Tag Archives: London

by claudmba | July 27, 2012 · 9:00 am

My Olympic Odyssey part 5: Passing on the flame

In the run up to the London 2012 Opening ceremony, we follow longtime fundraiser and barefoot torchbearer John McBride’s journey, from being nominated as a torchbearer, to his return to Korogocho to pass on his own Olympic legacy.

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Sunday 5.00am and I was up early as if sleeping is time wasted. I wanted to be awake all the time to soak up the atmosphere and went outside to stand under the African stars.

Back In Fr. Weebotsa’s yard on Sunday and we joined what I thought would be about 100 others at Mass. It was actually the start of a procession through the streets, gathering people as we went. A choir was singing like angels, and when I closed my eyes it would have been easy to think we were in Heaven. But on opening them the truth of life in the slum hit even harder.

We got to the arena at St. John’s where Mass was to be said. There were easily over 1,000 people there before the drummers and dancers on stage. I was asked to take part in the offertory procession and was handed a bag of maize flour. Others had bags of sugar, some had huge cabbages. All were presented at the altar and held aloft for everyone to see.

After 3 hours, the Mass was over and I was asked to address the congregation. I explained why I was there and everyone was reminded of the mini-Olympics to be held later.

Then Fr. Weebotsa said that we were going to take the Torch out to visit the 9 “villages” that make up Koch. I took the Torch and ran out with a crowd of about 50 young people from St. John’s.

This being Kenya and these all being fit young Kenyans, they set quite a pace. I was struggling to keep up in the heat, but the singing and chanting of the crowds helped.

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After about half a mile came the first of a hundred handovers of the Torch.

A large man was standing at the side of the road, and beckoned me over to let him hold the Torch. It was all so different to a couple of days before in Durham. No manicured lawns here, no Coca-Cola-sponsored bus. Just me, a Torch and an eager crowd. And just like the staff at Heathrow, every face had a beaming smile; everyone wanted a photo; everyone wanted their small part of the Olympic Games.

I reached out my hand, the Torch was taken, and passed from one friend to the next – a symbol of peace and unity just like CAFOD’s Pass It On celebration of the Olympic Truce.

At that moment, I realised that it had never been “my” Torch, any more than it could ever be Coca Cola’s Olympics.

This Torch is bigger than any company, bigger than any one City, and now it will stay in the St John’s gym, hopefully inspiring every young Kenyan who touches it to reach for their full potential, not just in sport but in all aspects of life. That is the Olympic dream, and a fitting end for my Olympic Journey.

As London 2012 gets underway, we’re remembering all those people who won’t be living in peace this year. Pass on your message of peace to our brothers and sisters around the world>>

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by claudmba | July 26, 2012 · 9:00 am

My Olympic odyssey part 4: Back to Korogocho

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At last, we were in Nairobi and then to Korogocho. Since I was last here, a new smooth road had been built by the Chinese to take us out of the city. But as we got to the outskirts of Korogocho – a square mile of space home to a bigger population than Sunderland – the tarmac ran out and the buildings got smaller and shabbier.

Here, corrugated iron is the main building material, and a disused shipping container is luxury.

Sophie and I arrived at the St. John’s Sports Project on Saturday – a well-constructed gym inside Koch which is free for under-16s thanks to funding from CAFOD – and were greeted by a beaming Fr. John Weebotsa.

We were invted to take part in a game of 7 a side football and despite my best footballing years being behind me, I somehow scored a goal. I sunk into the dust where there would normally be grass and thought that things couldn’t get any better.

We went out into the slums and visited some of the other projects that were either linked with or had started up with help from St. John’s. First stop was “The Brotherhood” and I walked along the road with ‘Uncle’, who by his own admission had been a “bad boy” but now helped other young people to see their true value.

He said that he knew personally of about 700 contemporaries who had not reached his age. None of them had died peacefully.

As London 2012 gets underway, we’re remembering all those people who won’t be living in peace this year. Pass on your message of peace to our brothers and sisters around the world>>

On to the community radio station, Koch FM which was broadcasting to the 200,000 residents and said that they reached about 80% of them. It was the afternoon reggae show playing “Nothing To Smile About” and the DJ asked if I had a message for the young people of Korogocho.

What could I say? Their own government gives them scant respect; they need to avoid fighting among themselves, as happened with sickening violence after the disputed elections in 2008.

I said that they should come together; that their power is greater as a group and they must look after one another.

In the shipping container next door is Miss Koch, a group of young women whose mission is to empower other women through education, healthcare and mutual support. They had started out with support from St. John’s but were now confident enough to be their own NGO.

Back to St. John’s and then back to Nairobi, ready for Sunday, ready for a full length African Mass, and the real reason for coming….

