Yesterday I went for a run in the morning at about 7am which is about the same time as the kids are walking to school. They always yell out and say hello as I run by, either "bruni" or "Mama Jessie" or "Mama Cynthia", and over the past few weeks have become more confident in speaking to me. I usually ask them their names and they say very solemnly "My name is Miss...." and list off five name (most of which I can't pronounce!) - they've obviously been practicing at school.
Yesterday three young girls, about 10 years old, yelled out to me "wait, we will trot with you!" and they continued running with me for about a kilometre until we got to school. They call it "trotting" - which perhaps is an indication that I'm not running very fast, or a comment on my running style! They were so tired out, but very pleased with themselves! Especially when all the other kids at school saw them with me. The ladies walking along the road all thought it was hilarious!
I continued on and ran past the soccer field where the boys were playing soccer, and the girls were sitting at the edge of the field watching. I stopped to watch them for a bit, and all the girls crowded around and said they would like to run. So about 20 teenage girls ran with me up the hill to the corner, and then we turned around and had a race back to the start. I felt like the Pied Piper, with all these children running along behind me! Most of them were running barefoot on rocky ground - tough feet! A couple of them were surprisingly fast, surprising because they very rarely do any exercise apart from a slow walk to get places. They seemed to really enjoy it though, so perhaps they've taken some inspiration from seeing me run here, and hopefully we'll get to run a bit more. Maybe one of them will end up at the Olympics some time?!!
No comments:
Post a Comment