One for the Orphans

If you've spent any time reading this blog then you realize that I rarely post anything serious here. OK, I NEVER post anything serious. So when I ran across a touching story about orphans in Africa and wanted to post something about it I found myself with a dilemma. How could I maintain the tongue-in-cheekyness of the blog and still talk about the orphans. I began a post delicately making fun of the orphans but just couldn't pull it off without sounding like a cold heartless jerk. I know it's hard for you to believe, but I don't think it's possible to 'delicately' make fun of orphans in a tongue-in-cheeky way, much like it's apparently not possible for my doctor to 'delicately' have me turn my head and cough.

Essentially the story is this; two American women, Lara Vogel and Claire A. Williams have been teaching orphans at the Tumaini Children’s Home in Kenya to run. Ignore for a second the irony of American’s teaching Kenyan’s to run and focus on the good. Hope Runs, a fledgling organization started by the women in March uses running to raise the self-esteem of the children and seeks to create opportunities for volunteers to run with the kids and help with reading and music programs. With the help provided by Williams and Vogel these kids will grow up to become well-adjusted adults.

The Tumaini Children’s Center has a blog set up here, where you can make donations and read posts from the children. I encourage you to go read some of their blog posts, but make sure you've got a box of tissues... you know... in case your allergies start acting up like mine did... I wasn't crying! It was my stupid allergies! You can also visit www.hoperuns.org for more information or visit Clare and Lara’s blog, Tripping On Words.

Up next for Williams and Vogel: Teaching the French to surrender and showing the Japanese how to make wild and crazy game-shows, meanwhile I’ll be traveling to orphanages in Brazil to teach them the game of soccer. In all seriousness, we need more people like this and I wish them the best. Now go check out the links in this post. Go on.
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