Be inspired by John: find running events with CAFOD today>>

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by claudmba | July 25, 2012 · 11:55 am

My Olympic Odyssey part 3: The Day of the Run

It was a long wait until the afternoon of Wednesday 20th June, especially knowing I’d be going back to Korogocho afterwards.

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The 8 Torchbearers for the Barnard Castle area met in a school hall and I was keen to catch a word with one of the organizers. I explained I’d done some barefoot running to get sponsorship for CAFOD before and it’s featured in some publicity, so I just want to check that it’s ok to run barefoot with the Torch.

The answer is a firm no – you’ve got an official tracksuit, plain trainers, that’s the uniform, no deviations allowed. So I had a word with someone else but got the same result. A different person but the same answer. This is not good. I called Sophie Bradley in the media office at CAFOD and let her know. Should I kick off my shoes as I get the Olympic Flame but risk being taken out of the relay? Should I take off the shoes with a few yards to go before I pass the Flame on? Should I just fall in with the organizers? Sophie was great, saying do whatever feels right to you – just enjoy the run – we all know who you’re really running for, and so do all the CAFOD supporters, whether you’re barefoot or not.

The 8 of us got onto the brightly coloured bus to drop each of us off at the starting point for our run and for the first time I got to hold “my” Olympic Torch. I had 8 or 9 minutes until the Flame was due to reach me. My family were at the start point and after many photos with them, the professional photographer who knows my story asked me to take off my shoes for a photo or two before the Flame arrived. One of the Police team who runs alongside the relay to protect the Flame came across and asked why I’d taken my trainers off. I explained – for the 1,000^th time in my life – that I run barefoot in solidarity with kids who have no shoes in Kenya, and he gave me a sympathetic smile. I knew then that he wasn’t going to drag me out of the Relay, and my trainers stayed off.

Be inspired by John: find running events with CAFOD today>>

A minute later the Flame approached with Richard, who I’d last seen on the bus, and our Torches touched. The Flame took hold and I was alone in the world, the only person carrying the Olympic Flame at that moment. After a short look about me to take in what was happening, I started running. There was to be no quick end to my Olympic Torch Relay and I ran with memories of the people I had met in Kenya, of people who had brought me to this point and of the thousands of CAFOD supporters for whom I was carrying this Torch.

All too quickly, I passed the Flame on and I was back at the school then driving home.

For some people, this was it, the highlight the job well done, but for me there was even greater things still to come. On Thursday, I went to my local school, St. Patrick’s Primary, where I’d recently done a placement for my Teaching Assistant course. The children had been making Olympic themed models and one was of the Torch. They were thrilled when I said I’d bring the real thing in. A full school assembly with hundreds of photos and beaming smiles, but the best thing was that the children had brought in about 70 pairs of trainers they no longer used which they hoped would find new owners in Korogocho.

Next it was off to catch the train to London to meet Sophie, then Heathrow airport. The check-in staff had to ask what was in that long bag I was carrying. More photos, more smiles. At the currency exchange, “What country are you going to?” I explained my hand luggage. More photos, more smiles. At the boarding gate was Bill from check-in. More photos, more smiles and more to come in Kenya….

As London 2012 gets underway, we’re remembering all those people who won’t be living in peace this year. Pass on your message of peace to our brothers and sisters around the world>>

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Tagged as barefoot runner, Kenya, Korogocho, London, London 2012, Olympics, Pass It On

by claudmba | July 24, 2012 · 9:00 am

My Olympic odyssey part 2: My First Trip to Korogocho

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I’d been asked to go to Kenya in 2010 to see the difference CAFOD supporters have made to people who are living in very tough conditions. I deliberately hadn’t read tour guides or books on Kenya to go with no preconceived ideas, although I saw in one book on African cities that Nairobi was locally known as “Nai-robbery.” Not a good start.

We left Nairobi and went off-road for 2 or 3 hours. Our driver said there was a road and he was following it, but mostly I couldn’t see it. We ended up past Kajiado which is the place you’d imagine when you think of “the middle of nowhere.” We were looking at a huge pond which CAFOD and one of its partners Dupoto-e-Maa (The Maasai Council) had constructed to harvest the all too infrequent rainfall. The local ladies allowed me to try to carry the containers in which they collect the water for their families. It was a very slow and uncomfortable few steps I took and I was pleased to have carried the water only a few yards. I joked with the smallest of the ladies that the weight of water must have shrunk her and she laughed, but I knew that carrying such a weight can’t be good for anyone.

Be inspired by John: find running events with CAFOD today>>

They told me that before the pond was constructed, they walked for 2 hours to get water and took 3 hours to get back. Now they only walked for 15 minutes each way. Back in the village, they sang and danced and praised God for the good things He has brought them. I thought to myself: would I have the good grace to thank God for a half hour round trip just to get the muddy water that they treasured?

