Prisons Cross Country Championships

The Kenya Prisons Cross Country cometition was held over the weekend in Ruiru which is just outside of Nairobi. It was held at the Prisons Staff Training College which is where all employees of the Prisons go to school and learn their jobs. (It also happens to be where Catherine met her husband, Anthony, and where her sister was when we filmed there last year. But that's getting off track!) Before the race I read several articles online that mentioned that Catherine was competing for this or that, one of those being the senior title. It was refreshing however to read today that at least one article got it right as to Catherine's intentions in the race. I know they got it right because I spoke to her last night after the race as she was relaxing with Anthony watching some news before going to sleep. The truth is, Catherine (as with many other elite athletes) does not run every race to win. When she is training for a big marathon, each race leading up to that has a purpose in her training plan. When I spoke with her she was very content with the run, especially given the fact that she has been fighting a nasty cold. (When we filmed her training run in Kenya, she was also battling a cold). I  know how hard it is to breathe with a cold without having to run, so I certainly can't imagine how it feels to run any distance with one! But this is something that athletes deal with all the time. Regardless of the cold or that she still came in 12th overall, Catherine was at the race as much to support her Prisons team as to get in a good training run!

As always, she spoke eloquently during her post race interviews and you can read what she had to say here (about half way down the page):  post race interview with Catherine Ndereba 

By the way, stay tuned for an announcement once Catherine signs paperwork for a spring marathon!

Nyeri Half Marathon-Nyeri Town, Kenya

Only days after finally returning to her home outside of Nairobi, Catherine was off to her hometown of Nyeri with her husband, Anthony, and daughter, Jane to stand at the helm of the Nyeri Half Marathon. This is one race that she does not "run" as in compete; she "runs" it as in organizes the race with Anthony. This was the 13th year for the race and the event is held each year in the town near the village where she grew up and gives opportunity to runners that Catherine herself did not have when she was a young girl. It is a place where athletes can showcase their talents and possibly be noticed by one of the three organizations that employ athletes; the Prisons, Police and Armed Forces.

The race, however, is not limited to just locals, and athletes from all over come to participate.

Nyeri is located in the small Central Province of Kenya approximately 2 hours north of Nairobi. The course this year was more difficult than in past years and had more hills but despite the change, there were new course records set for both the men and women.  Ernest Kebenei (photo) won the men's race in 1:01:31 and he hails from Uasin Gishu district, which is the Rift Valley Province where Eldoret is the district capital and the training home to many elite runners. It is in Western Kenya. Gladys Kerubo, the women's winner with the course record of 1:11:44, is from Kisii which is the district capital of the Nyanza Province in Southwestern Kenya. (Here is a good map of the Kenyan provinces map)

Catherine mentioned that two boys she sponsors, Paul (her nephew) and John, did very well. She helps them with their training in Ngong and also provides them with uniforms. The boys ran 1:05 and 1:15 for the half marathon distance. Catherine's brother, Samuel ran the race in support of Catherine but he did not finish as it was not part of his training schedule at the time.

I sent a Kenyan crew to film Catherine and Anthony out among the locals to capture them in action and see how they interact with the villagers and athletes, and I can't wait to see the footage! When I spoke to Catherine, she said the event went very well however she was disappointed that the Vice President, who was scheduled to be their special guest, had to cancel and did not send an official in his place. I have found that this is a common occurrence with Kenyan officials; they are often canceling appearances and sometimes send a replacement but other times do not.

When I spoke to Catherine today, she was back in her home outside of Nairobi and is looking forward to time at home with her family which includes nieces, nephews and siblings. Her sister, Esther, also just had a baby girl named Maryanne and I know Catherine will enjoy helping out with her newest niece as well!

Yokohama Women's Marathon results

The internet never stops amazing me! Here I was, sitting in my Pennsylvania home, watching the Yokohama Women's Marathon LIVE online via a player called Keyholetv that allowed me to watch the Japanese TV Asahi, while chatting on Facebook with a friend from Chile and talking on the phone to a friend in PA and watching the Pittsburgh Panthers football game on the tv :)  The resolution on the marathon online was not great, and I couldn't understand a word of the commentating, but what was important was that I could actually WATCH Catherine run a race on the other side of the world!

It was an exciting race and for most of it she ran in her usual spot at the back of the pack. It was nice just like Catherine said before going there; the women got all the attention because there were no men so I didn't have to worry that the coverage would focus on the men and not the women's race (which happens all too often!) When the pack broke up, Catherine ran in second behind the Russian Inga Abitova until Japan's Kiyoko Shimahara caught her near the end and Catherine took 3rd. It was great to watch Anthony out there at the finish give her a big hug as always! The photos are not that clear but you can see exactly what I saw on my screen!

