Swim Mike Swim

Teaching in Waku Kungo, Angola, part 3 –

2011-08-06T13:33:00.003-05:00

This is “part 3” of my report about my trip to Waku Kungo, Angola. I want to share some stories about our time there.

First, it was wonderful to get to worship with the Congregational church in Waku Kungo for four Sundays in a row. I have worshiped in I.E.C.A. churches several times before, but, exactly because of the presence of a guest from the U.S., those were always slightly special, unusual services. This time, I got to experience what a “normal” Sunday felt like. Because the population of Angola as a whole is so young, the church is mostly young people. At least half of the people in worship are under age 25. At one service they recognized the “older” members of the congregation – those over 60 – and only seven or eight people (out of about 400) stood, a reflection of the fact that average life expectancy in Angola is about 45. The services normally last 2 ½ to 3 ½ hours, and yes, the children, the small children, including two and three year olds, remain for the entire service. The great majority of the service is singing – singing by different church choirs (children’s choir, youth choir, young adult choir, married adult choir women’s choir), and by the whole congregation. I think the music is best described as a combination of an “African sound” and contemporary American praise music. Because the pastors serve so many churches (maybe eight on average), the service, including prayers and preaching, is almost always led by members of the church.

As I have described after previous visits to Angola, the real center-piece of the whole worship service is the offering. Each week, every member goes forward to a special box in which they place their offering. The music reaches its most joyous and raucous tone, and the people often do a shuffling dance as they go forward, in effect providing, with their feet, the percussion line of the music. At one service while we were there it took 35 minutes to complete the offering! They truly see it as a great privilege to be able to offer something to God, and thus they give with real joy. It is really quite amazing, emotionally and theologically.

Second, while I was there I asked our class of adult students what they thought about the future of Angola. They are very realistic about the challenges they face. They immediately raise the big issues: lack of education, health care and clean water, government corruption, and over reliance on oil money. But they see the poor condition of their country and economy as primarily due to the 27 year civil war: “We are just nine years away from war.” They understand that progress on the basic issues will take time. I asked if they were hopeful about the future, and every one of them said “yes.” Honestly, and oddly, I truly get the impression that they are more hopeful about the future of their country than many people in our country are about the future of the United States. In a sense, they believe they have no where to go but up, and so are hopeful. We have so much that we often think mainly about what we might lose. I believe there is a connection between this difference, and the difference in our giving in worship. Think about it!

Third, I want to say something about two significant needs I talked about with our church partners while I was there. With six classrooms, the school is able to educate about 500 young people who would otherwise receive little or no education. But there is still great need for more classroom space in Waku Kungo – thousands of children do not have access to school. They have already laid the foundation for two classrooms, which would enable them to education about another 200 students. The cost of those two rooms would be about $25,000.

We also talked about the need for a well that would provide clean water. The church (and school) are located in an area of the town they themselves call “the slum.” This is intentional, as “the poor” are the majority of the church, and they want to serve those in greatest need. People in the neighborhood around the church (the neighborhood is called “Cassinda”) do not have easy access to clean water for drinking and other uses. They regularly drink water that makes them sick, especially the children, who get cholera and deadly diarrhea. I don’t know the rate for Waku Kungo, but nationwide, about 20 out of every 100 children die before age five, in part because of the difficulty of obtaining clean water. The neighborhood around the church needs a well to provide clean water. In areas with access to clean water children are much healthier. Their best estimate seems to be that a well would cost about $15,000.

I am going to be talking to the Mission Board of my congregation and others to see if I can help organize some response to these two serious needs.

In late September or early October, I will be making a presentation to my congregation about our trip, complete with pictures and video. And I’ll be happy to talk about it with anyone. Just ask!

Grace and peace,

Mike

Teaching in Waku Kungo, Part 2

2011-07-28T14:03:00.001-05:00

It is hard to know what to make of an experience like living and teaching in Waku Kungo for four weeks. It is such a rich experience, so full of frustration, hope, guilt, inspiration, confusion, and clarity. I know myself well enough to know that it takes me some time to process the experiences of my life, to integrate them into the story of my life and my view of the world. Still, here are some tentative reflections on what this experience meant to me:

First, and perhaps most importantly, I deeply appreciated the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time in Angola in one place with one group of people. I know for me (and I think for many of us), Africa is a mysterious place. From childhood we carry exotic images of Africa: “big game” wild animals, people with strange body paint doing dramatic dances, people living in remote jungles cut off from “civilization.” As adults, those (National Geographic type) images of Africa give way to equally exotic, but more tragic images: starving children, mothers too weak to grieve, child soldiers. All of those images may be (or may have been) real, but they reveal African life at the extremes, not the everyday.

By spending time in one place with one group of people, I was able to get to know people and a little of the rhythm of their daily lives. Although I could not speak their language, still through interpreters and in other ways, communication happens. I could begin to see people in Waku Kungo as individuals, rather than as a group, as “Africans” or “Angolans.” Getting beyond the differences between life in the U.S. and life in Angola, I could begin to see the similarities between who I am and who they are – especially as followers of Jesus. Seeing anew in this way is wonderfully enriching – and troubling.

Second, why “enriching” and “troubling?” Well, that is because as you get to know people you learn a little bit about how they understand their own lives. It is inspiring and enriching to see the patience and creativity and determination of the people there – or more accurately, to see Benjamin’s creativity, Julio’s patience, and Josepha’s determination. Although the “human well-being” indicators in Angola are very bad (very high infant mortality rate, very low life-span, very high unemployment, very poor access to clean water, and poor sanitation), the people are not sitting around suffering and defeated. They are not merely acted upon by their difficult circumstances. They, like all of us should be, are the “actors “ in their own lives, the “drivers” in our their lives. I think it is an important transformation for us to see them in this way. It is the only way we can have real (non-condescending) relationships with them – even if we never meet them in person.

Coming to see our partners in Waku Kungo as individuals, however, is also troubling - because then I am changed by not simply having compassion for suffering (in the abstract), but for particular people who suffer, for particular problems. And that type of compassion hurts more. That type of compassion makes one (at least me) feel even more acutely how inconsistent it is with the Bible, the life of Jesus, and the nature of God, that Christians in this country live so comfortably that we are killing ourselves with too much, while Christians in some other countries (like Christians in Waku Kungo, Angola) are dying from too little. That’s the part of my experience that really takes time to process. May God help me integrate that reality into the story of my life and my view of the world in some faithful way, rather than in some way that simply maintains my comfort.

