Day 1 - 62 miles down!

The day started early; Stephen and I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to finish packing and getting ready to start the third year of Karen’s Ride.

This is the first year we have received a car rental as a donation and we were very excited!  We picked it up last night at about 5:00 p.m. at Enterprise in Westfield, thank you!!  We got a Kia Forte, cute little car with only 5,800 miles on it; it still has a new car smell.

So, we finished packing and loading the car, cared for the dogs and wandered around a little making sure we didn’t forget anything.

We left home around 6:40 a.m. and drove up the MA. Pike and crossed into NY and got off exit B3 in NY and stopped at the first gas station.  We put in the address of our first camping spot and Stephen made sure he had the directions that are on my GPS…when we first bought the bike GPS and on my first ride 2 years ago, we realized that our GPS’s do not always give us the same directions….that was very disappointing and frustrating.  So now Stephen writes down, on paper, the turn by turn directions.  Sometimes his GPS catches up and ends up following the same path, but it takes some time.

Saturday a.m., starting point.

I started riding and we had some technical difficulties right from then…I passed a turn and my GPS had to recalculate, then it took us a different direction than we had originally been going.  So we had to stop and check in with each other several times.  I was on and off the bike and in the first 2 hours I had not done a lot of actual riding.  Plus, we ended up on dirt roads more than once…it was frustrating and not a lot of fun!  Once we got going, we got going!!  We traveled through some nice small towns with rolling hills, some of which were:  Canaan, Nassau, West Sand Lake, New Scotland, Albany and then Voorheesville…I spent some time saying that word in my head, still unsure how it’s pronounced, but it killed some time!  

This is the bridge over the water near (in?) Albany!!

We ended in East Berne at Thompson Lake State Park.  I had some fun riding and did a lot of thinking about Malawi and Educate Malawi’s direction with upcoming events and plans…some exciting stuff!  That will be for another day, though.  I hope to write on my blog more this year than last, we will see how that goes!

We arrived at the campsite around 1:15 p.m., set up camp, ate some lunch, showered and took a quick walk with hopes of getting a photo of the entrance to the park, which we forgot when we came in.  

That was cut short as the thunder was starting…all day the rain held off while I was riding, and it was coming now!!  We got back to the campsite and did not quite make it before the rain.  Stephen got my bike under a tarp on the car and I made sure that none of our bedding was touching the side of the tent and closed the windows.  We have been sitting in the car now for about an hour and a half…hoping that the rain stops so we can cook dinner before retiring to the tent for the night.  Also, hoping that it is not too wet in the tents, since some nice puddles formed around and under the tent…a tarp would have been helpful only if the only problem had been the rain coming down.  But the nice little path that leads to the bathroom that is adjacent to our site turned into a little stream that flowed right down to our tent!!  Uggh!  Oh well…we will survive, I am 100% sure!

Why it all began....

I want to share a quick thought for today, for those of you who may not know and those who may not remember, 'Why it all began'.

Our story has a distinct beginning, the How, which differs somewhat from the title of this post...Why.  I was speaking with a volunteer the other day who knows a little bit about our organization, and she asked me this question, and the answer was one that I appreciated being reminded of.

This is the classroom that Shannon and I sat in for about 2 weeks, every day, in the back.  We observed one teacher, doing her best with all these kids and no aids or assistants.  There were easily 100 students in this class and we repeatedly witnessed the challenges she faced in sharing information to help these students learn.  We helped the best we could, but even that was limited. 

Despite that, these students showed up every day, eager to learn and wishing to succeed.  They asked us for pencils and paper and money for uniforms and they walked a great distance to school each day.  

This was a contrast to my experience back home, where children had reasonable sized classes, plenty of teachers and supplies and they grumbled and complained about going to school.

We spent time with children on the shores of Lake Malawi; playing games with them or just observing them play.  As these 2 photos show, the children are happy and enjoying what they have, or don't have.

This again was in contrast to my experience back home, where 5 video games weren't enough.  They were 4 months old and the new version was out, so they were not good enough anymore and disappointment was evident.  It is a common complaint amongst many parents that their children are not satisfied with the game system they have, or that they don't have one, or don't have enough or 'the right' games.  

I came home with strong feelings about my first experience in Malawi: sadness, confusion, frustration, anger, disappointment...these all fueled my desire to do more.

I summarized my experience for my friend like this:  I saw children who had no material things to speak of, limited health care, food, entertainment, and yet they were smiling and playing and helping their family with chores.  I came home to a place where I saw a lot of material things and conveniences everywhere I looked and witnessed disappointment that it 'wasn't enough', we have a lot of depression and anxiety in people who yearn for more and lament the past.  It was in direct contrast to what I witnessed in Malawi.  I wanted to help them in some way.  So we decided to help in the area of education where we thought we could make a difference.