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Catherine's Most Important House

This morning we arrived at Catherine’s house at 9am all ready for church. Since religion is such an important part of her life, I could not do a film about her without including this. When we arrived, her sisters Esther and Caroline were there as well as her sister in law, Lyddiah with little Stephen. We spent a short time there and then they all piled into Catherine’s car and headed for church. (Anthony was already at church for the early service since he is a church elder)

I did not know that the entire group was not going to Catherine’s church; she dropped them near Ngong to attend their own churches so when she arrived at PCEA West (Presbyterian Church of East Africa West) it was just Catherine, Ruth and Filhemina. As always, Ruth looked adorable!

Catherine was scheduled to lead the 10am service that is conducted in Swahili. At 8 am there was a service conducted in English and at noon is a service in Kikuyu. It was a beautiful service and even though I could not understand the language, the music was beautiful and it was easy to see everyone’s commitment to the church. After the service there were a lot of people gathered outside having tea, socializing and it was extremely child friendly. There was a popcorn vendor and kids running around playing and I could see how they make it so people want to come to church which I thought was very nice!

girls enjoying their popcorn

We were able to say hello to Anthony before the next service started and it was very evident what an important role both he and Catherine play in their church. Catherine caught up with church members and friends and Ruth ran around being cute and friendly!

We left them to finish their day without cameras and after lunch I let the crew have an early day; we had been working every day and even when we weren’t out shooting Jon still had a lot of footage to back up and manage so they deserved some time off! I took some time to relax as well and call home and talk to my older son, Eric as it was it 21st birthday! (Happy Birthday Eric!)

The Sites of Nairobi

Today we took the day to film establishing shots of Nairobi. First we went to Kibera which is the second largest slum in Africa. It was unbelievable! All you could see were rooftops side by side everywhere you looked! The roofs were different colors and they just seemed to go on forever. There was a constant flow of foot traffic up and down the road in and out of it near where we were filming. The women carried huge loads on top of their heads or in a basket/bag that has a strap and is secured around the forehead. It was quite amazing how they balanced their loads. They also carry their babies on their backs held on by scarves or blankets wrapped around them. We were quite intrigued by the place and knew we needed to film inside in order to illustrate exactly what the viewer would see. We decided to secure security and go in tomorrow.

shooting outside Kibera

After Kibera, we went to a lookout point to view the entire city from a raised area and it was very pretty. We also did some exterior shots of Nyoyo Stadium (where the Prison Championships will be held next month) and learned that it has been renamed Coke a Cola Stadium and has been repainted red. I must say that it has lost a lot of its charm because of this.

Back in Kenya again!

Monday morning came quickly and it was time to go back to Kenya! I was very excited and had been looking forward to getting back since I left. I still didn’t feel 100% prepared but also knew that I had to just jump in and force myself to get it done! Once again we flew British Airways and this plane was even nicer than the previous! Business class has seats that recline into beds and it is a really nice way to travel! It is how Catherine travels which is good because it allows her to sleep as well as not have to sit in a cramped position. The flight was great and we even landed early. Waiting at the airport were two people: One was the driver for the place Jon and I were staying, Wasini Luxury Homes and the other was Willy, our sound technician for the length of our stay. Since Anthony and Jane would not be flying in until 6:30am on Tuesday, Catherine needed a ride home so I asked Willy if he would give her a ride. Technically I had contracted for him to begin today, the 27th but this way he would know how to get to her house since he will be our driver as well while we are here. So off he went with Catherine and we piled our bags into the van to Wasini. I should mention another great aspect of flying business class is that you are allowed to have 3 checked bags and two carry ons so we needed it with our equipment!

We arrived at our home for the next 5 weeks and it was great! Wasini Luxury Homes is operated very similar to a hotel but they are apartments. We have a two bedroom apartment with one large bathroom that has a Jacuzzi tub, living room/dining room area and a kitchen. It is also fully service which means we have someone come in and clean daily as well as replace our towels with fresh ones. I took the master bedroom and Jon the other (one of the perks of being the boss!). They are pretty similar but I think the master bed is a tad larger ;-). We settled in and got some sleep knowing we would have a long day on Tuesday.

Preparing to Leave for....

It was almost a year ago that I wrote that first title and so much has happened in that year! It is now time to move forward with more filming even though the money has not been raised yet. The timing is right and on Tuesday I leave to follow Catherine to London for the Flora London Marathon where she will compete among a very talented field. All three medalists from the Olympics will be there as well as other champions so it will be exciting. Anthony and Jane (Catherine's husband and daughter) will arrive later in the week and support Catherine along with Lisa and Mostafa. While in London I will interview some of the other elite athletes from around the world. After London my cinematographer and I will follow Catherine back to Kenya where we will be until May 31st filming her daily life, her family, and many others. I am so excited to be going back to Kenya! I really loved it there; the people were so welcoming, the country is beautiful and I can't wait to see the night sky in the out-lying villages again! Stay tuned for details; I'll try to be as detailed as last year but with so much work to get done I can't promise so you'll have to just keep checking back! ;-)

Nairobi National Park & Petting the Cheetahs!

