evan on the porch of the restaurant.  He was nice, and I think Evan was glad to have someone more his age to talk with, if only for the day.  They actually did not stay at the hotel with us, it was only the two of us and the older Canadian couple.  The rest went back to Eldoret.

The guy in the hat and the woman next to him are the Canadian couple, David and Grace.  The two girls there are the Canadian twins, and that is their mother.

Those are the two Swedish guys, Adrian (on left) and Eric.  They are medical students.

This is the whole group at dinner, with the driver of the girls and Swedes and another guy that they knew from town who joined us.  It was great fun!

But now we get to what makes this place world renowned.  It's for running.  And this gentleman just happened to be in the bar, and the fellow who drove us out to Kerio pointed him out to us.  Well, I've gotten more to where I will talk to anyone, and we walked up and introduced ourselves.  This is Brother Colm O'Connell (you can google him), the man who started the running program in the area.  This part of Kenya is populated largely by Kalenjins, who are famous for their running.  Colm told us the story of how this came about when he arrived in Kenya 35 years ago, and it was fascinating.  Evan was amazed and we both asked a ton of questions.  But he started the programs that have led to world champions.  We were walking where Olympic gold medal winners walk, which was pretty impressive, as was Br. Colm.  He is/was Irish, and this was on St. Patrick's Day, which made it even more interesting!

This is me with Colm.  I just felt so lucky to have met and talked with this living legend of Kenyan and world track and field.

As I said, around Iten and Kerio View, it's about running.  This is the track that they run on.  It's a dirt track, which makes the runner work harder, so when they go to Europe/Asia/US they cut a few seconds off their times.  As the runners told us, no records are set in Kenya, but Kenyans set records elsewhere.  We talked to a Luo and a Masai runner who were living at the track, but most of the runners are Kalenjins.

This was another Kenyan taking a turn around the track.  Runners come from all over the world to train here, which was just so cool to find out about!

The living conditions at the track are a little bit rough (below you will see something else for international runners), but my guess is that it makes the runners (both girls and guys), a bit tougher than might be the case otherwise.

This is the inside of the compound at the track.  Not the easiest of conditions.  I got the feeling that these are Kenyan athletes who are working to shorten their times, who may get some government sponsorship but they aren't quite ready for Nike, etc.

This was some of our group racing around the track.  I made it around, but it wasn't a pretty sight.  Evan did much better, obviously.  But it was great fun for us and I think we amused the runners at the track.

This is the entry gate to the town of Iten, which is definitely the Home of Champions.  It was just all so interesting!

This is actually the training facility where most of the foreign athletes come to train.  They work out in the pool, and there is a lounge in the background where they can relax.

This is the work our area for the athletes.  They walk/jog from here to the track to work out.  They didn't want us taking pictures of the athletes, for obvious reasons.  They come here to get away from the press and prying eyes, so we were lucky they let us visit.

These are the dorm rooms, they are double rooms.  Some athletes stay here for several weeks, some stay here for several months.  If you watch the Olympics this summer, my guess is that a good many of the athletes in track will have spent some time training at Iten.  I didn't mention the major reasons why it is here.  The altitude and the topography.  At this altitude you are really working hard to do anything, plus you have steep climbs and flat surfaces.  A serious runners perfect environment!

Another view of the compound.

And this was a final highlight.  This is David Rudisha, the current world record holder in the 800 meters.  He was so kind to let us get a picture of him with Evan at lunch.  At the training facility the guy taking us around told us he was amazed we saw David out for lunch, because he is training very hard.  And his rival, Abubaker Kaki Khamis (Kaki) of Sudan was also training in the area.  And to return to the beginning, Br. Colm is David's coach.  And one last thing about Br. Colm, he had never played any serious sports in his life, but came to Kenya and he says that the main thing he is able to do is understand not so much runners, but Kenyans, at least as much as anyone can.  All in all, this was just a very interesting couple of days!

Some pictures closer to the Shack

I thought I would share a picture from my office.  Not as big as my office in Kyser Hall, but just as cluttered.

And I also have to put this here.  Evan and I have both acquired traditional Kenyan shirts.  This is mine, I'll post Evan's later.

I'm turning Kenyan!

Kakamega Forest

On this past Saturday we visited one of the last stands of tropical rainforest in East Africa.  This is a highland tropical forest, so it is not quite as wet and lush as you would see in the lowlands.  In lowland rain forests like the Amazon or the Congo it rains pretty much all year.  Where we are there are distinct wet and dry seasons, which means the forest is not quite as dense as you would get in the lowlands like the Amazon.  We saw a bunch of monkeys cavorting in the trees, and heard a lot of birds, though we didn't see as many as I had hoped.  We were a large group kind of lumbering through the forest, so any wildlife got pretty spooked quickly.  There is a primary growth forest (the old stuff) and then secondary growth where the forest has been cut several years ago.  They have a lot of problems with people coming into the forest and cutting trees for wood or using wood for charcoal burning, which is a huge problem for the forests throughout Africa.  Kakamega, then, has a lot of threats.  If was very pretty, though warm that day, so it was a long day in the forest.

The entry gate to the forest.

Our group heading out.  I don't think anyone thought we would be hiking for six hours!

Entering the forest.  The paths were wide, but not well marked.  It's good we had a guide!

One of the Swedish guys climbing around.  This is the old growth forest here, with large trees.

This is a view up into the tree canopy.  Though it is old growth, you can see it's not as dense as what you would get in the Congo.  Also, it's just not as wet.

This is a tropical giant tree, being attacked by various parasite type plants.

Our group making our way through the forest.  There is Evan.

There we are in front of a big tree! 

Evan in front of another big tree.

Another view of the tree canopy.  I just finished reading Tarzan of the Apes, and he would sleep in the crook of the branches of tropical giants.  You can see the type of trees Burroughs was talking about here.

This is the root system of a tropical giant.  They have to branch out like that to support the tremendous height of the tree. 

This is our group at the base of a tropical tree.  You can imagine how much noise we were making stomping through the forest!

This was our guide, Patrick was his name.  Very nice, very knowledgeable of the forest.

This is a vine system that extends up into the canopy.  You can imagine Tarzan scampering up this to get to his tree house!

This is Evan in the vines.

This is a view from a hill in the forest, with the forest stretched out below.  This is looking to the east.  The guide said this is a great place to watch the sun come up in the morning.  At one time this type of forest covered much of east Africa, so early hominids would have walked  through miles and miles of this type of landscape.  Pretty amazing to think about!

Another view of the forest below.  That is the Nandi Escarpement in the background, one of the many features of the rift valley region, where plate tectonics is at work!

This is me, with the forest in the background, just standing.

This is a jumping Danish girl.  I just threw this one in.

There are open areas in the forest where antelope apparently come out to play.  We saw none, because it was hot in the middle of the day and we were quite noisy.

The last part of our journey was to a very pleasant waterfall. 

Evan and I in front of the waterfall.

Evan by himself, just because I like the picture.  Apparently this whole area gets filled up with water during the height of the rainy season, which is coming soon....

There are little shambas like this on the edge of the forest.  No electricity or running water.  Lots of cows and some goats.  It was right around here that some older guys offered me a taste of homemade African whiskey.  At first I said no thanks, then thought about it and said, why not?  I took a sip.  Quite strong!

These were some kids herding cows home in the afternoon.  They were having a good time laughing at the mzungus tromping down the road, leaving the forest behind.

Couldn't resist the chickens crossing the road....

One last view of a traditional shamba.  These people work very hard in the fields, and have few luxuries.  A very traditional way of life on the edge of one of the last stands of rainforest in East Africa.