(10/19) Recap 2021 - Mogotio Running Club

What’s the best part of TechLit? These kids. They’re the most energetic and loving people, and that’s why I count them as friends, and genuinely enjoy spending time with them. My favorite memory is of Benja (top row, second from the left).

The first day I met Benja was during an early morning run of mine. He was herding cows, something kids in Mogotio do, and he left them for a few minutes to run with me.

The second day, Benja joined me again. I warned him that I had seven miles left, but all he had to say was “let’s go!” He did the whole thing in jeans and flip flops.

The third day, Benja brought three of his friends. And just like that a running club was born. A ragtag troupe of Mogotio kids in jeans and flip-flops. (Eventually, we went to the market for shoes.)

One day I asked them, “Why do you run for so many miles with me?”

“This is better than being idle,” they said, “and plus we see the world this way.”

In my part of Kenya, seeing the neighborhood was called “going on tour,” and only rich kids got to do that. Now anyone could go on tour by joining the running club. We visited all the local attractions — you’d be surprised how many there are!

This day we hiked a dormant crater 3 hours away from Mogotio. (I rented a van for us to get there.) It was the first time most of them and travelled outside the neighboring villages.

Oh, the surprises they found! It was a fog, it was going up and going down. Everything was new and exciting.