It’s been a very exciting week so far for the STRIVE Kenya gang. After the typical morning run on Monday, the tippy tap groups reconvened in order to finish the preparations for construction. Group 2 was finally able to locate a gravel vendor, supplies were delivered to the HATC, and another group purchased shovels in order to be ready for the next day. After the day’s work was complete, everyone was in the mood to celebrate America’s birthday, even though we are thousands of miles from home. Dressed in varying degrees of both patriotic and ridiculous clothing, the group descended on Club Iten for a delicious dinner of pizza, burgers, and marble cake. As everyone finished eating, the party began for real, as the group turned the normally quiet venue into a dance floor. Everyone’s favorite party tracks blasted from the portable speaker, ranging from today’s hits to Bar Mitzvah classics. The whole squad was getting into it on the floor, especially group leader Rob!

After all of the previous night’s shenanigans, it was time to get to work for real on Tuesday. With all of the supplies in place, each group built a practice tippy tap on site at the HATC, in order to work out any kinks before building the real taps at Kamariny and Kiptabus primary schools. While there were some struggles early on, all four groups were able to complete functional tippy taps, and nearly everyone was able to figure out which aspect of construction they were best suited to. In particular, the Texan duo of intern John and high schooler John (big and little) dug perfect holes that were a perfect foundation for the support sticks. Group 3 was deemed by the leaders to have built the best tippy tap, but all four had their positive aspects. As a result, everyone was very well prepared for the daunting task of building nine tippy taps at the schools the next day. In the morning, we arrived at Kamariny for the first batch of taps. With our increased knowledge, they were built even better than they had been the previous day, and we completed the job by lunchtime. After a short break, we walked down to Kiptabus to repeat the process. The students at both schools were fascinated by what we were doing, and at Kiptabus, several of them volunteered to help. With their efforts, the work was made much easier, and we returned to HATC in the late afternoon. While we were all exhausted, everyone was satisfied with the fruits of the day’s labor.

On Thursday, the group was given the opportunity to participate in the Kenyan fartlek run, an event that brings much of the massive Iten running community together. Escorted by several pacers, we jogged three miles down to the start, and watched as over a hundred runners gathered around the trail. Adding to the excitement was the presence of 2:03 marathoner and former world record holder Wilson Kipsang, there to complete the same workout as everyone else. After an opening minute of slow jogging, dozens of watches beeped at the same time, and the whole pack of Kenyans took off at an awe-inspiring pace. Behind the elites, the STRIVE group went about tackling the workout at our own paces. Little John, alongside interns Ian and Owen, completed all seventeen intervals of two minutes on and one minute off, breaking the former STRIVE record. Many others in the group also recorded an impressive number of intervals, and while everyone was challenged by the duration and altitude, we were also thrilled to have had this experience. We are all looking forward to our final week at the HATC before embarking on our safari at the Masai Mara!