Meeting a legend

    The way the school term ends here, or at least at Kip Keino, remedies one of the things that drives me crazy about the American school system. They have three days scheduled for exams, and then two days afterward for wrapping up, and most importantly looking over exams. I know it's pretty tough on the teachers to get exams corrected in that time, but it always bugged me, most specifically in college but at lower levels too, that you take the final exam and then school ends and the only feedback you get after that is your final grade for the whole course. It seems to me that in the name of learning the best thing we could do is to be able to at least be able to look at the final exams so we could see what we need to work on and what we did well, and better yet to have class time devoted to this so that students could ask teachers about these things, so that students could be assured of leaving a course at least with an understanding of the problems that were important enough to the overall course objectives to be put on the final exam. Anyway, these last couple of days are pretty relaxed as the stress of the exams has past and now everyone is looking forward to the break. The day past much as others had at school, except that I feel that kids are becoming more comfortable around me and are more willing to talk with me, which is pretty fun. I can't pinpoint specific conversations but I've had some good ones with kids about what things are like in America, what school is like here, where they'll go to high school, and what kind of music and movies I like. The music and movies have been a great connector because that is probably the biggest thing that allows me to identify with the younger kids here. If I compare what school was like for me to what school is like here sometimes they glaze over, but if I start naming recent action films, many of the boys will light up if I mention movies they have seen. The conversation I had that was probably the most genuine one I've had at the school was with a couple of chatty seventh grade girls and two of the eighth grade boys I talk with about as much as anybody (Humphrey being one of them), harassing the girls about Twilight, High School Musical, and girly movies in general. I don't think there was anything I could have done that would have been more endearing to the boys, and in truth I think the girls didn't mind it either because I was able to slip back into eighth grade boy mode, making fun of all things even slightly girly. That was also one conversation I think they enjoyed (both boys and girls) because it was clear to them that I wasn't being diplomatic or trying to teach them anything, I was just trashing just about every movie the girls would bring up. Basically the way the conversation would go is that the girls would bring up a movie or show they felt wasn't girly, I would share a disapproving glance with Humphrey and Chris (the other eighth grade boy), and they would giggle and smile, throwing in their own comments along the way, as I proceeded to explain to the girls why that movie was girly and could not be tolerated, usually butchering the plot line and characters along the way, and more than once being rightfully accused of having never watched the movie. It turned into a spirited debate about what constitutes a girly movie and what people thought of vampire movies in general, and overall was pretty fun and got a lot of laughs from all sides.

    The highlight of the trip came in the afternoon though, when Roger informed me we wouldn't be taking the bus home. The reason was that after school he had to meet with none other than Kip Keino. He and Roger needed to talk over some details of Roger's upcoming trip to China, so we would ride back into town with him. I found myself actually pretty jittery about meeting him, which was in juxtaposition to everyone else who didn't seem to think it would be a big deal, because it wasn't. Roger told me he would come over to the school regularly just to see how things were going and talk with people, so he was far from locking himself away. In fact, Roger said the reason it had taken so long to meet with him was that he was such a busy guy. Apparently he still travels around the world for engagements, and I know he's part of the Kenyan Olympic Committee (and maybe the president?). We waited around a while before he showed up, and when he did, it was a surreal experience for me. I think I have a tendency to idolize people I look up to, particularly runners, more than I should and it was surreal to have a legend like Kip Keino standing in front of me shaking my hand (I haven't washed that hand). He looked like a good-natured, friendly grandpa (I think he's in his 70's) and had an easy-going smile. Feeling like I was stumbling over my words I said it was something of a dream come true to be able to meet him, and one of the other teachers in the room asked if I knew who he was. It was reasonable question from his perspective, but to me it was such a ridiculous question I wasn't sure how to respond. I put my arm around Kip and said that my dad had told me stories about him when I was young and that he had been one of the runners I admired most when I started running. Thinking about it now all of that is somewhat exaggerated, but at the time I just didn't even know how to communicate what I thought of this man. I do remember my dad mentioning Kip Keino with a degree of reverence when I was starting to learn about running when I was young and I read about him in my huge world record holders book I had, so from an early age I knew he was one of the great runners of the era and thought of him as the first Kenyan runner (which isn't all that far off as far as international racing goes). We took a picture on my camera and then headed out to Kip's car which was waiting at the front door. Looking back on it now, I kind of feel like Kip treated me as another fan that wanted a handshake and a picture, but maybe that's just because I got it too set in my head that I would have a chance to sit down and eat lunch with him or something. He was a very hup-yo, matter of fact guy that didn't waste any words and that everyone around clearly respected highly. For whatever reason I had an image stuck in my mind that he would be the kind of guy that would sit and chat for hours and eventually get down to business when pushed, but that was clearly not the case. He was a man on a mission and as far as I'm concerned you would have to have the heart of a lion to be willing to get in his way. We headed over to the farm first so Kip could buy some milk, and he joked about being the only farmer in the world who bought milk from himself. Apparently Kip insists on it though to make sure the book keeping for the farm lines up, which is even more notable in a country like Kenya where corruption is so rampant.

