Christmas day in Mexico

Well it has been a wonderful day on the beach here in Mexico. I am really resting before the big day of the start of the tour...I have missed my daily bike ride but it has been a good thing for me to not obsess about getting the ride in.

It is still a surreal feeling to know that I am almost at the start of this big adventure...how I wondered if the day would come.

I will get home on Friday and start to pack my bike box and stuff in preparation. I was able to find a self contained apartment in Cape Town...right down town for 500.00 for seven days. I plan on spending a wek there and then I will fly up to Queenstown to be at GAP for a few days.

Happy holidays to all...I will write more and post pictures when I return.

Spell check does not speak English on this computer so I apologize for any mistakes and will correct when I get home...it is only 15 pesos for 60 mins..a real deal...still need to work on the local phone call however!!!




Me Snoozing...guess I need it!

Last Day at Crescent

Well it is my last day at school and what a day it has been!

It started with drawing tickets for wine, gift certficates and art...all donated by staff ...and they raised $1600.00 for my ride!! I am VERY GRATEFUL to all!!!!!




We then had an full school assembly and I was given 1200.00 from the proceeds of a dress down day in my honor last week...again the abundance that has flowed into my life continues to fill me with a smile.

I am off to Mexico tomorrow and with it a slower pace with no biking...and then home for the last week to train a bit more and then to Cairo..it is really surreal:-)))

Have a great holiday and look forward to Jan.23rd which is National Pie Day!!

Update of Donations will be posted Dec.20th:-)

Bike in a Box

Our Chef!!!!


Well my bike is in a box and I am feeling complete. It was a great experience to finally see the bike apart and in the box. I will now put my camping gear into the box and seal it up. The box does not count as luggage and the air line charges a fee of 150.00 to ship it...oh well money well spent.

I receive an email today from the Tour company's chef that will be preparing our food. It was rather interesting to see the variety of food that will be prepared. He also informed us about water rationing. We will always have drinking water but not always water for washing...thus the baby wipes we are all taking!!!..ahh the joys of four star camping. Actually I am looking forward to the desert nights and the stars.

Courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined.
Epictecus

Three weeks to Cairo...but who is counting!

A Toronto Winter Wonderland:-)

What do you want to do? What do you want to be? What do you want to have? Where do you want to go? Who do you want to go with? How the hell do you plan to get there? Write it down. Go do it. Enjoy it. Share it. It doesn't get much simpler or better than that.
Lee Iacocca

I received a book entitled... Whatever It Takes... from The Kaye Family. Their son had traveled to South Africa with a group I took about three or four years ago. As I read the above quotation from the book it reminded me of what I encourage the boys I teach to do...live there life for themselves...in the end it is not about who you are ...your life is measured by what you do.

Staff Send Off

Cory the student who "pushed" me to do this.






WOW! On Friday evening after classes my school had a special send off for me. It was an opportunity for all to sign my bike with best wishes (we used sharpie markers). The words will be with me as I ride.

I was also presented with a book that had been created by Ann Murray. It has a quote from a member of the Crescent staff or student body for each day that I will be riding to encourage me. There was also copy made to be left in the staff room so it can be read each day as I ride. How amazing is that!!!

The student who actual challenged me years ago by asking "what was I doing" showed up at school on Friday...by accident!...I doubt it. It was great to be able to tell him what he had "encouraged me to do".

We had a major snow storm over the weekend and I can only say that I am so looking forward to sun and sand. (At least I am saying that now!!!)

Once again I am thankful for the abundance that is in my life.

My Passpsort is BACK!

WOW!....what an experience. I was on the phone to the Ethiopian Embassy yesterday from 9-2..on hold...giving my name yet once again with "how do you spell that"...to "the person you need is not here"...to "we will call you" (which never happened)...to "we did not receive it"...(Canada Post said you did)...finally I was told to call back today.

I jokingly said to a fellow teacher..."watch it will probably be in my mailbox at home"...and guess what IT WAS!!!!...I now know what it feels like to wonder who has access to your identity. As I looked at the Priorty Post Envelope it appears not to have been processed...yet I got it.

Anyway...peace of mind is back.