This quote poignantly reveals the struggle I feel after being in Waku Kungo (Stanley Cavell, in Must We Mean What We Say?)

If you would avoid tragedy (and suffering), avoid love;

if you cannot avoid love, avoid integrity;

if you cannot avoid integrity, avoid the world;

if you cannot avoid the world, destroy it.

God help us never so avoid.

Peace,

Mike

(P.S. Part 3 to come next week)

Teaching In Waku Kungo, Part 1

2011-07-20T17:18:00.007-05:00

Greetings. Here is part one of a report from Waku Kungo, Angola, where my daughter, Muriel, and I went to teach English from June 17 to July 14, 2011, at "The Reverend Mike Solberg Evangelical School." A few pictures to start off with:

Muriel and kids during a break (above)

One of our classes (above)

Muriel teaching a class (above)

One of our wonderful students! (above)

Muriel at the top of Mount Waku Kungo (above)

Our trip had several purposes:

• Most importantly, we were there to teach English to some of the students of “The Reverend Mike Solberg Evangelical School” (I’m still not used to the fact that they named the school after me).
• We were also there to further the partnership between the Illinois Conference and the Evangelical Congregational Church of Angola (IECA), and by extension between Second Congregational Church and the IECA congregation in Waku Kungo.
• Another purpose of our trip was to set a precedent for people from the Illinois Conference, and perhaps others, traveling to IECA for the purpose of service
• And, finally, we were also there to observe the school in its “full functioning” mode, assuring that the school is fulfilling its mission of educating students of the community so that they can flourish individually and contribute to their community and country.

Thankfully, I can say that we accomplished all our goals on this trip!

For months, Muriel and I had been planning on teaching English to two classes of young people. Then about three days before our trip began, the folks in Waku Kungo asked us to teach an additional class for adults. Apparently, the teachers at the school all said “It doesn’t make sense for the kids to learn English and not us – we need to learn too!” So, at the last minute we added a third class, mostly made up of teachers in the school and teachers-in-training, along with a few others. The teaching all went very well. Using recently developed ideas and techniques for teaching English, and using contemporary resources, we were able to teach just fine, in spite of the fact we don’t speak Portuguese. We gave the kids a “pre-test” and a “post-test” to measure their progress, and we found that they were able to learn a helpful amount of English in just the 3 ½ weeks we had with them. The kids ranged from grades 3-9, with most being in grades 5-7. They were a little older than same level students here in the U.S., with most being 15-16 years old. They were very good students: well behaved, cooperative, and eager to learn. All in all, we taught about 50 kids and 15 adults, during six hours of teaching every day. It was pretty tiring, but well worth the effort. English really is a valuable skill for these kids. Most of them will have English in school from 7-9 grades, but this “head start” will give them a greater chance of learning English earlier and more easily.

We also furthered the partnership between the Illinois Conference and IECA. Because of the communications challenges (both in language and technology), and because of Angolan cultural patterns, personal interaction is critical in our church partnership. We spent time in conversation with several leaders in IECA, and I believe these people now understand that we in the Illinois Conference are committed to this partnership and it is not just a short term interest. We are working on developing an official program of congregation-to-congregation partnerships, and this trip helped move that effort forward as well.

This was the first time we received approval for a “service” based trip to IECA. All the previous trips have been as “delegations,” which include mostly learning and talking and celebrating. Those were important trips, but our Illinois Conference Angola Partnership Team always hoped we could add other types of trips as well. Now we have done that, and with the success of our trip, we are hopeful that other service trips will be possible in the future. The type of service is important. Angolans are smart and creative in solving problems and accomplishing work, and they can easily do all the basic labor needed themselves. But they are seriously “under-resourced” in just about every area: education, health care, public health, skilled technical work, etc. So in future trips we (the Angola Partnership Team) will be focused on service that can “resource” the Angolans. Some examples are specialized health care, teacher training, and motorcycle repair.

And, finally, it was wonderful to see the school in full operational mode. Their school year started in February, and the school is now effectively educating 478 children who would otherwise have had limited access to education. One set of kids, grades 1-6, attend school from 8:00 – 12:00 and another set from 1:00 – 5:00. All the rooms have desks! (The government actually followed through on that promise!) The leadership of IECA tells me that the school is held up as an example all over the province, and throughout all of IECA. The denomination operates 70 or so schools, but this is among the best, in physical quality and in operation. They always offer me profound thanks, but I always tell them that the school would never have been built without hundreds of people here who gave to support the project, nor without the wonderful dedication and talent of the people in Waku Kungo.

Muriel gives special thanks to David Workman and Deerfield Academy (Deerfield, MA). Muriel received a David Workman Community Service Grant to help make this project possible. And we both thank Second Congregational United Church of Christ (Rockford, IL) and the Illinois Conference - Angola Partnership Team, who each funded the purchase of the educational materials we used for our teaching.

Soon I will write a little more about our personal experience of living in Waku Kungo for four weeks. It really does make one “think” – in the sense of soul searching, of course. And I will also write about how you might be able to benefit the school in the future! Here's a hint...behold the foundation of two more classrooms!

Anyone have an extra $25,000 to do something great for kids who want a chance in life??

As always, many thanks for all of you who helped make this school a reality!

Peace,
Mike

Here We Go!

2011-06-14T21:43:00.001-05:00

Muriel and I leave for Waku Kungo tomorrow! We will be teaching English to 40 young people (ages 12-16), and now they have added a third class of pastors from IECA and government officials from around Waku Kungo. Three classes, two hours a day, for 3 1/2 weeks. This will be challenging! Speaking English really is a valuable skill, especially as people get internet and email access (still very rare in Angola, especially in rural areas like Waku Kungo), so we are very happy to be able to contribute to the Waku Kungo school this way.

I think we are all set - lots of books, lots of plans, lots of ideas, and Muriel has even learned a little Portuguese. Here's hoping we don't get sick! But this time, I am going with Cipro in hand, so I am much better prepared, and will be much more cautious about eating local food.