I love this photo above so much!  This was from my most recent trip, and these boys are working on responding to the U.S. pen pals!  They had just received their letters and sat under this tree on the school grounds to work on them...you can see their intensity and focus.

This has turned into my 'signature photo' for this ride, so I post it again.  I will do my best on this upcoming ride to accomplish as much as I can to further the awareness raising and fund raising.  Please consider a donation of any size to help me Educate Malawi.

Zikomo Kwambiri! (thank you very much)

Donate and be entered to win a great prize!

This bag will be drawn for out of the $50
donors to Karen's Ride.
The dimensions are: 13" x 7" x 6"
There will be some great gifts inside AND
it is a wonderful tote bag embroidered with
EDUCATE MALAWI on the side!

                                                                                     

  This bag will be drawn for out of the $100 donors to
Karen's Ride
The dimensions are:  18" x 14" x 10"
There will be wonderful Educate Malawi gifts,
 gift certificates AND
the bag is thermal to carry food to
 gatherings, parties, etc.!

       

Thank you Enterprise Rent-a-car!!

Every year, Stephen and I have rented a car for Karen's Ride.  Last year we rented from Westfield Enterprise, in addition to renting from them for other trips we have taken as well!  Below is a photo of me and Bill Irish, one of the employees at the Westfield location.  We are so grateful for Catherine Demers the area manager for this store, who approved this donation!  The ride starts 2 weeks from today, so I am heading out soon to do some hills to get and stay prepared for this coming feat!

I have a larger goal this year than last....maybe my excitement got the better of me.  I was so impressed and grateful for the very generous donations last year, that I have high hopes that I can surpass that this year!

For those of you who don't know, there is an anonymous donor who has offered generously to match donations up to $1000, we are more than halfway to that mark which is super cool, since I haven;t started riding yet!  

Before I close for the day, or for now, I want to extend a HUGE thank you to Easthampton Savings Bank as well...they have generously donated to Karen's ride for the third year in a row.  We are grateful for their support!

I am off now, a late start, to ride at least 40 miles and will do the same tomorrow.  I am loving the cooler temps, so I don't have to head out so early to beat the heat!  More later...

Zikomo,

Karen

Happy Birthday, Peter!

 Today my brother, Peter, would have been 50 years old!  He died 20 years ago, when he was only 29 and I was 27.  Below is a picture of him with my daughter, Shannon, who was only about 7 months old in this picture!  This morning, I set out for a bike ride, training must go on, and I got a calf cramp half way up this hill...route 57....It was still a little early, and quiet on the road and while I was stretching my leg and catching my breath, I looked around at the beautiful trees and listened to the quiet.  I love riding my bike out in the hills and quiet areas...it is one of my favorite experiences.  Peter spent a considerable amount of time out in the woods...he hiked a large portion of the Appalachian trail, and this is what I thought of this morning while riding.  I also thought about life and how we choose to spend it.  Recently, someone was trying to convince me that I should be more patient and that 'things take time'.  And while I don't disagree with that in some areas, I have been thinking about it lately.  One thought is that time is not magic, things don't just happen with the passage of time.  So, although perspective could change with time, pain can lessesn with the passage of time, things don't get accomplished with the passage of time in and of itself.  I thought about Malawi and the fact that their average life expectancy is about 54 years old.  So it occurred to me that time may be very different to those in countries like Malawi, where their average lifetime is 54 years; in the U.S. our average life expectancy is about 30 years longer than that.  It makes me wonder how our perspective about life might be different with that reality.

Below I am pictured with a dear friend,  J.R. Allen, Rocky, who has been a supporter of Educate Malaiwi for several years.  He owns the building in which my Internship is taking place, The Carson Center, and he invited Stephen and I to participate in the 25th Anniversary of the building that houses Carson Center and many other woncerful businesses.  It was a networking/celebratory event that was thrilling to be a part of.

Stephen and I set up our table and displayed our items and talked with people about Malawi and what we are doing and we were warmly received.  Rocky donated raffle ticket proceeds to us, to be split with the Carson Center Kamp for Kids.  We are grateful; and I feel like these words are not sufficient to express it adequately.  So there it is...our exciting day 8-14-2013.

Peace to all!

Generous donations and exciting developments!!!

The days are going by so fast now, I can hardly believe it!!

I have received many very generous donations from friends and family, I feel truly grateful and blessed!  In addition to those generous donations, I have recieved the donation of a car rental from Enterprise rent-a-car in Westfield!  A great big huge thank you to Catherine Demers who is the Area Manager for this area for Enterprise.  She was super excited to help and it was so nice to have the complete enthusiastic willingness of a business person support this ride.

