Flashes of Panic

~8:45 PM, Friday 31 March, Fukuoka

As of earlier this afternoon, I’d seen more Kenyan culture in Fukuoka than Japanese. (I’ve since corrected this.) I went to a “luncheon” put on by the organizing committee of the ‘07 World Cross, which will be held in Mombasa, Kenya. Despite holding an invitation, I felt a bit like a gate-crasher, probably something to do with the fact that nobody except the food servers appeared to notice me or understand much of what I said to them. (This is not the fault of the Kenyans, of course; just a quirk of my experience.)

We had several speeches from dignitaries including the mayor of Mombasa, all saying what a great thing this was going to be—the phrase, “best cross-country championships ever” got used a few too many times, I thought, for a room so full of Japanese officials intimately involved in the current one, and maybe we “put our hands together” a few too many times to thank various dignitaries. (The MC also frequently used the phrase “please be upstanding for,” which I’d previously only heard in a certain XTC song.)

Along with decent food and a video presentation on Mombasa featuring Paul Tergat praising the course, we observed a demonstration of Kenyan drumming and dancing which was sufficiently loud as to damp most conversation at our table, which included three Japanese (presumably from the local organizers,) myself and two USATF officials, and (if I read his name-tag properly,) Hosea Mwok Macharinyang, who will run the long race for Kenya on Sunday. The Japanese and Hosea decamped at the earliest polite opportunity. One of the USATF officials, whose professional responsibility is the logistics of fielding a U.S. team at events like this, looked dubious about the entire enterprise; another Kenyan-watching journalist declared his opinion that the Mombasa meet would be “…an organizational train-wreck, but a lot of fun anyway.”

Now Playing: We Both Know Why You’re Here from A Quick Smoke At Spot’s by The Church