The Journey

I trust you will enjoy this poem...and while you are reading it I will be on the phone to the Ethiopian Embassy trying to find out about my passport:-)

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice -
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
you knew what you had to do,
thought the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations --
thought their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice,
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.

One Month to Departure From Cairo!

That day has arrived. The last month has started!!!

I went out yesterday to get a roll of electrical tape and a small trowel for those intimate moments when nature calls and all there is only sand and desert and all the other riders and locals! I am sure there will be more last minute things to get as the start approaches.

I have not received my passport back from the Ethiopian Embassy. If it is not in the mail today I will have to call as I need it to travel next week.

My Personality Type

A member of the tour this year is going to "conduct a sociological study of group dynamics of the Tour d'Afrique riders." Yesterday we were sent an email with a request to do a personality profile. Being the personality that I am I quickly did the request to get it out of the way. After doing the online test I found out that I am a mobilizer...or is that THE MOBILIZER....sounds like a Hollywood character.

Supposedly my outgoing friendly nature makes it easy for people to follow my lead. I take a genuine interest in those around me and people appreciate it. I like to push myself and participate in challenging tasks, and often reach my goals (BOY THAT IS GOOD NEWS!!!!). I possess an underlying optimism in the face of adversity that helps me overcome challenges (HOPEFULLY THAT ASPECT WILL SURFACE AS I DEAL WITH FLAT TIRES AND OTHER EVENTS!!!)

I am sure it will be an interesting group of people no matter what our personalities are and I look forward to mobilizing them!!!

Thought

I watched the CNN Hero presentations on the weekend and I am amazed at what people are doing in the world who make a difference. I was particularly impressed with a man from Kenya who, as a child,lost both of his parents to an unknown disease and then six other family members to other diseases. He decided that he was going to focus on getting an education. Through perseverance he was able to get scholarships and eventually ended up in the USA. Once he graduated he returned to Kenya to set up a clinic and now as a result the community has a place for people to go to to get assistance. He stated that the entire community had supported him while he was on his journey and this sustained him

My experiences in Africa has taught me that family and community are the most important aspect of the way of life. Now if the world can act the same:-)

Read the story below:
Peter "Awilo" Kithene was born in the remote village of Muhuru Bay, Kenya in the early 80’s. He was a typical village boy, living in a world of poverty without electricity, without plumbing, and often without food — like everybody else there, but from the beginning he was different: he had an enormous respect for his parents, and an endless thirst for knowledge. As a child he already had a goal — to study and use the knowledge he gained to help others in need. At twelve years of age, Peter's parents died, leaving him to care for his three young siblings and unable to afford the cost of Kenyan elementary education.

The death of his parents nearly ended Peter’s plans. Being, what he terms, “an ordinary African orphan,” he knew chances weren’t good he’d make it far in life; elementary school fees were prohibitively expensive in Kenya at the time, and his friends and relatives considered his passion for education a selfish waste of time. They begged him to give it up so he could commit full-time to the raising of his siblings. ...But he knew the best way he could help his family was to get educated.

At twelve Peter left his family to move to another village to live with his maternal grandmother—since she allowed him to pursue his educational goals. He knew by then that he wanted to become a doctor. His goal was to help people in need of medical services in parts of the world like his own, where there were none. His parents died of undiagnosed disease—neither ever having received any medical attention; the same was true for six of his ten siblings. Peter did not want this to happen to other people. He didn’t want any more of his family or countrymen to die from illnesses which are preventable or curable. This drove him to work ceaselessly at his schooling. He focused on nothing but the dream that he would become a doctor so he could help families like his own.

At age 12, an American couple (volunteering at a neighboring village clinic) ‘discovered’ Peter and provided means for him to finish elementary school. He repaid them by organizing and performing skits at various functions to raise awareness about health issues. He studied ceaselessly, often spending all night at the school and performing odd jobs to earn money for paraffin so he could study by lamplight. At the end of grammar school Peter took the national exams and emerged as the number one student in his province. This achievement afforded him a scholarship to study at Kenya’s premier high school in Nairobi, a nine-hour ride from his village.