I will not have internet access while there, so no updates (as if I am a real regular!) during the month, but I will write a post trip report, hopefully by the end of July.

Keep us in your prayers!

Peace,
Mike

Another Trip?

2011-03-26T16:47:00.003-05:00

I don't seem to be able to stay away! For the past couple of months I have been working on plans to return to Waku Kungo, Angola. If we are able to get visas (by no means a sure thing), my daughter, Muriel (age 17), and I will travel to Waku Kungo to lead a four week intensive English course.

This will be a very different trip than I have had in the past. My previous two trips were official "delegation" visits from the Illinois Conference to I.E.C.A. This time I have the support and blessing of the Angola Partnership Team of the Illinois Conference, but it is more properly called a "project" visit than a delegation visit. I hope that by going on this type of trip, especially for a full month, I can develop the kind of experience and relationships that will allow others from the Illinois Conference to visit for specific projects in the future. While going to Angola is probably an "extreme mission trip," the need for various skilled services is great, especially in education and health care, and it would wonderful to further the possibility of such trips in the future.

This will also be a different type of trip because we plan on staying for four weeks, and will be staying in one place. I hope we are able to get to know people better than I have in the past. Our lack of ability in Portuguese will be a limitation, but we will both work on learning a little before we go, and some of the students there speak a little English, so we will manage.

Living in Waku Kungo for a month will present certain challenges, that's for sure. Staying healthy will be a top priority. Yes, we will have to have bottled water the whole time, and take lots of peanut butter with us! There is minimal health care available in Waku Kungo, but we will have a car with us the whole time, and should anything serious arise, we will be about five hours away from Luanda and quality health care.

As for the intensive English class, we have had discussions with the Director of Education for I.E.C.A., Felisberta Cassinda, and Julio Ulundo, the Pastor in Waku Kungo. They have spoken with the head of the school. The current plan is for us to teach two groups of 20 children (40 total), ages 12-16, with a couple of adults thrown in. We will work with each group for 2-3 hours a day. We will focus on spoken English skills. Of course, it would be better if we could speak Portuguese, but we can accomplish a lot by combining visuals and spoken English (in the style of Rosetta Stone). We will have to take a lot of materials with us, and go on "field trips" around town to learn vocabulary. Education in Angola is quite traditional (i.e. teacher at front of room imparting information, not much creativity), so it will be interesting to see how it goes. We plan on doing some sort of "before and after" assessment, in case a similar course is possible in the future.

Well, more as it develops. And here's hoping we get visas!

Peace

The Adventure Continues

2011-03-03T15:10:00.014-06:00

October 31, 2010, was an amazing day. I was able to be in Waku Kungo, Angola, for the dedication of the "Escola Evangelica Reverendo Mike Solberg" (i.e. "The Reverend Mike Solberg Evangelical School"). And here it is!

Beautiful, yes?

It was truly wonderful to see this part of my dream become a reality. The people in Waku Kungo were so proud of their school, as well they should be. They easily put as much work into the whole project as I did. As I have said, many of them face English Channel size challenges every day of their lives, and yet they still (or, perhaps, because of that) are committed to building a better future.

As of today, March 23, 2011, about 550 students are enrolled in the school, which means that around 400 students are getting an education that would otherwise not be available to them. There are also adult literacy and skills development classes in the evening. The school covers the first few years of education, but often boys and girls don't start school until age eight or nine, so they there are plenty of sixth graders who are fifteen. Over time, this school building should help lower the age at which many kids are able to start school in Waku Kungo.

This school has a special concern for kids with physical disabilities. Sometimes they are not sent to school by their families, because the investment of time and effort (and small amounts of money) does not pay off, as people with disabilities are not likely to get jobs. But this school works to accommodate them, and was even built entirely wheel chair accessible, even though wheel chairs are an uncommon "luxury" in more rural Angola.

One of the important elements of the school's success so far has been good cooperation with the municipal authorities (pictured above, with the obligatory photo of 30 year "President" Dos Santos). With the limited resources of the people, even the local church in Waku Kungo, it is important for the school to have the support of the local administrators. They can provide desks and blackboards and other types of basic teaching necessities. And they can guarantee the consistent placement of teachers in the school. Without the support of the local authorities, the school would certainly face more challenges. Thankfully, and because of great work by the church leaders in Waku Kungo, the municipal authorities feel some "ownership" of the school, and are very proud that it is in their town. The Deputy Mayor was an important presence at the dedication ceremony.

(click to enlarge)
I am not an expert to be sure, but Waku Kungo seems like a promising place. It is located on the main road between Angola's two largest towns, Luanda (about six million) and Huambo (about 250,000?), and is in a very fertile agricultural area. There is an agriculture school there, and an extensive Israeli training farm. It is also a beautiful area, with hills and even some remaining forest, although the forest was much more extensive before the civil war. Development people say that agriculture is going to be a very important part of Angola's future, offering the economic stability that oil and diamonds do not provide. Angola should be a "bread basket" of Africa, because it does not suffer from the cyclical drought patterns typical of northern and eastern Africa. The rains are reliable from October - March/April. They need a great deal of investment in agriculture though, as most farming is still done in individual family plots, by hand and hoe. They need to find a way to increase productivity, while not dislocating these subsistence farmers.

The I.E.C.A. (Evangelical Congregational Church of Angola) congregation in Waku Kungo is a wonderful bunch of people. They gather in their hundreds every Sunday morning for joyful worship and fellowship. The Sunday I was there, there were about 1000 in worship. Their music is inspiring (especially when they back off from the Western electronic instruments they are so taken with!). If you didn't click on the video above, please do: I think you will enjoy it. And note, this was during the offering! They give with joy!

Most people in Waku Kungo struggle financially. In the "barrio" (it is hard to know what word to use for the poor part of town - in English in Luanda they say "the slum," - but in Waku Kungo it is really just what the town is, so no special name for it, it seems) - in the "barrio" there is no running water and no electricity (except by private generators), and few people have jobs, other than what I call "subsistence retail" (they buy a few things more or less wholesale, and try to sell them on the street). What health care there is, is of low quality. The Angolan Civil War (1975-2002) raged fiercely in this area, and the physical and social destruction was extensive.

