Marathon March

Today was the Marathon March for the Peace Corps trainees.  This is a rite of passage apparently and I was a little dubious about it.  But I definitely was not going to wimp out. We left the Peace Corps transit house at 7 am and headed for the bush.  We spent the day hiking through all kinds of conditions and obstacles.  At the beginning we had to hike through farmers' fields taking care to step between the planted rows, climbing over  the low barbed wire fences, and avoiding abandoned wells that were ground level and uncovered.  Then we got into the tall bush grass, which occasionally had knife sharp edges when you caught it the right way.  I had already managed to fall a couple of times so I started to hold hands with whomever the closest man was when we came to a significant obstacle.  In fact I even held one of the women's hands if a man was not nearest to me.

The real challenge of the day came when we got into the water.  We were in a tidal basin and walked along narrow ledges above flooded fields.  Again balance not my strong point.  Then we got into deeper water and sucking mud.  I was wearing my orange Keens that were a retirement gift from work. I thought I had tightened them enough  but we got into a patch where I both shoes were sucked off my feet and I had to feel around in the mud for them and put them back on and tighten them up more.  All while holding up a line of people behind me.  I was successfully navigating the mud when I suddenly stepped into a deeper hole and almost went in completely wearing my back pack.  Only the heroic efforts of one of the other trainees prevented me from that fate and I only got wet to my waist.  He got wetter than I did.  (Thank you, Alex)  We finally got into some shallower mud water but then the sucking mud had stones in it.  Since the sandals were open on the side I got big stones in both sandals and had to walk with them in my shoes.  I actually bruised the bottom of one foot.  Luckily the morning was 2/3 of the trek and the worst was over.  

In the afternoon I was able to keep up pretty well and often was well toward the front of the group.  I actually did not feel to bad at the end.  A couple of the guys were complaining about their knees and mine felt fine.  Several of the people told me they were impressed that I had done it, and I was impressed with myself too.  I got clothes out of the free pile (cast off clothes from trainees going back to the states) to wear on the trek so I threw them away when I was done.  I hosed off my Keens when I got home and miraculously the mud colored Keens are now orange again.  They do have a decidedly used look now.

All that being said, I have no desire to do it again.  :-)