'Making Sport'... Physical activity: trying (and failing) to keep me slim since ‘88.

SO, here are a couple of quotes from some people in the workplace as of late (yes, we talk about many things that could be considered inappropriate to talk about amongst work colleagues in Canada):

‘Lauren,’ imagine a huge grin on the late-20 something man’s face, ‘you have become so big! What have you been eating?’ – Kenyan man in medical imaging

After explaining to him that this isn’t necessarily a good thing to say to someone from a Western culture, he said, grin getting even wider ‘Well, this is Africa. It is a very good thing here.’
Thank you, I guess?

‘Teacher,’ another seemingly inappropriate subject to be discussing with my students, but hey, TIA, ‘Your arms, can I have some of the fat off of them to put on mine?’ – fourth year BLS student

Thanks dude.

R tried to make me feel better by saying ‘pretty sure they think muscle and fat are the same thing here’. That’s what best friends are for I guess, keeping you delusional about your weight HA.

Could these conversations be due to my lack of physical activity as I was having to get to work by 6:30 AM in the mornings for the past two weeks to invigilate exams and then wouldn’t have enough time after work to go for a run before it got dark out? In light of these frank conversations, I’ll talk about the physical activity that I actually HAVE done, because although it hasn’t been much, it has been a memorable couple of weekends for ‘making sport’ in Rwanda.

The weather here is still hovering around 20 degrees, and although hearing about snow falling in Nelson and Vancouver gives me little pangs of jealousy, the heat is glorious and keeping my freckle disease in full bloom.

LAST WEEKEND in Musanze/Ruhengeri:
Silverback gorillas!!! Unbelievable experience. For a mere price of 500 USD, you can go sit with one of the gorilla families for an hour, and the money is contributing to their conservation and upkeep of the Volcanoes National Park in the North of Rwanda. We hiked into the rainforest for about 1.5 hours and then were greeted by 16 of these enormous creatures.

This 'little guy' was so cold!!!

A look at the family, notice all their backs are turned to us haha

Gorilla 2 m away from Robyn and I, such a flirt.

We were supposed to be at least 7 meters away at all times, but R and I had the chance to be about 2 meters from one of them.

 

They were SO human-like, and even better because they had not only opposable thumbs, but also opposable big toes! Think of the possibilities if we had those! All I can think of are the eating possibilities (obviously) because then you could hold a fork with your hand AND your foot at the same time. Yummmmm.

Hard to explain the gravity of hanging out with these creatures we evolved from who are now endangered so I’ll just shut up and post some pictures/videos.

The next day, R and I, with a neighbour of R’s from Newfoundland (small world I tell you), did a hike up the smallest volcano of the chain, Bisoke.

3700 m, not bad!

It was a steep climb up 1000 meters, with the oxygen thinning in the air. This was no easy hike, there were times we had were grappling up on hands and feet, not unlike the gait of the silverback gorillas. Four hours later, we made it to the top where there was a lake in the crater that the once-active volcano had carved out. This hike reminded me a little of the one I did in Peru last summer with Kaitlyn, Sarah and Evan, the one across from Macchu Pichu (Puticusi I think it was called?) Except it didn’t have those sweet ladders!

SO TIRED/ lack of O2

View from the top

The descent was even more bad ass. If we had thought that it was muddy on the way up, imagine what it was like when we were blessed with good ol’ African rains on the way down. Result: full-out bails with our feet swept out from under us. The three of us lost count after falling ten times a piece, and the porters and guide were laughing SO hard at the crazy Canadians not giving a shit if we got even more muddy and wet than we already were. Maybe wearing my mesh-topped New Balance 1064’s wasn’t such a good idea… but waterproof was only a relative term during this hike as even the most ‘intense’ hikers from France with their gators and full fledged hiking boots were soaked.

Them French people offloaded all of their stuff on this dude, who scaled the mountain unphased by the extra weight!!

Three hours of sliding down the volcano later, we were back at the guest house, ready to eat our faces off.

THIS WEEKEND in Kigali:
My friend Mark who is here with the US Peace Corps invited me to go with this running group that meets in Kigali each Saturday. Didn’t realize it was a Hashing Group (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers) which, put simply, is a bunch of people who run around like mad women/men on a trail which you have no idea where it will lead you, and the only thing you follow are bits of shredded paper placed on the ‘trail’ every so often. Oh ya, and they try to trick you at ‘checkpoints’ and have three different trails snaking away from the checkpoint, and you have to figure out which one is the main trail that will bring you back to the start. There is a good chance you’ll get lost and then you’re screwed, but it’s kind of comforting that people yell ‘ON ON’ whenever they see another shredded paper trail. It was a great way to see the beautiful countryside just outside the city, and it isn’t often I feel like I’m legitimately running for my life so that I can keep up with the guy in front of me so I don’t get lost in the middle of nowhere. The locals looked at us like we were a crazy bunch of muzungus/a couple of Rwandese running around their farmland, which is exactly what was going on.

Seven and a half kilometers and one hour later, I made it back, where as a ‘hashing-virgin’, they have a beer for you to chug while they sing some crazy chant. In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea staying up the night before until 5 AM (can’t resist the African dance circles, it’s like having a bunch of Michael Jacksons, Ushers and Beyonces in one room) and the beer chugging gave me flashbacks to the previous night’s 4 AM beer drinking competition. But hey, nothing cures a hangover like some cross-country running! I was the first woman finished, only after four lanky hashing-expert men. Not that it was a competition (even though it always is with me…) but I say take THAT adipose tissue.

Anne MacDonald, I’ll have you know I played piano this weekend! Played is a term that should be referred to loosely here, however. Even though this took place at a party after a few drinks and the piano had about 40 working keys, Fur Elise was a hit. As this was my go-to song, I think I need to get back to tickling the ivories when I get home so I have a more extensive repertoire next time I’m playing piano in the middle of a party in East Africa.

Deportation status: Still waiting on the Nelson RCMP to process the criminal record check. I tried to get around this and go get my Visa anyways but I couldn’t fool them.. They also informed me that since my university diploma is in Latin (I think it’s because StFX used to be a catholic school/kind of still is), they can’t accept it because it needs to be in a language they can understand, so in English, French, Kinyarwanda or Swahili. The latter two are unlikely to happen, but how does one go about getting another university diploma printed out in English? Wasn’t $50,000 enough to spend on the first one? Come ON! Thankfully there was an English translation on the back of it, and after yet another notarization, we could use that.

Since I can’t play with the football team on a regular basis, I’m going to go get my fix today and shoot on one of my friends. It’s good to have a friend that is a keeper because we all know that no one likes that position except crazy people. Krysha, remember all those times shooting around this summer and last, and having to take turns in net, trying to save the ball with our feet… none of that here. Sweet!

Word up to trying not to give in to the cultural context that says it’s a good thing to be a big woman. My love for food, though, will never falter.

Much love, good to hear from everyone at home every so often!
L

PS Happy 6^th anniversary this week Chad and Les :) and Happy Birthday little Sach-man.
PPS Rwanda's first MRI!!!!Check it