10. "The Sloggers for Sudan Arrive" at National Geographic Headquarters, September 10, 2007 [an old post but still interesting? . . . ]
On a September afternoon over two years ago, I headed down to the Courtyard to watch the “Sloggers for Sudan” finish their 10-day, 203-mile walk from Frostburg, Maryland, all the way to Headquarters. They’d been "slogging" along the C&O Canal since September 1 without food to raise money for the John Dau Foundation.
John Dau is one of the “lost boys” who was on the run for 16 years (!) in southern Sudan after fleeing the civil strife, violence, and warfare caused for the last 21 years (!!) by the Arab Sudanese government of northern Sudan (Arab Sudan versus “black” Sudan; powerful/oil-rich Sudan versus fragmented/agrarian Sudan).
Enduring the unimaginable, Dau relocated to the United States, learned to read at age 17, and pursued a public policy degree at Syracuse University (my brother’s alma mater). He started his eponymous foundation to help others in his homeland because the violence he escaped persists. Specifically, his foundation is dedicated to opening medical clinics in southern Sudan. The foundation opened its first clinic just this past May 2007.
The sloggers were seven in number, three women and four men. My co-workers and I watched them head across M Street, hang a right into the National Geographic Courtyard to a yellow finish line, balloons, applause, and hoots of approval. They looked good. Wearing army fatigues and black tops, caps and heavy hiking boots, they were tattered but strode smoothly into the courtyard.
I can’t imagine not eating for ten days. I admire their commitment to doing something extreme to raise the $25,000 they did for the John Dau Foundation. Apparently there was a slog in 2005 to raise funds for the Afghan Girls Fund (since renamed the Afghan Children's Fund).
After first learning about the slog I checked the "slog blog" near daily. Maybe my own experiences with the extreme, in my own little way, running three marathons (two to raise money for leukemia/lymphoma research), piqued my interest in what these people were doing. Or, it might also be that they accomplished something exceptional and that’s something I admire.
After a few words from each slogger and an abrupt yet heartfelt speech by John Dau himself, a towering, lean man of 6’8”, the MC weighed each of the sloggers. Most of the men lost up to 25 pounds while the women lost about 13-16 pounds during ten days of no food, just water.
At the onset of the slog, each slogger was given a tea bag to reserve for really tough times when the nontaste of water just wasn’t enough. After the weigh-in and a few more congratulatory hugs, the sloggers charged into the cafeteria to relish whatever luscious fare they surely fantasized about those many days on the road.
Who said “An unexamined is not worth living”? Along those very same lines, an unchallenged, unexceptional life is similarly not worth much, I guess, in my calculus of life. I hope I can keep pushing myself to do things, perhaps not nearly as exceptional as completing a 203-mile slog, all in one piece with smiles to spare, so that my life exceeds the ordinary. I hope I can find a way to challenge myself to help others and to accomplish it all with joy.
Should we organize a slog this spring/summer to benefit the Haitian earthquake survivors?
On a September afternoon over two years ago, I headed down to the Courtyard to watch the “Sloggers for Sudan” finish their 10-day, 203-mile walk from Frostburg, Maryland, all the way to Headquarters. They’d been "slogging" along the C&O Canal since September 1 without food to raise money for the John Dau Foundation.
John Dau is one of the “lost boys” who was on the run for 16 years (!) in southern Sudan after fleeing the civil strife, violence, and warfare caused for the last 21 years (!!) by the Arab Sudanese government of northern Sudan (Arab Sudan versus “black” Sudan; powerful/oil-rich Sudan versus fragmented/agrarian Sudan).
Enduring the unimaginable, Dau relocated to the United States, learned to read at age 17, and pursued a public policy degree at Syracuse University (my brother’s alma mater). He started his eponymous foundation to help others in his homeland because the violence he escaped persists. Specifically, his foundation is dedicated to opening medical clinics in southern Sudan. The foundation opened its first clinic just this past May 2007.
The sloggers were seven in number, three women and four men. My co-workers and I watched them head across M Street, hang a right into the National Geographic Courtyard to a yellow finish line, balloons, applause, and hoots of approval. They looked good. Wearing army fatigues and black tops, caps and heavy hiking boots, they were tattered but strode smoothly into the courtyard.
I can’t imagine not eating for ten days. I admire their commitment to doing something extreme to raise the $25,000 they did for the John Dau Foundation. Apparently there was a slog in 2005 to raise funds for the Afghan Girls Fund (since renamed the Afghan Children's Fund).
After first learning about the slog I checked the "slog blog" near daily. Maybe my own experiences with the extreme, in my own little way, running three marathons (two to raise money for leukemia/lymphoma research), piqued my interest in what these people were doing. Or, it might also be that they accomplished something exceptional and that’s something I admire.
After a few words from each slogger and an abrupt yet heartfelt speech by John Dau himself, a towering, lean man of 6’8”, the MC weighed each of the sloggers. Most of the men lost up to 25 pounds while the women lost about 13-16 pounds during ten days of no food, just water.
At the onset of the slog, each slogger was given a tea bag to reserve for really tough times when the nontaste of water just wasn’t enough. After the weigh-in and a few more congratulatory hugs, the sloggers charged into the cafeteria to relish whatever luscious fare they surely fantasized about those many days on the road.
Who said “An unexamined is not worth living”? Along those very same lines, an unchallenged, unexceptional life is similarly not worth much, I guess, in my calculus of life. I hope I can keep pushing myself to do things, perhaps not nearly as exceptional as completing a 203-mile slog, all in one piece with smiles to spare, so that my life exceeds the ordinary. I hope I can find a way to challenge myself to help others and to accomplish it all with joy.
Should we organize a slog this spring/summer to benefit the Haitian earthquake survivors?
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