In addition to this great news, we have received our first shipment of bags sewn in Malawi!  Mathew, our project manager for our building project, has been busy getting fabric to local tailors to send us a sampling of what they do.  They were paid to sew these bags and we have hopes to increase this portion of our organization as a fundraising endeavor. This is a vision I have had for Educate Malawi for so many years now.  Obviously, we have a ways to go with marketing, etc., but we have received our first shipment of bags; 43 total, of varying shapes, sizes and design.  We have large, medium and small shoulder bags, small, medium and large utility bags.  Photos below are a sampling of the bags and fabrics.

Small utility bag

Shown from L to R, top to bottom:  medium utility bag, large shoulder bag, medium utility bag and small utility bag

Large shoulder bag

These are the two medium utility bags

Not only are these bags made in Malawi, the sale of them will return to Malawi to support them in the area of education.  In case you haven't been following along, we are building a teacher's house currently in Zomba, Malawi.  All the teachers at that school, the Mphata school, walk 9 km each way every day.  The community was interested in having at least one teachers house there so that the teacher was less exhausted from the travel; this detracts from the teacher's ability to be as attentive as possible.

Because these bags just arrived from Malawi today, they smell like Malawi to me.  If you have not been, you may not like the smell; I would say it is a combination of smoke and dirt (not that the bags are dirty).  I don't know how else to explain it, but it brought tears to my eyes and moved my heart when I smelled them.

Tomorrow I plan to be on my bike as early as possible.  I hope to ride close to 100 miles this week and for the next 2; because then I will be riding many miles daily for the 8 days of my ride!

So, I will close with that thought in mind so I can get some rest!  Remember, donations will be matched up to $1,000 and donations of $50 or $100 (not matched) will be entered to win an exciting prize from Educate Malawi, Inc.!

Zikomo kwambiri!

The Countdown begins!!

We are in August, and it is at the end of this month that I will begin to ride!

My summer session of school has ended and it always amazes me how much time I have when it ends!  Not only does school take time to attend, and do the work, it takes up some space in my head as well.  So, now that it's out of my head and off the calendar, I am free to ramp up the training as well as the fundraising!

As of this date, we have raised $665; which includes matching gifts, but we are on our way to some nice funds to continue our construction of the classroom block.  Our fundraising goal this year is quite high, but it goes with our hopes, they are high this year!  We raised over $3,000 last year and have hopes to raise $5,000 this year.  I will be happy with whatever we raise, because we continue to work hard and keep our sites on our goals for Malawi.  Some is better than none...In addition, we have been given the wonderful blessing of having a rental car donated by Enterprise rent-a-car in Westfield, to help us keep costs down for Karen's Ride!  We are ecstatic about this and grateful and intend to promote and thank them as publicly and often as we can for their generosity to support this event!

We have some incentives to offer this year, so I thought I would begin sharing some of that info so people can get excited with me.  For those donating $50 or $100 (not matched), they will be automatically entered into a drawing for a special prize.  Below is one of the prizes that will be in the $100 'basket' - I brought it back with me from Malawi when I was there in May, and it is a beautiful piece of finished fabric that could be used in many ways; as a table cloth, skirt, shawl/wrap or wall hanging!

      

It is a beautiful fabric, a nice heavy weight; it could almost even be used as a throw on the couch to cover you if you got cold.  I will continue to update items that are being added to the basket, but this is a wonderful incentive, I think, toward a worthy cause.

With that said, we have received some photos of the groundbreaking and beginnings of the teacher's house construction.  We are very excited about this project and we worked very hard in the past year to raise the funds for this project!

 The beginning of the foundation....the bricks had been made by the community, but a local team of builders is completing the actual work.

I love the view of the mountains in the background of this area.

 

Educate Malawi, Inc. is working on so many exciting things with so many wonderful people!  We have the first 5k run coming up in November, a couple months after my ride, and it is shaping up quite nicely!  For those of you who don't know, we have been providing educational scholarships for a while now and it has been quite a challenge.  About a year ago, through a few degrees of separation, we met some folks who were also interested in providing scholarships to women in Malawi.  The short version is that we have begun to work more closely in recent months and as a result, we are gaining some momentum with the scholarship program.  The Daughters of Toleza Scholarship Fund is the benefitting program of Educate Malawi and Shannon Massey a co-founder of Educate Malawi and Suzanne Bansley, co-founder of Daughters of Toleza Scholarships, are organizing this exciting race.  For more details about The Daughters of Toleza, visit their website:  http://daughtersoftoleza.org/

And for information about the fun run and road race:http://daughtersoftoleza.org/?page_id=247

More to follow about all the updates of Educate Malawi and Karen's ride as well as all the other events and exciting happenings!  Peace and Zikomo,

Karen