Sick Horse, "Nukies" in the Transformer, Kilimanjaro Marathon and more!

Community Advisory Board members give T-shirts and fares before Marathon

Last week was full of different experiences as much as can be imaginable. We experienced everything from a severely sick horse, "nukies" (bees) in the electric transformers, a horrific storm, to the Kilimanjaro Marathon.  Each one of the experiences had an impact on the week, so thank goodness the marathon came off without a hitch, and all of our crew finished the half marathon and 5 K without injury or need for medics.

Our good friend's favorite horse sustained some injuries at the Nairobi Horse Show, and her saga is not over yet.  We are all continuing to send positive vibes for Penelope, long considered one of the best horses in Tanzania.  Our friend Terrie is staying up all night and trying desperately to keep the horse in good spirits, eating and upright.  I do not know much about horses but as I understand it, it is crucial to keep the horse standing up.

Terrie and me

On top of poor Penelope's problems, we had one of the worst storms I can remember in Moshi.  The storm came just at time of the CAB meeting so our poor community advisory board arrived terrified from their rides on the dala dalas, soaking wet, and shaken.  I arrived at the hospital and limbs were flying, building materials were coming out of the new construction in the Emergency Department, and ultimately trees came down, power was lost both on campus and in the compound and around the neighborhoods.  Our CAB members were amazingly resilient-- they quickly settled into the role of discussing new protocols, the issues again of research, and their experiences in outreach.  I am continuously impressed with their thoughtfulness and willingness to give input to our project.

The "nukies" (bees) in the transformers caused much worse problems.  Even though the electric company, "TANESCO" came to resolve the loss of power, they did not anticipate bees flying out of the transformers and when a few people were stung, they ran away and literally did not try to fix anything for 3 more days, thus some people were out of power for six days.  We were out for only 3.5 but all of our freezer defrosted and we had to cook food quickly on our propane top.  Apparently, all the older folks around here know that the "nukies" go into transformers and had warned the TANESCO people, but they didn't listen, and were terrified and had no idea what to do about these "nukies".  In retrospect it was pretty funny but at the time...NO!

"Nukies" bee swarm (though not in the transformer)

The weekend came, and marathon madness was in the air.  I had 37 Community Advisory Board members signed up to run 5K, and they all came to collect their t-shirts and fare, and they all arrived promptly at 6:45 am for the race.  It was hot and dusty, but everyone was in good spirits.  John and the folks in our house ran the 21K, and many other friends as well.  Such a wonderful event for the Moshi community.  Everyone comes out and joins in in one way or the other.  Stands are filled with people, cheerleaders are on the side of the road, and the runners for sure push themselves up and down the mountain.  We were all thrilled that the Tanzanian men took first, second, third, fourth in the half marathon, but most thrilled that a Tanzanian woman won first place in the Full Marathon.  Hongera Tanzania!

Fabiola Williams wins the Full Marathon

 Fabiola is a police officer from Singida, TZ, and she is the first Tanzanian female to win the full Kilimanjaro marathon.  She was fantastic.

I ran a good time, but the 5K was quite easy this year

Even our beloved Provost Kessy came to cheer the KCMCollege students on.

nice group shot, Jan, John, Charles, Imani, Dorothy

Always interesting people at the marathon

Our Youth CAB member runs the half!!!

The Apparition makes his presence known!

So, we are trying not to have the last week here be an anti-climax after the marathon, and who knows what the week will bring.  New adventures I'm sure.