OMG! All I can say after today is OMG!!! I am too tired to write everything out tonight but wanted to post some photos from today's amazing excursion! From petting Cheetahs to seeing giraffe up close and personal out in the wild it was an incredible day to say the least!

I hired a driver who was to pick me up at 10:40am and take me to the park for the day. He was called away last minute so sent his brother, Francis. He was a bright, friendly 23 year old with a comfortable, small car (more on the car later!) We arrived at the park at around 11:30am and decided to do the safari walk first. This was similar to a zoo, however the animals are in large habitats surrounded by fencing. After seeing Sneaky the crocodile, we moved on and found Milo the Cheetah. She was walking around and we kept trying to get a better look at her. A guide heard us calling to her and approached us asking if we wanted to see her better. Expecting him to show us a better place to stand, we followed him: right INSIDE the pen! He took my camera and told me to go up to Milo and pet her!!!!!!!!! What an amazing animal and experience!! The cheetah’s coat is very coarse and she was SO gentle! I did not want to leave but there were so many more animals to see!

From there we moved throughout the walk and our guide, Julius, led us through a restricted gate down along the leopard pen. We got right up to the fence but Lipi did not want to come too close; she just laid down and gave us pretty pictures! She was absolutely gorgeous! Julius then led us through a restricted area to get close to the Rhino, Dubai. We met so many animals, most of which had very appropriate names: Hippos Bob and Elizabeth, Buffalo Sarah & Betty, Matthew the Lion, Lila the Wildebeest and an Oryx Antelope named Samburu who was adopted by a Lioness when she was a baby and was raised by her until she was brought to the park!

After the Safari Walk we went to the Animal Orphanage where animals are brought when they can’t fend for themselves out in the wild. Once again a guide approached us (I guess they figured the American was good for tips!) Anyway, Jared was our guide here. He has been a volunteer in the Orphanage for ten years! He knew all of the animals and they knew him! Some of the monkeys were so protective of him that when he held his arm out and told me to touch him, they would go “bananas”!

Here is who we met here:

1. Spot-Nosed monkey named Benin (named after the region he was from), the Warthogs brother & sister Patrick & Patricia, the first Cheetah was 11 mo old-Alice, the other 2 cheetahs-Festus & Sarah, the Cheetah I pet was Sharon; she is SO sweet just like Milo. Then there were the Serval cats that look like miniature cheetahs, the main one was Ali. Then there was Charlie, a majestic lion who is the oldest of all the lions there at 13 yrs old! We met Blue Legs, an ostrich with a love of peanuts. Jared gave me peanuts and had me hold them between my thumb and forefinger for Blue Legs to take. The idea is to make him work a bit hard so you can get a photo snapped. Well, Mr. Blue Legs decided he liked the flap on my watch so kept trying to bite my wrist instead! Boy can an ostrich bite! J

Next we met two young lions who have not yet grown their manes (they don’t come in until about 1 ½ years) Limlas and Romulus, and a lioness named Blondie. They were all just lounging around. (The big cats are SO lazy!) Case in point: Doudi sleeping soundly and comfortably with all four legs up in the air (like my Boomer used to sleep!). Then we have the Buffalo, Sammy and Alima, the Baboon who catches peanuts on command! Jared throws peanuts at her and yells: peanut, peanut, peanut, stone and she will catch the peanut every single time he says “peanut’ without fail and as soon as he says “stone” she lets the peanut fly right by her! It is amazing (you can watch the video if you want!) There were the Patas monkeys and then a pen with 2 different types of monkeys: Varvets where we met Jared and a 1 week old Varvet and a Sykes monkey named Julie who is known as a pickpocket! She will literally go into Jared’s (the guide not the Varvet!) pocket to steal peanuts!

Then we met Gabi, short for Gabriella, an 8 month old lioness who was turned over to the Orphanage after her owner realized that lions do NOT make good pets!

There was a family of Jackals, Jack & Jill and their family, and an African gray parrot who also liked peanuts from your hand! The Crested Crane was very pretty. Finally, we came to the last pen, 2 lions Pavoratti & Yumi, and a lioness named Nabi. The lion handler, David, had just arrived and he had a big slab of meat that he was taking to Gabi (from earlier) but he put the meat down and went to the pen where these three lions were. He called them over like dogs and they all got up and came over to him! They got up on their hind legs and nuzzled him through the fence, with Yumi even giving him kisses!!!!!!!! It was the coolest thing! They were so loving to him. David has raised them and he actually considers himself a lion He said that he has to do that in order to not be afraid of them. If he is afraid they will sense it. If he acts like a lion and considers himself one, they will accept him as one. He doesn’t lose sight of their strength and capabilities though. I will try to post the video when I get home (I need to edit it because it is too long and there is some wasted footage).