And still, the people are hopeful about the future, they value education, they have a strong sense of community, and they are willing to work hard and take small steps to make life better for themselves and others. They are truly inspiring in so many ways!

So, thus goes my reflection on my trip to Angola to open the "Escola Evangelica Reverendo Mike Solberg." If you read this far, you probably had a hand in making this possible, so thank you!

By the way, the school could still use two more classrooms, like the one above! If you want to contribute again, or for the first time, just go to www.SwimMikeSwim.com and hit the "donate now" button. Thanks!

God bless you!

Peace,
Mike

WREX TV story

2010-11-12T09:10:00.003-06:00

WREX teevee did this nice story this week. Before I left they gave me a little video camera to take video, and they used some of it in the story. I still need to get to a full trip report, I know!

WREX News story, click here.

Pictures from School Dedication

2010-11-10T15:28:00.005-06:00

Hello! I don't have the time yet to write a real report, but here are some pictures from my visit to Waku Kungo for the dedication of the school. I'll have a report up by the middle of November. Thanks for helping to make this possible!

$70,000!

2010-09-02T11:55:00.003-05:00

Wahoo! On Sunday, August 29, 2010, we surpassed the goal of $70,000 to fund the building of the school in Waku Kungo, Angola! Thanks be to God, and to hundreds of people who have contributed and made this possible!

I suppose this means that I'll have to write some nice, reflective piece to wrap up this blog. (Sentimental sigh.) But that will have to wait for another day.

Swimming the English Channel was a wonderful experience, but being a vehicle or catalyst to enable so many people to contribute to this important school building project truly brings me great joy.

Thank you to everyone. You have truly made a difference in the lives of hundreds of students who will be able to face the challenges of their lives, through education!

Okay, One Last Push!

2010-08-04T14:37:00.006-05:00

The beginning of August finds me just $7105 away from the $70,000 goal. Actually, the money is not the goal. Helping the people of Waku Kungo is the goal! Specifically, helping the church finish off the construction of the school, so they can educate 500 more students who would otherwise receive little or no education.

I haven't done too much of this, but because of a recent email I received from Luis Samacumbi (the overseer of the project in Waku Kungo), I am going to tug at the heartstrings a bit. Take a look at this:

This is a young girl, named Gizela, in Waku Kungo who lives without the use of her legs. Such childhood disabilities are common in Angola, for a number of reasons. Sadly, many such children face very difficult lives, because Angolan society, and even their families, believe they have little potential.

This sad reality is connected to the school building project in Waku Kungo, because one of the special goals of this school will be to help students who have fallen behind in their education. The church in Waku Kungo is committed to this. Students fall behind for many reasons completely unrelated to their academic abilities, with poverty, illness, distance, and discrimination against girls being the four most common reasons.

For example, Gizela, pictured above, is twelve years old, but only in third grade. Because of the extra challenges she faces, she is already 2-3 years behind in her education, and if left to the regular schools, will likely fall further and further behind. She is exactly the kind of student the school in Waku Kungo will have a particular mission to serve.

Can you make a contribution today to help kids like Gizela get the education they deserve? The church in Waku Kungo recently gave her a wheelchair. Can you help her, and 499 others, also get they education they need to thrive in life?

We have $7105 to go. The Mission Board of my congregation (Second Congregational Church, Rockford, IL) has decided to match all the remaining gifts to get us to our goal of $70,000. So every dollar you give is worth two!

You can give online by clicking here. Or you can write a check to "Second Congregational Church," with "Angola School" in the memo line, and send it to Second Congregational Church, 318 N. Church St., Rockford, IL 61101.

I will be visiting Waku Kungo in October, and it sure would be great to get the full $70,000 to them before the end of August, so they can have the pride of finishing the school before I arrive.

Peace,

Mike

Progess Continues!

2010-07-12T10:28:00.011-05:00

The progress continues in Waku Kungo, with good news all around.

First, pictures! As you can see, they are making excellent progress on the building. I thought they had the roof up already, but that is actually the next big piece they will take up. These pictures are interesting because they show a little insider's view of their construction methods. Because rocks are a local material and cheaper than cement, they fill in everything they can with rocks before using cement. The bricks for the walls look pretty "rough," but as you can see, when finished, both floors and walls look great.

Second, the donation total is now up to $61,457, which means we were able last week to send another $10,000 on to Waku Kungo. They have had a brief stoppage of work due to lack of funds, but that $10,000 will get them working again very soon. Just about $8500 to go.

Third, I have been invited to be part of a three person delegation to go to Angola in October. While there, we will have a dedication service for the new school, and visit several other areas as guests of I.E.C.A. I am looking forward to the trip with great anticipation! It will be so wonderful to see Waku Kungo and the school building, and meet the people who have made this all possible, as well as meet some of the students who will be using the school.

I have a received a detailed accounting of how the money has been spent. The project team in Waku Kungo, and Luis Samacumbi, the national project leader, have all been wonderfully transparent in their dealings. I am not sure whether our $70,000 (i.e. $10,000 more) will complete the project, so I will have to ask what they think about that. I sure hope so!

I must confess that I do not have a great plan of how to come up with the remaining $8500. I am sure we can get there eventually, but to be fair to the folks in Waku Kungo, it really should be sooner, rather than later. I'll be pondering these things!

Grace and peace!

CSA Music-a-thon Rocks!

2010-04-13T11:57:00.003-05:00

Many, many thanks to the Community School of the Arts at Wheaton College for a wonderful contribution! Back in February the CSA had its annual Music-a-thon, and this year the proceeds were designated for the SwimMikeSwim / Angola School project. My son, Henry, was part of the CSA for many years and I have three nieces and nephews who have participated there as well. It was so kind of them to devote this year's money to the Angola school.

The Music-a-thon is a day for CSA students to play for an extended time, raising donations for their work. It is a way for them to use their considerable musical gifts to be a blessing to others. And a blessing they were!

I just received word that the total contribution from the CSA Music-a-thon is $5,568!

That brings the total so far to $59,056. So, now just under $11,000 to go to reach the goal of $70,000 to enable around 640 students to get the education they need to build their lives, their community, and their country.

Wahoo!

Update # 2 from Waku Kungo - Foundations!

2010-02-18T08:52:00.008-06:00

The construction is progressing! As of the middle of January (when the pictures below were taken), they had poured the foundation, and by now have probably put up the main support beams. It is wonderful to see the progress!

