Team Peace Corps/Armenia has successfully finished the Athens Classic Marathon!!! With times from 3:25 to 5:00, we are very happy with our performances. The marathon was easily the most difficult physical event I’ve ever endured. After talking with some of the others who ran this race, they suggested the Athens’ course is one of the more difficult. The race includes a 7 mile uphill run, which is just not fun and wears you out. After hobbling home, we ordered pizza and laid in bed for most of the day. The marathon was a great experience, but is certainly not on the top of my to-do list in the near future!
The race itself was very interesting and fun; we arrived at 6:30 am, loaded onto buses to ride the route, and finished around 3:00 pm this afternoon. A long day! From the get-go, we had balloons and a band, and there were about 8000 very excited people there. Among them were a couple in French berets, a man dressed in a toga carrying a torch, and a man in full armor with a sheild and spear. Of course, all of these people finished ahead of me, along with many 70+ year olds, and a baby being pushed in a stroller. Such is life, right? There were also lots of interesting characters we met during the race, including “complaining guy”, “enthusiastic guy”, and Peace Corps Bulgaria, Albania, and Moldova. Here are some of my favorites:
I have posted the remaining pictures up of the marathon in the photo gallery. Take a look! My official time, photographs and certificate will be posted on the Athens Classic website within the next 10 days so I will post that when I get the chance. Tomorrow, assuming we can walk straight, we’re going to start our actual vacation by going to the National Archeology Museum, and buying tickets for the ferry to Santorini (Thira) Island for a few nights. When I return home this weekend I’ll try and post more about my trip – until then, thanks again for your support!
Update (9:45 am): Thanks to a last minute donation from a great friend, I have raised the last $100 for my Push to the Finish program!! The total I’ve raised is $2010 (when the corporate matching comes in)!! Thank you again for all your help!!
First, I would like to thank everyone who made donations towards my Push to the Finish program. Together, we raised $1860 for Push America and people with disabilities throughout America! Tomorrow, I leave for Athens, and on Sunday, November 4th, 9am, the marathon begins! If you want to see my results Sunday, you may logon to the Athens Classic website - my bib number is 3325. Wish me luck!
Instead of taking it easy and resting the week before the big race, life has been quite the opposite! Starting Sunday, my site mates and I began a program called Our City, which we put on with the generous financial support of the Mid-Missouri RPCV group. Thanks again! The program is all in English, and teaches high-school level students what makes a city. Together, throughout the week, we have led 34 14-16 year students through interactive excercised about everything from laws to customer service to business plans and taxes.
Since hearing us lecture isn’t that exciting, the whole point of the program is that it’s interactive. So, during the program, we created a city. We decided what businesses we would have, elected the mayor, and each student applied for a job in a business they created. The city we created is called, “Dream City.” Tomorrow is the big capstone of the program: City Day!
Businesses open at 11am tomorrow, and City Day will last until 2pm. Students must follow their work schedule, but on their break time, they receive their salary from the bank and are free to spend in the city. What can they buy, you ask? We have 9 businesses in Dream City, including:
- Sunny Radio Station
- Star Supermarket
- Armenian Kitchen (restaurant)
- News of Dream City (newspaper)
- Be Sweet (candy shop)
- The Health Center (hospital)
- Animal World (zoo)
Thus far the program has been a great success, and the students have been incredibly inspired and creative during the whole experience (including the boys!). Most time in an Armenian classroom is spent listening to lecture, so partcipation and interaction are a rare but incredibly valuable experience for them. It shows, as the students have continued to surprise me as they’ve built their city. The bank built a safe and a laptop computer, the restaurant sells full meals made out of paper, the hospital made medicine, and the city came together to construct a monument in the town square. Amazing!!
