The Great Run XV

Hello people,

It is a bit hard to contain the excitement behind this but let us try. Was the immediate former dry season getting you down? Do you want to see some trees? Are you tired of always driving fast or aggressively out of necessity owing to the fast-paced vagaries of city life; or have you always been put off by the thought of The Great Run being a race (which it most definitely is NOT)? Do you want to see some fresh sights? Do you have a passpo... wait, we are getting ahead of ourselves here. Listen:

The Great Run I back in July of 2012 took us from Nairobi up to Namanga, an event which sparked off an eight year cascade of charitable travelogues filled with memorable adventures and happy smiles all round as twice a year every year we cranked up our engines and opened up our hearts and proceeded to make a difference in a child's life. But, let us go back to that first Great Run:

Angabanga za Namanga
Ndio tuliendanga
Na magari tumepanga
Ka dimanga

We drove from Nairobi up to Namanga, stopping along the way to play some football with the children of Hawa in Kitengela; and this year we want to turn things up to 11. Turn them up to 15 actually, since this is the Great Run XV. We will go to Namanga again, but we will not stop there...

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are going to cross the border into The United Republic of Tanganyika & Zanzibar, more commonly known as Tanzania.

Yes, you heard us right, The Great Run is going international! They say charity begins at home, but they never said it cannot extend to neighbors; be they literally next door or separated from us by administrative boundaries. Neighbors are neighbors and the polite folks to the South get their turn on the receiving end of The Great Run's focus.

This of course means The Great Run XV is a special one, and it thus gets a special name: MY ACCENT CHANGED, because, well, we are international now. But even more special are the preparations that will need to go into this one. It will not be as simple as firing up your vehicle at zero dark thirty and hauling tail towards a distant children's home. This one will be a bit more nuanced.

First of all is the route:

Day 1 will take us along the A104 from Nairobi into Kitengela, past Kajiado and all the way down to the Namanga border post where will cross over into Tanzania. From there we will advance to Longido and Arusha still on the A104, then take the A23 past Kia and into Moshi where the children's home is located and where we will conclude the first day.

Day 2 will see us all gather at or around Kili Wonders Hotel before proceeding to Upendo Children's Orphanage for the reason the Great Run exists: charity work and brightening some little ones' lives.

Day 3 will start at Moshi from where we will proceed to Uchira and Himo where we will exit the A23 and head to Mwika and Tarakea then into Loitoktok where we weill re-enter the homeland, drive past Kimana up to Emali and back to Nairobi along the A109.

To cross the border you will need this:
- Kenyan identification (an ID card for those above age 18) - this is not mandatory but it is advisable to carry it anyway since one iof our directors was asked to produce theirs during clearance and any of you may be asked to as well
- a passport or temporary border pass [COMPULSORY]
- a yellow fever certificate [COMPULSORY]
- original motor vehicle logbook [COMPULSORY FOR THE DRIVER]
- carry a pen as well to fill in the requisite immigration paperwork without too much delay

Right. There is a lot more travel advice that we will give in subsequent updates but this was the most important and had to be disseminated first.

So? Good people, are we ready to go global (one country at a time)? They say there is no time like the present, and the present is now. Dust off those passports, get those yellow fever jabs and locate your logbooks.

Then proceed to register by sending KES 6000/-, paid via M-Pesa to SHELINA MOHAMED on 0725 786 396.

You are in for the ride of your life.

ALEA JACTA EST!

Regards,
The Great Run 2019