Day 385: Mutiny About the Bounty

by claire a. williams, claire@trippingonwords.com

There is a mutiny in these parts. Specifically, a small, impressively determined group of older girls have decided to go on strike because the awesome photographer for Runner's World did not have time in his two days out here to shoot every single one of residents of the Tumaini Children's Home. It is a sad turn of events, and yet an expected one, I presume, much as the shoe passing out created its own havoc a few months back. With 170 children, inevitably someone gets nicer running shoes and inevitably a visiting photographer takes more pictures of one person than another.

Although we were quite sad to bear the brunt of the fury, I must say that were I brave enough at 15 to go on strike for anything, I only wish I had done it half as well. The timing, first off, was impeccable. To refuse to run on one of the photographer's only two days at Tumaini, to forgo the 16 mile run you know you have to do this week and yet only have time to do on Sunday, and to claim that you will not go to the marathon Claire and Lara have shelled out big (as of yet unraised) bucks for, is ballsy. To do so in a community where defying your elders just may bring down the wrath of you know who, means that you're packing an even bigger punch.

But it's fun to be in a two page shiny picture in the biggest runner's magazine in the world, and it does suck that not everyone will be.

Competition is a rough thing around here, as the constant quest for stuff is one that the kids here have been sorely losing for a bit too long in life.

Although it seems that the problem has been resolved (insert helpful elders here), we are no doubt on the alert. And so, when one younger child was helping us prepare a post run popcorn snack in our kitchen for the mostly-absent runners today, we realized that it was not the day for a one-on-one date. Within moments, the extensive cooking lesson - oil in pan, popcorn in pan, wait for popping - then expanded to no less than 24 small little monster urchins in one little Claire and Lara kitchen.

1 comment:

Sarah N said...

This is awesome news about the Runners World coverage. I'll definitely pick up a copy!!!

Real Time Web Analytics