The students have published a newspaper, which you may read here. I have also posted new pictures, and will post those from our City Day when I return from Greece on the 10th. So far, this has been an incredibly successful project for all involved, and I hope we can continue it again next year. We also had a Halloween Party tonight with our friends at the Koghb Art School, which was interesting on a whole different level 😉 While not usually celebrated, their perception of Halloween from TV is it’s a super scary holiday, where everyone must wear masks and dark clothes. You can imagine their surprise when Americans arrived as rock stars and SpiderMan! Once we got over that cultural barrier, things went well, and we enjoyed the mummy-wrapping-with-toilet-paper game, and bobbing for apples. It was a nice, wholesome, good time.
Once again, thank you all for your support, whether for Push America, my projects, or just your kind words1. “Khairete!” (goodbye in Greek, according to Google) – although I prefer the Armenian “hadgohutcyun” 😉
With what, you may ask? First, and foremost, with all the pork I’ve been able to eat. Apparently two pigs generates a lot of meat, which has constituted an inordinate amount of my meals lately. There was one point when I invited my site mates, Alex and Kevin, over for lunch, and was able to offer them six different pork dishes. I don’t want to say I’m sick of it, but despite the shear quantity of meat at our house, there is still not a single slice of bacon or country ham. This is one of those situations where I wish I had a real skill to transfer, such as thinly slicing and curing meat from a pig. Oh well…
More importantly, my marathon training is coming to an end, which is why I’m actually writing this post 🙂 I thought I would give you all some numbers which might sum up the experience:
- 13 – days until the marathon in Athens
- 20 – furthest number of miles I have ran at one time
- 28 – the number of times acquantainces honked at me on my run today
- 40 – most miles run in a week (last week)
- 325 – total miles run in the last 4 months
- 1800 – number of dollars raised for people with disabilities
Hopefully the last number captured your attention as much as it has mine! I would like to thank everyone who has donated thus far to my Push to the Finish program, and for your support of a great philanthropy and people with disabilities throughout America. I have met 90% of my fundraising goal – which still leaves 10%, or $200, remaining. While $2000 was only an arbitrary goal, it would be great to finish this fundraising effort in line with my completion of the marathon. Please consider a donation if you haven’t already – your $5 or $10 will go a long way in improving the life of a person with disabilities.
I would like to recognize all those who have donated to the “Push to the Finish” program. If you would like to add your name to this list, please consider a tax-deductible donate.
- Paul & Judy Barnes
- Kenneth Brandis
- Pat S. Brandis
- Scott Brown
- Brian & Erin Chamberlain
- Steven Chau
- Brett Gifford
- Ralph & Marsha Gifford
- Mike Goodspeed
- Monika Gupta
- Jon & Rita Harris
- Nick Hart
- Margaret Kaelin
- Lindsay Kempker
- The Murdock family
- John & Marilyn Noel
- Steve Wang
- Kathy & Allan Zaenger
- Jennifer Zeisler
- Microsoft (matching donation)
- Boeing (matching donation)
Thank you again for your support!! If you would like to donate, please click here, or read more about “Push to the Finish”.
Warning: This post contains pictures of dead animals. Really dead animals. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Some nights in this country are really boring. And then there are nights like tonight.
By all accounts the next few weeks are busy – I have a business marketing training, a week-long civics day camp for children, and a marathon to run. I knew tonight would not be one of those “productive” nights when I walked in the doors of my NGO this morning, and they remind me of my co-worker, Mxitar’s, birthday party. Low and behold, after a hectic day and a party that started two-and-a-half hours late, I found myself crowded around a table, homemade wine and bar-b-que being passed around, and the serial list of toasts being delivered like clockwork. After two hours recognizing every member of my family through alcoholic tribute, I decided it was time to go home and get to work… or so I thought.
My host family has a small garage by our apartment building, and they sell fruits and vegis there. Usually Gohar, my host mom, has a large sack of vegis to take up to the house, so I always drop by after work and take them upstairs. Tonight, however, I walk in, and my host mom is wielding a bloody knife in her stained hands, standing over three buckets of pig organs. The heads of the owners of these organs are gracefully laying on the floor next to her. She greets me with a smile and a friendly, “Barev, Kyle jan!”
Last chance! If you’re ready… (more…)