Here I Go Again (not really) On My Own!

Standing outside PDX this morning with all of my luggage, including two big bags full of shoes donated by Brooks (thanks, Katie, Marc, Liz, Sara, and everyone else at Brooks that made this happen!) and all the wonderful people at NW CrossFit.

You know when you plan something significant on a specific date and then when that day comes and your write out the date it sends a jolt of excitement and anxiety through your body? Today is one of those days for me, and I just felt that jolt as I typed out 1/25/2011 above. I have been working and planning tirelessly, along with countless others, to ensure that today would be the beginning of a successful and meaningful 6-month journey. After an 18-month break from this whole blogging thing, as I sit in my spacious exit row aisle seat, flying from PDX to JFK, I am enjoying the most familiar and welcomed feeling of the preparations phase coming to a close and the action phase now upon me. As has always been the case, this brings with it a flood of thoughts and emotions, ranging from great peace stemming from successful preparation to sometimes even greater anxiety about the unknown and unknowable that waits for me in Africa, excitement for what is ahead to sadness for what has been left behind, courage to accomplish what has been planned and worked so hard for to fear of not being able to, thankfulness for the companionship of new and old friends to dread of the inherent loneliness of traveling “alone” for 6 months in a foreign continent. I am humbled to be a small part of a journey and project that is so much bigger than me, and honored by the confidence placed in me by so many people to carry it out. I honestly never really thought I would be up for another journey of this type and length, but I am not one to ignore and reject the next step of the path I see being laid out as I continue to take those wonderful and terrifying figurative steps of faith.

So, in case you ended up here by accident, heard about it from a friend, or just need more information about this journey I speak of, let me break it down for you, starting back at the beginning (skip this paragraph if you already know all the boring details). In the spring of 2007, within a couple weeks of moving to Seattle from Laguna Niguel, CA, three friends and I ran in the Big Sur Marathon down near Monterey. It was the first full marathon each of us were to run, and one of my friends came up with the idea that we should use this race as a platform to raise awareness and financial support for people in a developing community. Of course we were all on board with this idea, and ERace Poverty was born, then under the name Run For The Fields. We had greater success than I think any of us imagined, and as we handed over the check for nearly $5,000 we had raised collectively, a fire was ignited. In the coming months, we talked more and more about it, and finally decided that this was something that we all wanted to create to give anyone who wanted to do something similar all the resources to do so. Though we had many great ideas, we really didn’t even know where to start, so I decided that in September, 2008, on my 25th birthday, I would embark on a year-long “poverty immersion journey,” during which I would live and work with people around the world who were participating in and administering poverty reduction and development programs. If we were going to raise awareness and financial support for such programs, we had better get a pretty decent handle on what we were dealing with, right? After months of preparation, I left my life in Seattle behind to spend a year not only understanding the operations side, but also the participant side of such programs. This meant that I would not only spend time with officers and field workers to understand the implications of program implementation, but also with the people who were receiving the product of these programs, staying in homes and living as authentically as possible (obviously challenging in many cases, being a goofy white guy, many times the only one around). This had me homeless and applying for welfare in New York City, farming and going to market daily with sustenance farmers in Central America, and sharing in community meetings throughout Kenya, among many other experiences. Ilula, a village in Western Kenya was the last “home” for me on this journey, and that is where I am heading back to now, for the third time. While in Kenya the first time, I organized a 10km race for the children in Ilula, simply as an expression of my appreciation for them and their love and acceptance of me. To me, this was to be a one-time event that would give the children a fun day to look forward to and train hard for. Through the joined hands of myself and some very gifted, visionary Kenyans, that single race has evolved into much more than that. Next Friday, February 4th, marks the 3rd annual Watoto Water Run, which was partnered with the 2010 Greenlake Run For Water at Northwest CrossFit in Seattle in November. Through the generosity of about 60 excited runners on that day, as well as countless others throughout America and Kenya, we were able to raise roughly $21,000 to fund the construction of a bore hole well in Ilula, which will provide free local access to clean water for the community of Ilula for generations. Beyond supplying clean water for day to day tasks, this water will also provide for irrigation to the large children’s home and training center gardens and a newly established tree nursery. Together, the children’s gardening program and sales of tree seedlings, to be disbursed to areas of the country experiencing the disastrous effects of environmental degradation and associated climate change, will provide fresh food for the children’s home and a collective savings and income of up to $15,000 per year. This is the first major step toward self-sufficiency for the village of Ilula, and is a significant step toward environmental regeneration and community recovery in villages throughout Kenya. Hopefully that very quick summary brings you up to speed without too much confusion (you can also read back through all the older posts on this blog to get a much deeper understanding). If you ever have any questions about all of the above, please do not hesitate to email me with any questions. I will explain it as best as I can, though that may prove to be easier in a face to face meeting when I return.

ERace Poverty has come a long way in the past 3-4 years thanks to the very generous and valuable contributions of so many people. Now, on this day that is sending the jolt of excitement and anxiety through my body, I am heading out for what I feel to be an immensely important journey. Though the specific outline of this journey is very fluid, I plan to spend the first 30-60 days in and around Ilula facilitating the race, keeping an eye on the progress of the well drilling, and developing the gardening and tree nursery programs. Once the well is operational and the programs functional, with appropriate relationships developed with governmental agencies and outside communities for tree nursery sales, I plan to spend roughly half of the next four months in Southern Sudan developing a relationship and project details with a village outside of Juba. The other half of that will be spent taking part in community development meetings and projects throughout Kenya, checking in on progress of the programs in Ilula, and hopefully visiting friends in Ethiopia and Uganda who are working on various education and development programs. As you can tell, it is an itinerary that will be anything but boring, relaxing, and comfortable, but it will also certainly be invaluable in relation to the development of ERace Poverty and myself as hopefully a leader and practitioner in the future. Many people have expressed real interest in visiting me in Kenya to see for themselves what the heck I have been up to for the past couple years there, and to meet the wonderful people I simply cannot say enough about. This is a great comfort to me, and whether or not they are able to make the trip over, I am thankful for their support and for giving me that hope that I might see a familiar face from my life back home at some point before I return. I cannot put into words how much I appreciate all of the various forms of support I have received from everyone, as I simply would not be able to be out here doing all the meaningful things I have planned without each and every one of you. I would appreciate very much your continued prayers, thoughts, and emails or other communication as I navigate this unknown and daunting journey. I find deep comfort in knowing I have an amazing group of people around me, both back home and in Kenya, as well as the rest of the world, who would go to the end of the earth for me, and I for them. I also find peace in knowing and accepting that I, quite honestly, do not have enough strength or talent within myself to handle all that lies ahead, but my faith in God assures me that He does, and that, through Him, we as a collective group have more than enough. I almost certainly will come out of it with some literal and figurative scars, but I know I will be smiling and thankful for the opportunity.

Me and the new love of my life and the best playmate I have ever had, my niece, Lilli having a goodbye hug at the Oregon coast over the weekend. She has a new little brother coming in March, which I will sadly miss, but I will be back to play more games with both of them soon.

Stay tuned for a report and photos from the race and the beginning of the well project. Thanks again to everyone; I will be in touch as I am able. Be good to yourself and those around you (it feels good to be writing that again!).