More running, soccer mania, and Internet connection woes

Our "team" prepares to run.

It's now day four of no Internet connection on campus, which - along with the multiple daily power outages has made it quite hard to keep up with work tasks, news, email, and blog posts. The tech department says that the problem is off-site with the provider's infrastructure (this blog's new official word) and that it may be next week (or longer) before we have service restored. It's also been hard on the contents of the fridge! 

Mass start.

Haile Gebreselassie.

Anyway, a couple of updates: Sunday was a big sports day - building on the success of the "Run for Hope." The morning started early (6:00) as I taxied to the other side of town for a 7 km road race that I was invited to run with a few friends. It was a challenging course - a bit longer than I've been running and with a lot more elevation change than our flat course near the college. The air was also heavy (it had rained overnight), but I had fun and enjoyed how supportive the group of runners I found myself with was. Running is very popular here, and it was exciting to have celebrated Ethiopian runner Haile Gebreselassie on hand to pump up the crowd and then sound the starting horn.

Me with the goalie after the game.

That afternoon, a double-header at the European Film Festival lost out to watching Ethiopia play South Africa in a World Cup qualifying game. Tickets to watch the match live here in Addis were in short supply, so a group of us watched on tv. Ethiopia won - thus winning their group (with one game left to play) and earning a berth in the final round of play for one of Africa's spots in Brazil.* One of the guys watching with us works at the hotel where the team was staying, so we ended up heading down there to join the festivities and greet the team. The whole city was celebrating; flags were waving, horns were honking, and everyone was waving and screaming. This enthusiasm is a sign that Ethiopia's football (soccer) team is enjoying a resurgence. They made it to the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 31 years, and they are looking to get to their first ever World Cup.

* After Sunday's exciting victory, it came out that an ineligible player (due to yellow card accumulation) had been fielded in an earlier game against Botswana. FIFA fined the Ethiopian Federation and took away the three points from that win. Still leading the group, Ethiopia must now win that final game, September 6th against the Central African Republic, to advance in qualification. Needless to say, there has been a lot of disappointment and frustration among fans here. 

It's funny to find myself a regular runner here when I'm a rare, even reluctant runner at home. I also have hardly kicked a soccer ball in my two months here, which is odd since I'm such an avid soccer player at home. Then again, my daily life and habits are different in lots of ways: I also consider it normal to see donkeys and sheep every day now, I drink bottled water, I almost never wear a seat belt (because they're broken), I shoulder bump as part of greeting people, and I eat at least one meal a day with my hands.