I've written in the past about why we run marathons or do triathlons, but this evening when I got home Brian told me about six young men who are running the London Marathon this Sunday, April 13th, for a very different reason. Six Maasai warriors are traveling from their village in Tanzania to run the marathon to raise money to find clean drinking water for their village. Years of drought have reduced the amount of potable surface water and the goal is to raise enough money to drill a well to support the village. The warriors will run the marathon in their traditional Maasai garb - just like they dress every day when they are searching for water, herding cattle, or lion hunting. Yes, I said lion hunting. This story is quite compelling to me for a couple of reasons. I love that six young men from a remote, and primitive by our standards, region of the world are playing the charity fundraising game with modern world savvy. Sure, they have help, but still. Just goes to show that you can't judge someone by where or how they live, and in the case of the Maasai, how they choose to live. Check out their website, maasaimarathon.org, and here is a news article with some great photos of the warriors in London. They are still short of their fundraising goal so feel free to spread the word.
How much fun would it be to run a marathon with these guys as company? Awesome!
2 comments:
wow! very impressive and inspiring. I can't believe they will run in those sandals.
That is very, very cool. Reliable access to safe drinking water would reduce the worldwide death rate due to disease by up to 50% according to some estimates. When you consider that the vast majority of the deaths are children this becomes even more compelling.
-Joey
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