metu

Yup, did it. It was strange. It was a party. It was a protest. 32,000 registered runners, elbow to elbow through the streets of downtown Addis. But I think I’d like to do it again!!

Okay, so I sort of mastered the “fidel”. Now on to learning some useful vocabulary (the restaurant is good, Abebe!!), and the structure of the language!

I’m moving forward, in training now for a half-marathon in the fall. That should leave me well prepared for the 10 km in November, even though I’m still worried about the mountains and the altitude!

My studies in the Amharic language are progressing—though not fast enough for me. Tomorrow will be the fourth session I have with my teacher in Toronto. We have been finding a quiet table at the Reference Library is a good central spot to meet. Just don’t tell Abe that I use my time on the train to Toronto, cramming…

I have this little fantasy of arriving at the Addis airport in November for the 10 km race and speaking fluent Amharic with the customs officials, etc. Hey, a girl has gotta have her dreams!

My teacher, Abebe Worku, is very tolerant of my enthusiasms. He thinks that even after all these years, there is some residual memory of the language somewhere deep in my bones and it will surprise me when it resurfaces. Wouldn’t it be nice if it resurfaced to give me some wonderful proficiency??

It’s silly, but I enjoy the recorded conversations on the cd’s that come with my text. I listen to them just to surround myself with the language and it evokes the feeling I had lying in bed early in the morning, sleepily listening to Elli-tati and Martta-tati jabbering away as they started baking karjalan piirakkas and sounding so like Mom that I thought I was at home in Canada, remember, so long ago when I was visiting in Finland? The music of the language is powerful without my even being able to actually understand much of it at all.

I have been participating in a 5 km clinic through the Running Room since the New Year. Joining the clinic was just the boost I needed: since I’ve put out some money for this, I have to show up; being part of a group makes me feel more committed, ie, shamed if I don’t show up; and chatting with group members as we run makes the time and km’s fly by so easily!!

It’s also a lot of fun to be a part of a group of wackos that run in this wintry weather, including snow storms, a full-out blizzard, minus 25 degrees C, etc. We must be dedicated athletes ‘cause a fellow felt compelled to roll down his truck window as he passed us in the blizzard last week to yell out what I thought at first was “Sweethearts”. Turns out he yelled “Retards”. Our group leader, Paul, apparently has better hearing than I do when the wind is blistering the skin off my face on the left going out, then on the right coming back… Oh well.

The fellow in the truck is probably a 2-pack a day smoker, drinks to excess, eats the typical North American Heart Attack-inducing diet, weighs 100 lb more than he should and watches 7 hours of TV each evening.

It’s easy for me to feel smug—tee hee hee. So “Sweethearts” it is!

Do I really believe in “thin the herd”? Seems rather harsh? Perhaps it is. There are so many things we can’t even learn about until we are ready and when the student is ready the teacher appears. In the meantime, we theoretically have a lot of time to make plenty of mistakes. Perhaps that’s all the more reason to question everything we believe to be true: is it really so?

And then, there is a certain beauty in the suffering of some people, the dignity & courage they demonstrate, and the opportunity it provides for the people around them to demonstrate a higher level of humanity and compassion…

I conscripted son-in-law to be my buddy/fire-to-my-feet in training for that 10k run. I asked my daughter and she’s thinking about it. And I’ve joined a gym, for those days when the roads are too icy and the weather discouraging (although I love running on a sunny winter day outdoors!). AND, I’m thinking that running for one of my favorite charities, Ethiopia Reads (http://ethiopiareads.org) will also keep me motivated!

There are those who know me who would think this is just typical of me, others who think it must be a typo or net space glytch! I realize it’s a bit tongue-in-cheek of me to add it here.

Those who don’t know me well have mistakenly assumed that when I visited “The Friendly Stranger”, a shop for ganja paraphanelia in Toronto with my daughters a few years back, that I was blushing and stammering and uncomfortable, dying to get out of there. They might even think I wouldn’t have I even understood what it was. Of course, they would be the ones who don’t understand the deliberate choices I make in life with hopefully some understanding of the consequences of my actions—at least some of the time ;) To explain that, you must understand that my mother was glad to have me read Xaviera Hollander’s “Happy Hooker”, way back when, vs having me try out such things and find out things the hard way.

I think the hype about the evils of marijuana are way overblown, invented by cynical minds to promote/protect their own markets for paper and petroleum products while crushing the formerly nearly universal production of hemp products by American farmers. I seriously doubt the evils of marijuana are worse than any other mind altering substances used recreationally and legally in most parts of the world (eg alcohol); and perhaps more benign than the legally prescribed mild altering substances and other pharmaceuticals that far too many in North America seem to believe are necessary and okay because they are prescribed by a doctor. Nor are the manufacturers of junk food, processed foods, cosmetics, cleaning products, furniture, carpeting, etc. etc. off the hook here in their indiscriminate use of substances that are questionable at best, under-researched by disinterested parties as to their safe use, and downright dangerous and toxic at worst!

Whether or not I use seems irrelevant, as far as I’m concerned.

Just the hype of the DEA drives me crazy. It’s an industry unto itself. There was a time when if you did stupid things, it was your own lookout. I still favour that point of view, “thin the herd”. If only those who did stupid things could take themselves out completely, without leaving a big mess behind for others to clean up…

Knowing how difficult it is to live in this world without the taint of corruption, sickens me. We consume bananas, coffee, oil, clothing etc. etc. any number of things, that make our lives what they are, thanks to the exploitation of resources, people, weak and corrupt governments around the world. And we buy because we succumb to advertizing that persuades we need new packaging, longer shelf life, more processing, better, larger, faster, more more more.

The rejection by the hippies of the establishment, while naive, certainly struck a chord in me that still resonates. No matter that they were often ill advised. Goa and ganja for me bring back the happy, hopeful memories of the Beatles, peace marches, sit-ins and love-ins. Odd that the activists of that time are now the Boomer generation, the biggest consumers of excesses in the world!

I started thinking this might be cool when I read an online travel diary about a couple who cycled through Ethiopia and managed to be in Addis for the run two years ago now. I’ve been training on and off, with setbacks in getting the trip off the ground, the timing of my first trip to Ethiopia, injury and waning willpower. But hey, I still have the dream and I will do it!

...on Monday, the 26th of Nov and I bought some cd’s of the Michel Thomas method. And it is true. I can listen to them in the car. I don’t need books, writing, drills, memorizing. Already, an Italian phrase pops into my head now at the oddest moments. Maybe I will learn to speak Italian more easily than I thought. I just needed to GET STARTED!!!

I did this in March 2007. Now I want to go back and spend some leisurely time exploring my old home in Debre Tabor.

I did it in March 2007, but NOW I want to do it again!

i will be seeing approximately half of the historic route in Ethiopia in March, 2007. i’m on my way!!

my plans for this are already in motion. i should be there by the end of March, 2007. but am i in good enough shape to do the trek?? gotta push myself more with the jogging!!