At Starehe Boys Centre, Peter continued working hard to honor his parents for the start they had given him in life. He rose to various leadership positions: school prefect, student-in-charge of the school clinic, chairman of various clubs, etc. While working within these stations, he was further confronted with the medical crises of his country. In 1998 a blast rattled his school and sirens filled the city; the U.S. Embassy had been bombed, and as the student-in-charge, he gathered supplies and a crew and rushed to the scene to pull bodies from the rubble. Tragedies are commonplace in Nairobi and were part and parcel with his school responsibilities: tending to children hit by trucks on their way to class, or nursing fellow students in advanced stages of cancer and leukemia. When villages were struck with cholera, Peter went to the quarantined areas to provide care. At 17, he traveled with the Ministry of Health to regional schools to teach AIDS awareness. At 18 he opened a small village grocery—with a ‘welfare’ area dedicated to the sustenance widows and orphans … the only such amenity in Muhuru Bay.

After sitting exams, Peter graduated his O-levels and was awarded places at both the University of Nairobi and the University of Washington. He chose to come to the West, he says, so he could enjoy the most relevant, hands-on, and technologically advanced education around. He is currently studying Psychology and pre-medicine at the UW. The idea for him is to learn how things are done in the developed world, so he can carry that knowledge back to Africa; he wants to help lead Africa into the post-modern world, so she can begin to grow a strong infrastructure of leadership.

As if all this weren’t enough, in August of 2005, Peter merged his two loves: Africa and medicine. Peter’s greatest desire is to create awareness of the suffering of these rural communities; his overarching goal is to build and run hospitals, health centers, and clinics after finishing his medical training—but he couldn’t wait that long. The need is now. He couldn’t bear any longer to watch as his family and friends back home lived without access to trained doctors, or to sit and watch as deaths in his village, and those around it, continued unabated.

This is no longer the case—at least not in Muhuru Bay, Kenya. While returning home to marry his American bride in a traditional village ceremony, Peter opened his very first medical clinic; in one of those hardest hit areas of rural Africa he had long dreamed of helping.

August 16, 2005 saw the grand opening of Mama Maria Kenya—a grassroots organization dedicated to providing developing countries replicable and self-sustaining programs to advance the most vital aspects of village health, education and development. Peter built Mama Maria around the idea of not simply providing basic medical help for those ravaged by poverty and disease, but to provide opportunities for self-sufficiency for those most affected by it.

Peter’s little Mama Maria organization had a miraculous start—within months of its conception he had put together a powerful board (including the Attorney General of the State of Washington, Rob McKenna, in advisory capacity), and had raised over $20K of funds and supplies—enough to get set up as a 501(c)3 in the States, and to get off the ground in Kenya.

But best of all, Peter opened the doors to his first actual health care clinic in Africa … which has seen resounding success. The response from the community has been overwhelming. Between the people who have received employment from Mama Maria, and those who have benefited from its services (the first three weeks they averaged 100 patients daily), each day his dream is one step closer to realization. While it is a constant struggle for Peter to juggle time, school, family, and funds, he has found a way to make great things happen so far, and knows a way will be provided for him to continue his dreams in the future. In Muhuru Bay, and beyond.

One month to deaprture to Cairo

WOW!
Only one month until I depart for Cairo Egypt. Hard to believe but soooooooooo exciting.

I took my bike in yesterday to get it tuned up...new chain, brake pads, cables etc and will pick it up Saturday. I was going to get it boxed but I need it for next Friday when it will be available for people from work to sign with a sharpie wishing me good luck. LOVE THAT!

The weather continues to be cold bit at least the sun was out yesterday.

I am blessed!!

Winter in Africa

Well more snow today. Maybe the forecast for one of the coldest winters in the past 15 years may be coming true. I am soooooooooooooo looking forward to NOT being here for it!

I spent a part of Saturday putting my new tires on my bike. I have used Armadillo Crossroad Elites with a slime tube and a Mr. Tuffy liner...hopefully this will cut down on punctures but I am also acutely aware of the thorns in Africa. My experience with them comes from South Africa where I have cut my forehead a number of times by running into branches and also by walking on them. I will surround my tires with trust!

I only have about two weeks left at work and then I am off to Mexico as I wrote earlier. The break from training will be nice and then I will have a week before I leave for Cairo when I return.

I need to get my bike packaged up and I will do this after the 14th.