Entourage

After a couple months, the powers that be have decided that it is unsafe for me to jog on my own. Much to my chagrin I have been assigned an entourage of five students to join my run every evening. It feels like that scene in movies when the President goes for a run and is surrounded by secret service. I'm sure he would love to run on his own but he is responsible to the entire country for his safety. I think about how I am responsible to the entire Rural Development Foundation to keep myself safe. Okay, so the analogy is a bit of a stretch, but it makes me feel better. After all, until now, I have cherished my evening run as a time each day that I have entirely to myself.

I took some time to make sure I was past the point of resenting the students' presence before the first time running with them last night. It's not their fault they have to run with me and I'm sure they have things they would rather be doing. Fortunately only one showed up and when he set a pace just beyond my usual jog and encouragingly yelled "speed!" at me as we rounded the last curve on the road back to town, I thought this isn't so bad. It's almost like having a personal trainer! Tonight there were four students and the evening run turned into a Telugu lesson so I guess now I'll be pushed to get into better shape and improve my Telugu. Plus the fact that my consistency in running will be excellent due to the one to five students I know will be waiting for me!