training for the Walk for Women

We had a wild weather day on Saturday – it was cold, windy and poured all day. This wouldn’t have been such an issue if we hadn’t planned to celebrate the Rainbow Girl’s birthday as a bike party at a local park! It was hastily replanned, and we had it at home, doing some craft instead of riding bikes.

Rainbow Girl LOVED her rainbow dress and rainbow leotard. She also received a rainbow headband from one of her friends, to match the dress (and it does, perfectly!) and brightly coloured stripy tights. She wore the whole ensemble to church yesterday and then to the shops afterwards, and it was lovely to hear all the compliments she received on it at church, and watch people at the shops having a quiet smile to themselves about the brightly coloured little dynamo that was passing them!

In the afternoon I decided it was time for a training walk for the Walk for Women (of which I plan to walk about 20-25km of the full 50km). Fortunately the weather was much nicer than on Saturday, so I plotted a route to a park some suburbs away and walked there and back. It took me 2 hours and 6 minutes to go about 10.5 km. My little toes were a little sore at the end, but I am happy to report that today I feel fine! My friend is planning a 20km-ish walk next weekend, which I will join her on.

The Walk for Women is raising money for the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia. You can learn more about the hospital at the hospital’s website. If you’d like to sponsor me in my walk, you can donate online via the Australian fistula fund website using the Donate link. Please specify “Walk for Women” in the Event section. I’d love it if you let me know how much you’ve donated in sponsorship of me, so that I can feel warm and fuzzy about it!

Me in the Simien Mountains in the north of Ethiopia, at 3200m altitude. Behind me is an escarpment, dropping 1 - 1.5 km to the plateau below. It gives you an idea of the rugged terrain in some parts of Ethiopia.