The fundraising has been going rather slowly lately, with the total now at $52,863 - but I am confident we will get there eventually. I hope we can get the remaining $17,000 in the next four months, which should allow for no interruption in construction. Ideas of how to bring in another $17,000! Contributions???

Here are the most recent pictures:

And here is the narrative of the second update from Luis Samacumbi, including careful financial detail.

School Waku Kungo
Update # 2

14/02/2010

By: Luis Samacumbi

"... Our God will fight for us "(Nehemiah 4: 20b)

Introduction:

Before the end of 2009, after visiting the Waku Kungo I had written the update # 1 on the degree of execution of work and implementation of this project school. At that time in addition to existing stakeholders in the project in Angola and the United States also sent the first pictures taken with my own digital camera. This time, I could not move to the project site, yet I have good news for all of you. Brother Luciano, one of those responsible for implementation of the project came to Luanda at the end of January. At this point we exchanged ideas about the work and also put in perspective what the future hold for the kids once the school is completed. The commitment and interest of government officials in the municipality was the highlight of our conversation.

The school year in Angola officially began in the past day February 1, 2010. In Waku Kungo you can also see in the streets of the city children dressed in white, carrying their chairs to sit. It is in this particular area that the IECA with the support of its partners would contribute. Our desire is to see children studying in a school with better conditions of learning and education where no child will no longer bring chair from her/his own home. The work well started in Waku Kungo supported by Rev. Mike Solberg, the Tuthill Commission, the Illinois Conference - Chicago and the Angola Partnership Group, is actually the indicator that we are moving in the right direction towards this more just Angola, based on ethical moral and Biblical principles.

What is new?

It is with great joy and enthusiasm that I share the following progress:

• The Municipal Administration of Waku Kungo is very pleased with the initiative of IECA to build a six rooms school;

• Rev. Joaquim Alberto Mukupe, IECA’s pastor in Waku Kungo was recently elected to the highest position in the Provincial synod of Kwanza Sul as Provincial Secretary, in the last Assembly held in Uku Seles on the weekend February 6-7 2010. This means that Pastor Mukupe will move to Sumbe – capital city of the Province in a near future. Let me ensure that this change will not affect in any way the implementation of the project as Rev. Mukupe will be the Provincial Secretary and will oversee all activities and projects including the work begun in Waku Kungo. Moreover, DASEP National is closely following the this Waku Kungo project actions;

• The foundations are all finished at this time, as seen in the attached photographs;

• 33 pillars completed. Only 13 are about to be finished. Once completed this step will begin raising the walls of the school;

• Main materials including: iron 12mm for pillars, thousand bricks, stones and sand, are already on the construction site;

• The builders have already received 25% of the amount agreed up on the contract for their payment;

• The first financial report was submitted to DASEP National. This is a good indicator of transparency and rigor in the management of funds. After analyzed the consistency of this report, DASEP National will make recommendations where needed and ask another funds request from the team in Waku Kungo;

• DASEP National received via Bank an additional $ 30,500.00 for this Waku Kungo School project. It is important to emphasize that $ 10,000.00 out of $30.500, 00 came from Tuthill Commission;

Please check the first financial report further down:
[This doesn't align very well on this blog - for each item, the first number is the amount in Kwanza (Angolan currency) and the second number is the amount in USD.]

Nr Description Kwanza USD
01 Cleaning of the Construction site 22.500,00 252.00
02 Loads (10) of Sand 234.000,00 2.629,00
03 Loads(15) of stones 233.000,00 2.617,00
04 Communications – Cell phone airtimes 9000.00 101.00
05 Office files - administration 2730.00 31.00
06 Photos 2000.00 22.00
07 Cement (100 ) bags of 50 kg 160.000,00 1.798,00
08 Iron/cast iron of 12mm for pillars 90.000,00 1.011,00
09 Fuel (25 liters) for motorbike 1000.00 11.00
10 water well digging 6000.00 67.00
11 Barrow (2) 7000.00 78.00
12 Car rental for Brick transportation 23.500,00 264.00
13 Barbed burned and barbed wire 20kg and 2 rolls 15.000,00 168.00
14 Steps /support 800 26.000,00 292.00
15 Brick (1.000) 82.280,00 924.00
16 Eventual work - School area fence (sticks & wire)9000.00 101.00
17 Plank, board for Construction (15) 23.500,00 264.00
18 Motorcycle and wheelbarrow Repair 4500.00 50.00
19 25% Builders Payment 00 3.850,00
20 6 loads of squeezed stones 30.000,00 337.00
Total 981,010.00 14.857,00

Summary:

Income: $ 19,774.00
Expenditure: $ 14.857,00
Balance: $4.917, 00 (in the bank: $ 4.774.00 and in cash: Kz 15.175, 00)

Word of thanks:

On behalf of all of us in IECA, please allow me thank you sincerely for turning the dream of many children in Waku Kungo into reality. Keep it up, do not be weary.

Thankfully Yours,

Luís Samacumbi

School in Waku Kungo - Update #1 by Luis Samacumbi

2009-12-28T11:24:00.011-06:00

"So raise up your tired hands! Strengthen your weak knees! (Hebrews 12: 12)

The plan!

It was 3:30 AM on December 16, 2009 when I woke up at Hotel Nino where I overnight after the hard work in Bunjei Mission Station- Huila Province. No water in the tap for the needed shower! Then I took the small bottle of mineral water left the day before just to wash the mouth at least. Everything was quiet, all sleeping including the guards at the Hotel who did not notice my departure. It was raining strongly; a hat protected my head from heavy drops of rain.

I went to my car a Toyota Land cruiser, green plate LBA 44-55, the companion of long trips and moments of solitude on the roads of Angola. The American music animated the fighter for peace and social justice leaving for the city of Waku Kungo in the fulfillment of another noble mission.

Yes, the future of Angola depends on good education that frees the minds of children and youth from the recent past, which was not the good one forced to live for more than three decades. In fact education is peace, peace is democracy, and democracy is social and economic justice.

Children in Waku Kungo have been waiting for the school without getting tired since September 2003 when a team led by Luis Samacumbi did the baseline survey that indicated education as a top priority in that particular area.

