Longtom Marathon: Please Help Me Support the KLM Foundation

So after being here in South Africa for nearly a year, it seems that I may have gone a bit crazy. I have decided that a good way to spend some of my time over the next two months will be to train to run a 56km ultra-marathon at the end of March.

The ultra I'll be running is the Longtom Marathon, which is set for March 27. It starts in the small tourist town of Sabie in Mpumalanga Province, not too far from Kruger Park. From Sabie, which is 1000m above sea level, the course winds its way up Longtom Pass, topping out at 2150m, before going back down to the town of Lydenburg. With an 1150m elevation gain over the first 35km, it's become known as the 'Everest' of ultra-marathons. Many Peace Corps volunteers will be taking part, probably over 70 of us, so it's going to be a lot of fun to get together with them for the weekend and run up and over the beautiful Drakensberg escarpment.

In addition to having a good time though, the main reason for taking part is to support the KLM foundation. Their website is: www.klm-foundation.org; please check it out. I won't go into all the details of what they do since you can read that on the site, but I'll just say that the organization was founded by two PCVs (Peace Corps volunteers) who served here in South Africa a few years ago. They decided to use the Longtom marathon as a fundraiser; they fund a worthy, needy child to attend an excellent independent high school in Mpumalanga called Uplands College. That's why I am so excited about helping them to raise funds; what better way to help this country than to educate a future leader? And the child they choose is very carefully selected, going through a four-tier application process. The seven children who have been chosen so far are excelling in all respects. I hope after reading about KLM you will find yourself as supportive as I am of their work.

While I've been involved in many projects here as a Volunteer in South Africa, this is one I'm particularly excited about, and one for which I am asking your support. My goal is to get a gold medal (in fundraising, that is, for the run I'll be going slow and steady!), and your donation will help me reach that goal. Please give what you can; any amount is appreciated. Even if you can only give $10 or $20, it is much needed. (Of course, larger donations will be accepted and appreciated!) And it is tax-deductible. So please go to the KLM website to make a donation. Just click on the 'donate' photo. Make sure to put my name in the white box where it asks for the Longtom runner you want to sponsor.

The online donation is preferable, but if you need to mail in a check, please make it payable to "Kgwale Le Mollo (US)" and send it to:

KLM Foundation (US)
c/o Bowen Hsu
461 So. Bonita Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91107

Please make sure to include a note that your donation is on my behalf.

Thanks so much for your support, and especially for supporting the child who is chosen next year to attend Uplands College!

Looking Back and Ahead

The New Year is a time when many people reflect on the year gone by and make resolutions to rectify the mistakes of the past in the year to come. At the start of this new year, I’ve been doing more than my fair share of each.

The year 2009 proved to be among the most challenging years of my life. While I’ve always been one prone to moments of introspection on the direction my life is taking, never before has soul-searching been a daily ritual. Being isolated from family and friends, living where even the few who understand your language differ so much in terms of life experiences and culture as to make empathy a near-impossibility (in either direction), means that one is often alone even in a room full of people.

For someone accustomed to succeeding, to at least some degree, in virtually every major academic and professional undertaking, repeated failure will almost unfailingly trigger thoughts of self-doubt and questions about whether one has chosen the right path. To say that I’ve failed on numerous occasions as a Peace Corps Volunteer is not to say that I have not accomplished anything of worth. I am quite proud of having helped my organization to obtain new books and computers for the library, to have introduced new productive farming techniques to dozens of people, and to have led a rock climbing and abseiling trip that, for many of the sixteen participating orphans and vulnerable youth, was one of the most exciting experiences of their young lives. Yet in the areas I’ve invested the most effort—conducting a community-wide needs survey, setting up a comprehensive data collection and evaluation system, launching a major agricultural income-generating project, scaling up the small community library into a well-connected information resource center—I’ve seen the least progress.

And while I would love to say that I’ve diagnosed the reasons underlying the disappointments from the past year and have pinpointed a fail-proof strategy to make 2010 a productive year, I’d be lying. I certainly have some ideas regarding how to become a more effective Volunteer in the months to come, but I cannot be assured that they’ll be much better than the dozens of other ideas I’ve already tried. If I’ve learned anything during my 11 months of Peace Corps service in South Africa, it’s to not confuse hope with expectations of success. Thus, while there are signs of more promising things to come, including some major organizational changes at Fanang Diatla and evidence of enthusiasm for new projects, I know that finding an appropriate role for my involvement will be neither straightforward nor effortless. All I can do is try, and hope.

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In addition to trying to improve my efforts for Goal 1 of the Peace Corps (building the capacity of host country nationals to meet development goals), I’ve also pledged as one of my New Year’s resolutions to post more frequently on my blog (part of Peace Corps’ Goal 3: to share our experiences in foreign lands with those back home).

So expect to see more frequent posts in the near future. You can also follow my regular updates on facebook if you're so inclined.

And, of course, Happy New Year!