Next day we were off to visit an HIV/AIDS project in Thika, famous for its flametrees, although their magnificent blossoms had all gone. This was the one part of the trip that I was least looking forward to. I imagined rows of skeletal people in beds and on floors, all waiting to die. We met Sr. Emmah who runs the Integrated AIDS Project (IAP) and she told us that people newly diagnosed with HIV are given “food on prescription” for 3 weeks as the anti-retroviral drugs can’t work on hungry patients. Then the drugs are taken and the effects are almost immediate. We met a dozen people all of whom where HIV+. I have never met people more alive! George had made a will and was preparing to meet his Maker when he was visited by a healthcare worker from IAP. Now he was back at work and supporting his family. He told us “My friends said that the doctors must be wrong. How can you be HIV+ and look so well?”

If conditions in Thika and Kajiado were harrowing but inspiring, they still weren’t sufficient preparation for that combination of emotions when I got to Korogocho.

Korogocho slum is off the tourist map. The Kenyan Government would like it off the map completely. I’d seen programmes about the slums on Comic Relief and was moved by the stories of people who have to live their lives by eating or selling the scraps that others throw away, retrieved from the giant rubbish dump that is Korogocho’s neighbour. To actually be there was completely overwhelming. All my senses were on overload. The bright colours of people’s clothing contrasting with the rust colour of the ground where there was no tarmac. The sounds were of children playing, sellers shouting and motorbikes, all trying to outdo one another. A small child grabbed my hand to walk along for a while then was gone. The smell from the ever smouldering rubbish dump was so strong that it could be tasted.

We watched a football game on a pitch with no grass where players had worn-out shoes but their commitment was Premiership standard if not more so. The goalkeeper told us how he had lived on the dump but had saved all his money and now was a proud slum citizen. I thought: is this really the way that people should have to live in the 21st Century? All too quickly, I was back at work but eager to tell anyone who would listen about what I’d seen. And I couldn’t wait to go back.

As London 2012 gets underway, we’re remembering all those people who won’t be living in peace this year. Pass on your message of peace to our brothers and sisters around the world>>

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by claudmba | July 23, 2012 · 9:00 am

My Olympic odyssey part 1: Being asked to bear the flame

John runs the Great North Run for CAFOD, the last mile barefoot, in solidarity with people who have no shoes.

Another day at the office, another million emails to plough through and disregard, but one caught my eye. Not from one of my regular correspondents, but from the London Olympic Organising Committee.

“You have been nominated to take part in the Olympic Torch relay leading up to the 2012 Games.” Reading quickly through the message it said that I’d been put in for this by Debbie Wainwright at CAFOD, as a result of my fundraising efforts at the Great North Run and the work I’ve done in local schools and parishes in the North East helping people to understand how poverty impacts on people overseas.

Be inspired by John: find running events with CAFOD today>>

I’d also acquired a little local fame by my habit of running the last mile of the Great North Run in bare feet. What seemed like a painful little quirk to the crowds and the cameras always gave me a chance to explain why I did it: as a symbol of solidarity with the children I had met in the slum of Korogocho in Kenya, the constant inspiration for my fundraising work. Debbie at CAFOD clearly thought my barefoot running deserved a bigger stage.

At that stage, no-one knew much about the Torch Relay, except that a few thousand people were going to carry identical 2 foot aluminium sticks around the country once the Olympic flame arrived from Greece. Tens of thousands of people were being nominated by local charities, schools, businesses and sports clubs to be torchbearers. Some people were applying through competitions run by Coca-Cola and other sponsors, and of course – as we now know – some were being invited to carry the torch because of the cash they’d handed over to the organisers or their celebrity status. So while I was more than a little surprised that CAFOD had nominated me, I didn’t have my hopes up that I’d end up being chosen.

But sure enough, come March, I received another email from the Committee, this one saying that I’d been chosen to carry the Olympic Torch in Barnard Castle near Durham on 20th June. Cue disbelief as I was told my nomination had got through a random ballot, then gone before a panel and they had decided that it was good enough to be given the job!

Shortly after, another email arrived asking if I’d like to buy “my” Torch? I called up the CAFOD office and said that I wasn’t interested in keeping the Torch on my mantelpiece, but if they wanted it, perhaps it could go on the reception desk at Romero House. They came back with a better idea…How would you like to take the Torch back to Korogocho, John? Suddenly the sights, sounds and smells of Korogocho came flooding back to me….

As London 2012 gets underway, we’re remembering all those people who won’t be living in peace this year. Pass on your message of peace to our brothers and sisters around the world>>

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Tagged as barefoot runner, fundraising, Kenya, Korogocho, London, Olympics, Pass It On