What is new?

In my recent monitoring visit on the ground December 16, 2009, I was able to see the progress in the implementation of the project. So, I am pleased to report to all of you the following occurred developments:

• The building of the school started with the opening of the specific Bank Account in Waku Kungo to ensure transparent use of funds;

• Three people are subscribers of that account, their signatures are compulsory for any bank account transaction;

• A team of four persons was created and trained in financial management by the Director General of DASEP [Department of Social Programs] to ensure transparency and expenditures control;

• Three builders were hired to build the school. They will have the support of volunteer members of the community;

• Construction materials including: stone, sand, bricks, cement, etc. were purchased;

• The plan of the school with six classrooms is in place and approved by the Waku Kungo Municipal Section of Education, which will pay the teachers when school starts;

• The foundations are already being dug and lifted.

The photos attached show some of the advances mentioned above:

Photo #1 - U shaped School Plan with 8 classrooms and offices, but we are going to build only 6 classrooms with the amount of money that will be available;

Photos # 2, 3 – Tractor and men transporting stones for the foundations;

Photos # 4, 5 – Workers unloading the stones;

Photo # 6, 7, 8 – Kids already smiling for the school construction starting;

Photo #9 – Stones unloaded ready to be used;

Photo # 10 – Luís Samacumbi providing financial instructions for good records and transparency;

Photo # 11 – Team of builders.

Challenges:

There is no internet available in Waku Kungo and the Project team doesn’t know how to operate if there were access;

Digital photos will available only when Luis Samacumbi or other DASEP Central colleague pass by;

The digital camera purchased by Rev. Mike is being used and photos are being printed. So, DASEP in Luanda will then scan.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Your BIC(Brother in Christ)
Luís Samacumbi

Following the Money

2009-12-13T20:47:00.006-06:00

A few people have asked me recently about the finances for the school building in Angola. Specifically, I think people need to know more about how the money is being accounted for, and what controls there are to make sure the money goes to the right place. The increase in need, from $50,000 to $70,000, has probably (and understandably) raised a few eye brows. So here is a fairly full description of the situation with regard to the financing of the school in Waku Kungo.

First, while my swim of the English Channel was the event that created this school building project, this is by no means something I have put together on my own. Soon after I proposed the project, the Waku Kungo school became an official project of the Global Ministries division of the United Church of Christ, the denomination of my church. Here is a link to official information on the UCC website about the denominational side of the project. Global Ministries and the United Church of Christ has had a 50 year partnership with the Evangelical Congregational Church of Angola (I.E.C.A. - pronounced "YAY-kah"), and through the various collections of Congregational churches through the years, the relationship with the Congregationalists in Angola goes back over 120 years. Global Ministries has been directly involved in hundreds of projects with I.E.C.A through the years. Global Ministries has significant financial controls in place, because it is absolutely critical for both our side (Global Ministries) and their side (I.E.C.A.) that donor wishes are strictly followed and that money given is used only as intended.

Second, I visited Angola in 2005 and personally met many people who are now involved in the school building project. The primary point person in Angola is Luis Samacumbi, the Director of D.A.S.E.P. (which somehow stands for the Department of Social Mission and Education and Special Projects of I.E.C.A.). He has been the Director of D.A.S.E.P. for many years, and has an impeccable record of responsible financial stewardship. He is responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars given to support social mission projects for I.E.C.A. and has strong internal financial controls. I have also personally met with the leader of the one million member I.E.C.A. denomination, Rev. Augusto Chipesse. Rev. Chipesse was recently re-elected to a five year term as the leader of the denomination, and again, has an impeccable record of responsible stewardship of donated funds. Luis Samacumbi was here in the U.S. this past summer and we hosted him part of that time in Rockford. We thoroughly discussed the school project, his plans for use of the money, and those plans have been confirmed through Global Ministries.

Third, while corruption and financial mismanagement are sadly common in many places in the world, including Angola, I.E.C.A. has proved again and again that it is a reliable partner in social mission projects. I have personally been involved in two previous social mission projects through I.E.C.A. involving thousands of dollars (distribution of Bibles, and purchase of motorcycles for transportation for pastors) and have personally seen and confirmed the follow-through on those projects.

Finally, it is probably worth mentioning that Luis Samacumbi first informed me about the change in government policy (the change from four classrooms to six classrooms) back in June, when I had raised less than $5000. He was not able to give me an adjusted cost estimate at that time. Because I had widely publicized the $50,000 figure, and because even $50,000 was a far away dream at that time, it didn't make much sense to publicly raise the number. But as we approached the $50,000 figure, and the full needed amount of $70,000 looked possible (with some more determination and patience), it made sense to make the new goal public. The increase to $70,000 was not a late attempt to simply get more money, but absolutely needed to complete the project. Our Angolan partners, in fact, never asked me to increase the amount, but knowing of the need, I decided to continue to try to fully fund the school.

Thus, I have strong historical, organizational, and personal assurance that the money is being used 100% for the intended purpose of building a school in Waku Kungo. This is one of the advantages of working within the parameters of a long-standing partnership between two church organizations that are committed to embodying the good news of God's love, through promotion of education, and in a thousand other ways.

This is not the most fascinating post, I know, but hopefully you appreciate this little look "behind the curtain" of the school building project. This sort of reminds me of what legendary baseball manager Tony LaRussa said one time when he was trying to describe the apparently simple task of stealing a base. After beginning to explain the managerial thinking involved in base stealing, and apparently feeling like he had only scratched the surface, he leaned back and summarized: "There's a lot of stuff goes on." Well, I try to keep the details out of the public eye, since they are rather boring really, but when it comes to swimming the English Channel and building a school in Angola, "There's a lot of stuff goes on."

A Happy Day - $51,385

2009-12-09T15:22:00.005-06:00

Yesterday was a great day. In the mail I received an anonymous gift for $2000 from a woman who had read about my swim in a national weekly newspaper (a.k.a. tabloid), the National Examiner. I don't know who she is, but it sure was wonderful! That brings the total to $51,385. And thus we have passed the original goal of $50,000. I'm doing a little happy dance.

Wow. $50,000. Where I come from, that's a lot of money. The most amazing thing is almost all of it has come from small donations. The average donation was $145.82. The median was fifty bucks! (Those numbers don't include the very important $10,000 gift from the Tuthill Fund.)

