Ok I can’t lie. My first run round the stadium was even worse than I expected. Literally the whole village stared at me! It was partly my fault. There was a big football match on when I first turned up (which I didn’t know about) between the local primary school and the neighbouring school so the place was packed out with kids. Now if it wasn’t for my running partner, a tutor from the TTC who took pity on me, insisting on doing at least a bit of running I would have bailed right then. But he had turned up to help me face it all so I didn’t feel it would be fair to just give up straight away.
However none of the kids were up for giving the running a go were they?! Its obviously the thing to do to prevent myself from being followed, they don’t seem so game when they have to run to keep up. I’m going to try again tomorrow. If its no better after a few days I think I might have to give up and do it in the mornings (when allegedly the place is completely deserted) at least until after the marathon is over. The place was literally so full it was very difficult to run. And although I’m getting quite used to being stared at there is a limit! There does come a point where it becomes so intrusive that its just not possible to concentrate on what I had gone there to do. However someone did shout ‘the muzungu is a good runner’ which made me feel slightly better! Then being followed home by loads of giggling kids didn’t help my dark mood...kind of lost the ability to take part in the ‘Child: good morning (at 5pm), Camilla: après midi good afternoon, Child: how are you?, Camilla: I’m fine, how are you?’ exchange as I was hot and red and out of breath and just not up for it. Cranky old muzungu...
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