Friday, June 3, 2011

Kigali International Peace Marathon

Living in an impoverished nation has led me to understand the lowest depths of humanity I have ever seen in my life. I see children collect drinking water from puddles of mud, I see fist fights break out over a scrap of "food" that was left behind in a pile of garbage. While I consider these behaviors drastically different from my own, I realized that it all boils down to the same philosophy; survival of the fittest. Sure, I only drink water that has been boiled to kill the germs and you'll never catch me digging through garbage, but when I first arrived I was just as lost in this world. I didn't understand how to do anything for myself or for others, I didn't know what was socially acceptable or expected. Basically I just did whatever I had to do to get by, to survive. You could say I'm still doing that, but with a little more tact after months of living here. I'm no different from those villagers committing what an American would call "savage" acts, because we are all using the skills we know to survive. And it's not their fault that they only have a handful of skills, two of which being collecting water and sorting garbage. Those creatures conditioned to survive in their environments are the strongest. Well, I thought of myself as fairly resilient before I arrived, only to realize that outside of my own environment, the plush bubble of America, I'm just dust in the wind. Since then I've learned an immense amount about my own limits, and the people of this country have not failed to keep surprising me as well.
A week ago I attended the 7th Annual Kigali International Peace Marathon. This 26 mile race was started as an intiative of peace and good will in Rwanda. It encourages participation from other countries as well, a concept quite new to the desperate nations of East Africa. Runners had the option of completing the full 26 miles, a half marathon of 13 miles, or a relay of 6.5 miles. I was lucky enough to spectate the marathon, offering my support and encouragement to friends along the way. The spectrum of runners represented in the race for peace was truly inspiring. There were participants from East Africa, Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, America and probably everywhere else in the world. It occurred to me that serious marathon runners travel the globe for the sole purpose of training and running in marathons. It made me proud to know that Rwanda hosts one, I think it's a very significant gesture to the world and this country can seriously afford some allies. Watching the race from the time it began at eight in the morning well into the afternoon I thought about my measure of the survival of the fittest. The physical struggles of this literal race paralleled the obstacles that people face every day in the race of life. People do whatever they need to do to survive, or in this case, cross the finish line. Some people in particular were awe inspiring. One man finished the marathon at the ripe age of 73! Everyone cheered his graying head as he took his final strides at the end of the race. Another person finished the race and collapsed in emotion, tears streaming down his face as he called someone on the telephone and started babbling in a language I could not understand. I can only imagine the circumstances behind his life and what that race must have meant to him. A child finished the race without shoes no less, and a husband and wife finished the race hand in hand...each of them wearing a flag to represent the nationality of the other, a Rwandan man wearing a Japanese flag and a Japanese woman wearing a Rwandan flag. There was another twosome that crossed the finish line together holding a rope to keep them in sync. It was a bit later that I learned that this person was blind but determined to run the marathon anyway, and so their companion guided them through 26 miles of darkened victory. And as if all of these people weren't inspiring enough, one Rwandan man; a victim in the Genocide who lost his leg at what could not have been more than 15 years old, finished the marathon on one leg and a crutch. The cheers that rippled through Amahoro Stadium in Kigali when this man crossed the finish line, when this man moved mountains, was indescribable and infectious. I could not help but cry tears of pride for this man, who proved that our limitations on life truly are figments of our imagination. You really CAN do anything you set your mind to.

The Kigali International Peace Marathon is up there with the most interesting things I've experienced in my service so far. I've concluded that survival is not only dependant on physical strength and skill, but on the strength and size of your heart. I don't mean to regurgitate a message from a lame greeting card, but I honestly believe this. The things I have seen people do in this country, regardless of how crazy they may seem, are being done out of love for something or someone. It's fascinating to live in a place where everyone has a life definining circumstance, no one is just ordinary, and that makes for one tenacious population of survivors.

1 comment:

  1. You literally put me into tears sitting here at work. I’ll just blame it on the allergies. Kim. This is so wonderful and invigorating (…blast of flavor. LOL) Ok, no. But, seriously. I felt like I was there witnessing the marathon with you while I was reading your entry. The man with one leg and a crutch? The couples crossing together? What an international and humane symbol of what life on this Earth was meant to be used for. I love living in my imaginary Africa vicariously through you.

    Everyone is different and thus everyone’s struggles are different as well. That, however, is no reason for one to judge the level of intensity of such struggles. Struggles are struggles, and to each is his own. The triumph that each individual obtained that day, the day when they finished a marathon which is just a mere metaphor of something intangible in their lives - the struggles they each were faced with – THAT is true triumph. THAT is true liberation. THAT is true success, and THAT is true life.

    In a world such as a ‘’plush bubble of America’’ and you so described it (and I couldn’t agree more myself) we tend to lose touch with the energy that flows between each other as human beings and with our natural surroundings.

    Your entry is a great reminder and one more bold testament to what it means to find joy; to find one’s path; to be success … to change the world.

    Thank you.

    Love,
    TBFOYL

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