If you read my previous post, however, you know that I, and we!, are not done yet. Because of changes in government policy, our Angolan church partners need to build a bigger school than originally planned. The new six classroom school will cost $70,000. So that is the new (and final, I promise!) goal.

I am very open to new ideas of how to bring more people in on the fun of helping to build a school in Waku Kungo, Angola - a school that will serve 630 people who otherwise would have little or no access to education. With an average donation of $145.82, we need 134 people to discover the joy of giving to such a wonderful project. Can you recruit one or two or ten of them? With our help, about 630 kids like this...

...can face the challenges of their lives, through education.

You Can't Fight City Hall...

2009-11-18T22:30:00.004-06:00

...especially when that "City Hall" is in Luanda, Angola.

So, for a very long time now I have been trying to raise $50,000 to build a school in Waku Kungo, Angola. If you are reading this, you probably already know that. As of today, we are at $49,250. Thanks be to God, and to the hundreds of people who have made donations to the school building project because of my English Channel swim.

I arrived at that goal of $50,000 based on the cost estimates of our church partners in Angola. They arrived at that cost estimate by figuring out how much it would cost to build a FOUR room school building. It was a FOUR room school building because that was the minimum size required by the government for the government to be willing to provide a permanent teacher for the school.

However - and I have feared this for a while, after hearing from the Angolans, but have waited to tell others until things were more clear - the government has changed the rules, and now a school must have SIX classrooms for the government to be willing to provide a teacher. Apparently, the rule change cannot be "got around." They have to build a SIX room school. Ugh.

The good part of this is that the school will be able to serve 50% more students (the need is still far greater). The bad part, of course, is that it will cost more. I am working on getting a new cost estimate for the school building.

I want to be clear that I have great trust and confidence in our Angolan partners. They are talented, conscientious people. This is not a situation of "bait and switch." They are frustrated by the rule change, just as I am.

Situations like this seem almost ridiculous to most of us in the U.S. We are used to cost overruns on projects like this, of course, but we really aren't used to people "changing the rules in the middle of the game." But Angola is truly a "developing" country. That doesn't just mean that it is developing economically, it also means it is developing in its social and governmental structures. Seven years after the civil war ended, things are still shaking out. Working in the midst of some uncertainty is part of what it means to try to give Angolans the tools they need to rebuild their country.

I will, of course, post additional information on costs as it becomes available. I'll also write again before long about what the plan is for the fundraising, whether and how I'll keep it going.

In any case, we will very soon be celebrating hitting the $50,000 goal!

Peace everyone!

Mike

Looks like fun, no?

2009-11-03T18:53:00.002-06:00

Here's me, a very few minutes after the swim. Obviously, I was filled with joy!

Closer, closer

2009-11-02T09:35:00.004-06:00

Fundraising progress. $45,050. This is wonderful! $50,000, here we come.

Angola Visit Update

2009-10-20T19:50:00.003-05:00

As previously announced, I was unable to make my planned trip to Angola to have a ground-breaking ceremony for the school in Waku Kungo. When I first scheduled my trip to Angola many months ago, the calendar looked clear for them. But in time, some unavoidable scheduling conflicts arose. The Angolans tried to work around the conflicts, but in the end, and very understandably, the key people needed to make my visit a success just weren't available. Not speaking Portuguese, no less Kimbundu, Umbundu, or Kicongo, Angola is not a place I could go and "wing it." So, no trip.

Our partners in Angola are still very interested in having me come to visit Waku Kungu when construction gets underway, or soon thereafter. We don't know the timing yet of the beginning of construction, but it should be fairly soon after we are able to send them the full $50,000. As I have mentioned before, they wisely want to wait until all the money is in hand before they begin construction, as this will significantly reduce construction costs.

As of today, the fund raising total is $43,237 (wahoo!), including the $10,000 from the Tuthill Fund of the Illinois Conference. A few weeks ago, we sent the first $20,000 to Waku Kungo, and today we sent another $10,000. The Tuthill money should be sent after final approval is given around the middle of November. So, by the end of November, we will have sent $40,000. If we can bring in the final $6,763 in the next few weeks, we should be able to have the full $50,000 for them by Christmas!

A great deal needs to be worked out, including finances and finding the best time for the Angolans and for my schedule next year, but hopefully sometime in the first half of 2010 I'll be able to go and celebrate with the folks of Waku Kungo at some point in the construction process.

So, although the swimming part of my adventure is over, the task is not yet fully complete - and I'll keep working on it, one "stroke" at a time, until that school becomes a reality, serving hundreds of children and helping them face the challenges of their lives, through education!

Thanks for your support!

P.S. If by some strange occurrence you have not yet donated to the school project in Angola, by all means, I encourage you to do so! Just click here, and contribute to "Mike's English Channel Swim" - 100% of donations go to build the school (not pay for my swim!). You can also write a check to "SwimMikeSwim," and send it to Second Congregational Church, 318 N. Church St., Rockford, IL, 61101.

Getting Closer!

2009-10-06T11:03:00.002-05:00

The fund raising total is now up to $40,867!

I am so thrilled that we have come this far. I have been reading a fascinating book by economist Jeffrey Sachs called "The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time." The basic argument is that it is entirely possible to end life-threatening poverty everywhere on this planet by 2025. At one point he says that those who care about ending poverty, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (which, sadly, is the only place where poverty has actually become worse over the last few decades, largely because of AIDS), should focus on the "Big Five" development interventions (obviously piggy backing on the "Big Five" animals of Africa): Agricultural inputs; Investments in basic health; Investments in Education; Power, transport, and communications services; Safe drinking water and sanitation. Education is one of the keys to ending poverty - there is no doubt about it. Our church partners in Angola chose wisely when they said that they would like our "SwimMikeSwim" funds to go to a school building!

Now shooting for $50,000!

Best Laid Plans...

2009-09-29T18:01:00.001-05:00

The ability to recover from set backs is a key component in accomplishing a goal like swimming the English Channel. It’s useful in other parts of life, too, of course - like when you are working to help build a school in Angola. And now we have a big set back from which to recover. I will not be going to Angola tomorrow to get the building project underway as planned. On Sunday, just after arriving in South Africa (where I am briefly visiting my niece, who is in law school here this semester), I received an email from our partners in Angola telling me that they are unable to receive me at this time. The reasons are complicated, but the long and short of it is that we will have to reschedule my visit to Waku Kungo.

