From Twitter 04-05-2010

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Another Kiva loan

I like reading the blog and following the Twitter feed for Afrigadget (The Twitter feed is @Afrigadget). It has great stories of scrappy people using their ingenuity to make their lives better. Today's story was about a woman named Jane who dreamed of being a surgeon, but she was too poor. But using a sewing machine she obtained through microcredit lending, she's managed to provide a decent life for herself and her children. Read Jane's story here.

It made me think about checking my Kiva portfolio to see whether I had enough money accumulated to make another loan. Sure enough, with just a few dollars added, I could make another loan. So, in honor of Jane from Nairobi, I made a loan to another woman, Elizabeth James, this time in Nigeria, who has a business selling fruits and vegetables in her local market.

What have you done today to make the world a better place?

Thanks so much to those of you who responded to my appeal and donated to my MyCharityWater campaign yesterday! I've reached 10% of my goal. I'm running a little behind, though, as we're 16% through the length of the fundraising campaign.

MyCharityWater Campaign Report:

$5,000 CAMPAIGN GOAL
$560 RAISED SO FAR
28 people served
17 donations
78 days left

( What I did today to make the world a better place )

The black stripe class

I've taken the next step to resume regular training. I've started taking the one class a week at my actual belt level. Yes. I now am going to the dreaded Tuesday night black stripe class.

This is the class which is devoted to readying people for black belt screening. It's also the first mixed level class, where adults and youth take class together. I hadn't realized quite what a big deal that is, but in class tonight, with about nine students, I was actually the only person over the age of, uh, eighteen.

Our instructors run a pretty tight ship, but still. Fourteen year olds can be pretty distractable.

The emphasis is picky technical detail, as well as building stamina through brute strength. We also start doing "paper kicks" in this class (actually kicks aimed at a piece of X-ray film held by a partner). These include spinning kicks: spin hook kick, tornado kicks, etc. I'll have to take these very carefully, at least at first, as I determine what my knee can handle. I can expect to be wringing wet when I crawl out of there every Tuesday night.

Tonight, we did slow kicks at the bar. Slow kicks help you develop balance, muscle memory, and strength. Slow kicks should be done every day, ideally, although we don't live in an ideal world, do we? Tonight, we did pyramid slow kicks, meaning raising and lowering the leg. This time that meant extending a round kick slowly, at low height, bending it back, raising it up to medium height, extending it out and back, then raising it to waist length or higher, extending it out and back. Go back to the low position and start again. Each person called out the sequence low/medium/high seven times then on to the next person, who calls low/medium/high seven times, then on to the next. Nine people. That's almost 190 kicks, done veeeerrrryyyyy sllloooowwwwlyyy. The slower you do them, the harder it is.

Then you switch and do the other side.

After awhile, the supporting leg and the kicking leg both start to cramp. I did have to stop a couple times to stretch out cramps, but I picked up the count again as quickly as I could. You have to keep the hand not holding the bar up in the blocking position, fist tight, to guard your face. People have failed black belt screenings because they didn't keep their fists tight. You have to keep upright, obliques crunched tight as you raise the leg, as your hip screams in pain. We were doing slow kicks for probably twenty minutes. It seemed like an eternity.

I wasn't sure whether it was smart or I was ready to go back to the Dreaded Black Stripe Class. But standing there at the bar, even as I battled my cramping hip and supporting leg, what I had to battle the most was myself. For adults in particular, my senior instructor says, the biggest challenge in getting the black belt is mental. Your hip hurts and your leg is shaking, tough. Raise that leg and keep on going. Keep that fist tight or we have to start all over again from the beginning. Sweat runs down your face, and your breathing becomes more labored, tough. Keep on going. Everyone else hurts, too, and there's no pity to spare for you. Suck it up, buttercup. You may be almost fifty and you have a wonky knee and everyone else at the bar is at least thirty years younger than you, tough. Do another slow kick and another and another. Keep your face stoic. Don't complain. Crunch your obliques still tighter. You don't know where you get the strength, but reach deep down inside yourself and raise that leg higher. Higher. Higher. You must do this. If your leg shakes uncontrollably, surreptitiously shake out the foot, try to take your rest in the low position, but raise it every time to hit medium and high. Just do it. Do another kick, grasshopper. There is no 'try.'

Twenty minutes at the bar taught me this: I am ready to do the black stripe class.

One more marker on the road to black belt.