Jane...er, I mean, DENISE Austen

So, here in Bundibugyo, exercising is a challenge. Ever tried running in a skirt that keeps your knees covered? Give it a whirl sometime…not easy…or even more of a challenge – ever tried running in pants with something wrapped around your waist to cover your rear end and knees? Picture it…right arm pumping with each stride, left hand clutched at your waist holding your wrap in place…yeah, no. Okay, well, say that was not enough to stop you, picture steeling yourself to run with hoards of children or at your heels or young men taunting you from the side of the road as you pass – “I love you, I love you” “tsst, tsst, mzungu mzungu!” “you hot love me!”…well, how about early morning, you ask? The sun begins to rise about 6:30am…just about the same time school children begin to leave for their walk to school…remember the hoards of children I mentioned? Perfect example. Or how about the old ipod-headphones-in-the-ears trick to tune out the verbal taunting? You might as well take your life and put it on the line with the boda drivers zooming around the corners and lorries rambling along the road at breakneck speeds.

So, in search of other options, post baclava and gelato filled vacation, Anna and I have turned to exercise videos…I know I know, how “mom” does that sound? (Actually, come to think of it, my mom never did exercise videos I don’t think…) But you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do…

Now, our sisters up North in Sudan told us a story of their friends at a local secondary school telling them one day, “we saw you yesterday jumping up and down in front of your computer!” ☺ At least here in Bundi we have the luxury of enough space and reasonable enough temperatures inside to do such things in some semblance of privacy…so we gave it a whirl…

Our first attempt was a 45 min. Fat Burning Workout DVD, so we cleared the room, pulled out one of our computers and popped it in to see what we had in us…well, let me just tell you, if you could have been a fly on the wall in that room, you would have had the entertainment of a lifetime! There were arms and legs flailing every which way while we tried (totally unsuccessfully, mind you) to keep up with the samba-ing and sashaying aerobic instructor. “Can’t we just do one thing at a time?!” we whined as she kicked our butts through the computer…BUT instead of letting ourselves be totally demoralized, we said to each other hesitantly, “well, maybe with practice we can get it slowly by slowly?”

Yesterday, for our second attempt, we thought we’d try another DVD to see if they’re all as crazy fast and furious like that one or if there might be one a bit more our pace…so we popped in “Denise Austen” (who I mistakenly referred to as Jane Austen when I went to borrow it from Pat. “Ah, no, Heidi, not Jane…this is a bit after her time…” – whoops! Am I my mother’s daughter or what?!) and her Personal Training System DVD…not sure what we might encounter we were pleasantly surprised. With the room cleared and our cans of garbonzo beans in hand we found a challenge lacking total demoralization…how nice…I mean, granted, we’re still talking about Heidi trying to follow steps requiring movement of her upper AND lower body simultaneously (sound at all like, dancing?!), so it was not without it’s amusement, I assure you, but generally speaking I was moving in at least the correct DIRECTION for more than ½ of the time ☺ Anna, on the other hand, she could have a third career as an aerobics instructor, I’m sure of it. She’s totally got the pep and smile for it! I can see the cover of the DVD now, “Aerobics with Anna, Bundibugyo Basics vol. 1”. It might be up there in contention with Tour Guiding on her list of future possibilities. Or maybe she could combine the two… “Aerobics for Tour Guides”…

Ok, I digress. Back to Denise Austen. I do have to admit that I was way more sore after the demoralizing workout madness last week…but I’m not sure I can face that 3 times a week! But maybe it beats the running in a skirt option, or the taunts from the side of the road…