After the Orphanage, we went into the game park. At this point it was already 3:45 but it was the perfect time; it is the time when the animals leave where they are and go “home” for the night so they are out and about. It took awhile to find them and we had to drive deep into the park but once we found them, we found them! There were tons of Antelope and Gazelles, Wildebeest. Ostrich and we even found Giraffe!!!!!!!! But I really wanted to find a lion out in the wild and Francis finally spotted one lying in the grass, quite content to be lazy! We drove up and rolled down the windows and she could not have been more than 30 feet away from us! By this time both our cameras had died so I fired up the laptop, stuck it out the window and put the webcam on! That is why it is so hard to see the lion I the photo I posted but it was better than nothing! It was now getting quite dark and I reluctantly agreed to go.

Remember I mentioned that the car Francis brought was small? Well, there is a reason why you take a 4x4 on safari! The “roads” were just bumpy dirt trails and the bumps were sometimes REALLY bad. The car kept hitting something on the bottom! We even had to drive through a deep puddle! I sure hope Francis’s car is ok! I told him he should have his brother get his car looked at to be sure it is ok ;-)

The day was a bit more expensive than I had anticipated but I can honestly say it was well worth every single penny or Kenyan shilling! I can not wait to do the safari to Massai Mara next week! Now meet some of the animals!

Meet Milo the Cheetah










Yes thats ME petting Milo!



Doudi the Lazy Lion















Lipi the Leopard


These monkeys don't have names




Patricia the Warthog (Patrick, her brother, is behind her)

Sharon, the Cheetah, isn't she beautiful!
Yep, thats me again!


Then there is Gabi...only 10 months old and so sweet!


The Giraffe were SOOOOO cool! I first saw them on the horizon, then we got close!

They were just some of the animals that roam free in the game park!
If you look closely you will see the lioness lounging in the grass about 50 feet from our car!

Braving the Streets of Nairobi!

Lesson for Friday: I am not the only one here that has no idea how to find an address in Nairobi; Taxi drivers have NO clue either!

As good as Thursday was, that is how frustrating Friday was! It started when the hotel called me at 7:30am to discuss a billing issue from the night I arrived! I was not ready to get up yet! Then, my driver/companion Anthony had to bail out on me because he was called in to work. I was therefore left out on my own to brave Nairobi! Here you negotiate your cab fare before you go and you do not have to tip because the driver basically sets his own fare. The driver they brought to me tried to tell me the fare was 100 ksh higher than what I had already been quoted by the hotel as the proper fare to the town center. After we finally figured out that we were talking about two different places (town center and center of Nairobi are evidently two different places!) off we went. Well, had there not been Nairobi traffic, we probably would have gotten to our destination in less than ten minutes, however, with the traffic it was a solid 30 minutes! My first stop was to one of the production companies I have been in touch with. Once the driver finally found the place, we entered through the electronic gate into a beautiful garden type setting with a lovely house/office. The people at this place were totally awesome and they had a house full of pets as well: 3 dogs and 5 cats of which one dog and one cat were both missing an eye each! I hear there were also three children around although I only saw one adorable little girl!

My driver said that an hour wait time was included in my fare of 700 ksh and that for an additional 400 he would take me to my next appt so I let him. Mistake number one was getting in his cab in the first place after the initial fare disagreement; my second mistake was letting him take me to the next appt after not being able to find the first! (I was actually the one in the back seat telling HIM to keep going we hadn’t gone far enough yet!) Stop number two should have only been about a 5 minute drive without traffic, a 15 minute drive with traffic but with this driver it was a 30 minute ride AND after calling the man I had the appt with 6 times, he finally sent someone over to meet us at a petro station so we could follow him to the office!!!!!!!!!! It was at that point that I just told him I would find my own cab back after my meeting. I didn’t care if I had to walk to my meeting after but I was not getting back in HIS cab! Lol

I finished my second appt and walked over to yet another Nakumatt and got a cab there. I finished my last appt and got another cab back to the hotel at about 6:30 and was completely exhausted. At this point, my only option for dinner was the hotel or yet another cab to eat somewhere else. They tell you it is not safe to walk around at night and I was certainly not getting into another cab so I ate in the hotel restaurant. I won’t bore you with the details of the meal itself but suffice it to say that the experience took an hour and a half and I ended up having a pizza!

On a positive note, my meetings all went well; I got the information I needed from each company and have been able to narrow down my choices a bit. I learned a lot about taxis and I was able to chat online with the kids before going to sleep.

Here are some views from my room looking out over part of Nairobi.