Woman v. African Sun

In the battle of woman v. African sun, African sun proved victorious!  I made the mistake of running at 2 o’clock this afternoon (it’s still midterm break…we get a 4-day weekend = )…and boy did it kick my booty!  I usually love running in the sun!  Something about it makes me feel so alive = )  But I underestimated the power of the sun here.  I should’ve known better, since when I was leaving Marian commented on how Africans don’t do that and then downstairs, Aunty Vero was like, “You’re going running now?!  In this sun?!”…haha = )  But on my run…it kinda hit me why most of the people don’t go running, especially at that time of day.  So many people were out and about, walking, working (sitting at stands selling things, fixing cars, even sewing outside), and sitting – and I kinda felt like I was being rude, choosing to be out in that sun when so many of them had to be.  I thought about the fact that I would get to return home to A/C and a cold shower…but these people I was passing wouldn’t have those luxuries.  It was kind of like, duh!  Of course they’re not going to choose to get all hot and sweaty on purpose when 1)they kind of have to already, and 2) they can’t cool down and get clean easily like I can.

Then I thought about how I was talking to Mandy, Doreen, and Patricia at the party on Saturday about going to the gym.  Patricia goes pretty regularly, Mandy wants to start again, Doreen doesn’t like gyms – it doesn’t matter…the point is, you also have this end of the spectrum.  Going to the gym is kinda like even one level above just running outside, in terms of modern, uh, advances, I guess.  It just must be so hard to live in a developing country, especially when you’re living in the part of society that’s not yet “developed.”  Sorry…it made so much sense in my head, but I’m having trouble putting it into words.  It just seems like, when America was developing, they were at the forefront, so they didn’t have something to compare themselves to.  Here, the people see movies or TV shows showing homes, cars, and other luxuries that they don’t have.  They even see people around them with these things.  It’s so much harder, I think, to know about a different style of living, and yet to still be living in abject poverty.  I mean, on my run I pass literal wooden huts.  These people have no running water, no electricity, dirt floors…and then a couple of streets away I live in the kind of home I do.  I feel like it would be so discouraging.  And it’s like, we come to these countries with our “advanced ways” and try to impose them on the native people, when our ways may not be better.  And even if there is wisdom in our ways, they may not work for those people.  Anyways…it’s not coming out very well, so I’ll stop here (I may have even written about this already; it’s something that’s been on my mind a lot)…but yeah…that’s what was going through my head on my run today.