    There was so many things I wanted to talk with Kip about, but I had the feeling that anything I said would come out stumbling, stammering, and generally incoherent, and the reason we had met with him was so Roger and him could talk, so I decided to keep quiet unless spoken to. I did a better job than usual of catching Swahili words that Roger and Kip were saying, but still not enough to follow the conversation. I made a goal of picking at least one word out of any statement either of them made, and was pleased with how well I did. Kip seemed to be somewhat frustrated as they talked, and Roger related to me afterward that he had been telling Roger about how he felt like he was getting pushed out of the decision making for the school, and some were pushing to change the name of the school. Kip Keino's story and what he has done is so inspirational and so good that it caught me off guard that he's dealing with those kind of problems, but it was a valuable reminder that it doesn't matter how noble your actions are or how much success you've had, you will still have problems and obstacles and frustrations to deal with. When they dropped us off by the house I shook Kip's hand again and told him it was truly an honor to have met him, to which he responded that it was an honor to meet me too. Even though the meeting and interaction itself was pretty unspectacular, meeting him was still really an inspiration. I think being around someone who has accomplished everything that he has, both on and off the track, can be both motivating and paralyzing. Meeting him is definitely motivates me more towards being the best runner I can be and also the best person I can be, but it also makes me feel like anything that I could accomplish is so insignificant compared to what he did that it's not really meaningful. I mulled over both those feelings as I took off on my run.

    Lost in the excitement of getting to meet Kip was that I was supposed to meet David to run at 5:00. I felt somewhat selfish missing the meeting so that I could meet Kip, and thought that Kip probably would have told me to skip meeting him in order to meet with David, but that was such an opportunity I just couldn't bring myself not to take advantage of it. It didn't help that David hadn't showed up on time the day before, but it still didn't sit well with me. If I had showed up and David wasn't there I at least could have felt that I did everything I could have to make things work. As it was I was worried that David showed up and waited around for me only for me to not show. I decided to run up there anyway, and got there about 6:00. I paused just briefly, but showing up an hour late I didn't think there was too much point in waiting around. And that, I thought, just might the end of my very brief relationship with David. I thought back to my thoughts from the day before that the main thing was that he got the shoes and if we got to run that was a bonus. I worried though that if he wasn't running with me maybe he wouldn't train on his own and he would just continue on working at the factory and never give running a shot. That wasn't for me to worry about, I decided, and that the situation, as it always had been, was in God's hands and he had brought about this whole situation so he could do whatever he wanted that might work in a more wonderful way than I could imagine. I didn't want to be too possessive of the situation and feel like if I wasn't involved in the final conclusion that it hadn't gone right. And is there ever a final conclusion? It's not like this chance meeting between David and I would just dead end in one direction or another like a choose your own adventure where you either get eaten or make it back to the space ship, but it would inevitably affect all sorts of people around him. That set me off for most of this run on another rambling, ponderous train of thought and prayer about how people are linked together and what my purpose in being here is and the circle of life and all that good stuff.

    A couple of my little buddies from the day before came out to run with me, and a couple asked if I could bring them shoes. I told them that was my only pair of shoes but maybe I would be able to bring more but that they shouldn't expect them. I thought this could turn into a slippery slope if I started giving shoes to the kids, because then the other kids would definitely want them, and they could even cause fights over the shoes if I only bring one or two pairs. One of the little boys ran with me for about 40 minutes again, and I decided if I was going to bring shoes for anyone I would give them to the strongest runners, because those were the kids who had the best chance of going on to keep running and maybe make something of themselves at it, which would make the shoes much more useful than just a kid having a better pair of shoes (which would still be a great thing, I don't want to minimize that).