A CASE OF OLD AGE

As my last post indicated, I am learning the rudiments of Swahili so that I can run my criminal enterprise and embarrass my friends while I'm in Tanzania.  My language book has little dialogues at the beginning of each chapter, followed by vocabulary, grammar, etc. (pretty standard).  I'm only on the ninth chapter and I know I won't make it all the way through (26 chapters), so last night, I flipped through the later chapters out of curiosity as to what I won't get to.

Was I ever surprised when I came across a chapter entitled (translation) "On the Mountain: What's the Matter?"  Its introductory dialogue was set on the upper slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, with the conversation taking place between a guide and the tourists who are climbing the mountain.  And things aren't going so well!

The guide notices that most of the group have stopped following him and that, in particular, Paul is not making any progress.  He goes back and the other members of the group are eager to tell him had bad Paul is doing: "Paul can't do it!"  "Paul's head is hurting.  And he's nauseous!"  "His hands are swollen!"  [This is the actual dialogue in the book.  Really reassuring for me as I imagine actually being where this dialogue is set.]

Then Paul tries to laugh it off, saying, "It's just a case of old age!"  The dialogue continues, identifying Paul as being 40 years of age.  And I'm muttering, "Old age?  Well, f**k you very much, Paul."  [Yeah, I know--when you start cursing at characters in a book for their comments, you maybe need to get out more.]

The good part, though, is that then the guide tells Paul, "Ugonjwa huu huahusu umri hata kidogo."  ("This illness has nothing to do with age.")   So now I know that age is in no way an impediment to a successful submitting of Mount Kilimanjaro.  Now, I've seen some postings on the internet that suggest otherwise, but, really, how can you trust anything you see on the internet?  Medical advice given by a fictional character in a language instruction book, on the other hand  .   .   .  Rock solid.

In the meantime, Cory and I are getting ready for a half marathon in 3 weeks and the Boston Marathon in 6 weeks.  We ran 20 miles today--our seventh Sunday in a row with a run of 20 miles.  As we have agreed, this is our personal "Groundhog Day"--like Bill Murray's character in that movie, we are stuck repeating our 20 mile run each Sunday until we get it right.  The only difference is that Bill Murray's character ended up using the repeated day for self-examination and personal growth.  Pfutt!  We'll never fall into that trap!  If we start fixing our flaws, we'll never have time for anything else!