Marathon weekend

It was a very exciting weekend for sure. The very first Haile Gebrselassie marathon was held in Hawassa on Saturday and Sunday. Many of my colleagues ran in either the 5km or 21km (half Marathon) and my fellow Canadian friend Francis ran the full marathon distance. The event was a huge success and there is no doubt that it will be a recurring for many years to come. Another friend of mine, Debbie Flowers placed 3rd in the half marathon, but wasn't aware that she had placed 3rd until she was called to the podium.

                                          Photo: Debbie Flowers accepting her award from Haile Gebreselassie

My friend Tesfahun, English Language Improvement Centre Coordinator and journalist, was there to interview the world famous marathoner, Haile Gebrselassie, and the first ever Ethiopian 800 metre Olympic gold medalist, Mohammed Aman for the English language radio program that the TTC ELIC launched on Sunday as well. We are currently creating a website for the station so you will hopefully be able to download and listen to podcasts soon. I went along with Tesfahun as the photographer and was able to meet both Haile and Mohammed. Unfortunately,  Haile didn't have time for an interview, but Mohammed Aman was fantastic.

The day did not end there. Once the marathon wrapped up, I went for banana pancakes at the house of some volunteer friends. As we sat underneath a tree and ate breakfast, a monkey perched on a branch above us thought it would be fun to urinate on one of the plates of pancakes. The thing about monkeys' is that for the first while you think they are cute and curious, but after they have stolen your stuff, broken into your house and pooped all over the place while spreading fleas all over your blankets, you start to view them as disease riddled, flea infested, dirt bags. I'm still at the monkeys are still somewhat cute stage, but that is slowly fading.

                                                     Photo: The pancake pee'r looking satisfied.

A group of us then went for fish by the lake. This was my first experience having fish by the lake, but it was so good that I will be back every second weekend or so.

                                            Photo: BBQ tilapia lunch by the lake.