This has no impact on the progress of the school building. The first $20,000 is on the way there (working its way through church administration and finance systems), and the local leaders in Waku Kungo are eager to get started. Perhaps instead of being there for a ceremonial ground breaking, I can be there for a ceremonial ribbon cutting!

The total of donations so far is up to just about $39,000, so now we just have that last $10,000 or so to go. I’ll be home in a week or so, and will be in a little better position to pursue some of the fundraising to make that last $10,000 a reality.

The response to my swim has been amazing, by the way. A brief account of it was picked up by the Associated Press and the United Press International, and the story has appeared in hundreds of outlets online, and in at least a few print editions. I even got word that the story was mentioned in a paper in Iraq (I presume one for U.S. personnel there). It was on the USA Today website (under “odd news”!), the online version of “Guideposts,” and on a website I look at once in a while called “Happy News.” Glad to spread so much cheer. It looks like I am going to make the “tabloids” too – sorry if that term is offensive to the folks involved! The National Examiner is going to print the story in an upcoming edition. Now if someone could just get me on Oprah!

I confess that I have begun to think about what my next adventure will be. I am not even close to deciding, but I know it will not involve cold water – unless I’m drinking it!

The Longer Version

2009-09-22T07:01:00.015-05:00

I guess I'll leave the last post the way it is, and just write anew. Okay, the longer version...the very longer version...no really, it's long!

First, thank you very much to everyone who has taken an interest in my swim and the school building project. In the last few days I have received hundreds of messages from people, and have loved getting each one. Thinking of the interest and support of so many was definitely one of the things that kept me going through the tough hours of my swim. It sort of turned Channel swimming into a "team sport" rather than an individual one, with all the motivational benefits that come with that - like not wanting to let your teammates down! So thank you very much.

Second, before it gets lost at the bottom of this very long entry, if you haven't donated to the school building project yet (although I know most of you have!), have at it! I took on this challenge of my life, so the kids of Waku Kungo can take on the challenges of their lives, through education. Just go to www.SwimMikeSwim.com, and click on "donate" (directions there for donating on-line and through the mail). Off with you now...brilliant!

Okay, the swim. The wait for good weather was long, but I guess I am pretty good at sitting around doing nothing, because I was fine with it. It was nice that there were not really any "close calls" on whether to swim or not - it was clearly too rough until the Saturday window opened up. And Saturday turned out to be a great day for a Channel swim. The sea turned out to be "smooth," or "slight" at the worst (those are actually official levels of sea conditions on the Beaufort Scale). That makes everything much more manageable than it is in rougher water, from rhythm and focus, to feeding, to the steady position of the boat, and more.

I was a little concerned about starting in the daytime and finishing at night. I knew I would get colder at night (more about that later), and I had done some night training but not a whole lot, so it was a concern. But your start time is dictated by the tides and the weather, not the clock, and when the pilot says "go" you "go," especially when you have been waiting for ten days. As with many other things, it was important to remind myself that just over 1000 people had done this before, the vast majority swimming at least some at night, so it was doable. Then I just put it into the mental box of "something I'll deal with when it happens," and didn't worry about it. I'm a big fan of worrying only about actual problems, not possible problems (at least when it comes to athletic endeavors)..."sufficient unto the day are the troubles thereof," somebody once said.

On Friday evening (the 17th) about 7:00 p.m. I called Eddie Spelling, the pilot, for word on my start time (Friday night at 11:00 p.m. was possible at that point), and he said "Not tonight, but tomorrow at 11:00 a.m., or more likely, 11:00 p.m." So as I went to bed on Friday, I knew Saturday was almost surely the day - and I slept just fine anyway! I couldn't believe it. I never slept well before my Ironman triathlons, my 50 mile run, nor even my ("little" - ha!) marathons. But I was glad of it. Saturday morning I called Eddie about 8:30, and he said "It looks good down here on the water, so I'll see you at the dock at 10:30." So the final "yes," ended up being only two hours before leaving the dock. I was ready, so I just had to take care of a few details, and get the word out that it was time to go. Then Henry and I walked down to the dock (about a mile), with him nicely carrying most of the load.

In the parking lot, we met Duncan Philips, who was the second crew member along with Henry. We had emailed and talked on the phone a few times, but this was the first time I met Duncan. He was fabulous the whole time! He is a serious athlete whose next big goal is to do an event called the Enduroman "Arch 2 Arc" triathlon. (In case you skipped over that link, listen to this - that's running 84 miles from London to Dover, swimming 21 1/2 miles across the English Channel, and biking 184 miles from Calais to Paris - one right after the other - and you think I'm crazy!). He put a note on a Channel swimmers' message board volunteering to help with a swim, to see first hand what was involved in swimming the Channel. I took him up on it, and it turned out great. Duncan was responsible for my feedings (i.e. giving me my energy drink), during the whole swim.

We walked onto the boat at 10:34 and within one minute shoved off. It was about a half hour trip to the jump point at Samphire Hoe, and I pretty much used the whole time to get ready, applying sun-screen, a little Bag Balm for chaffing (great stuff for this purpose! - most Channel swimmers don't use old fashioned Channel grease all over anymore - it doesn't help keep you warm and makes a horrible mess!), and otherwise doing the last minute fiddling around that counts as "dotting your i's and crossing your t's."

The boat got us as close as possible to the beach (which was pretty close given it was high tide), and it was time to jump, so I thanked the crew (both boat crew, see picture previous post, and swim crew, Henry and Duncan), received their good wishes, and jumped. I swam to shore, cleared the water - on the painful rocks (see video in previous post), and was ready to go.

So what was I thinking standing there ready to begin this adventure? Well, I reminded myself that this swim was "just" the next part of a long journey. I had done a lot to get this point and this was simply the next step in the whole process. It wasn't some great, "impossible" thing, just the next step. I had done good training (although you always wish you had done more!), and I was as well prepared as I could be. I had arrived at the "starting line" healthy and feeling good, so now all I had to do was take the next step. I wasn't nervous - I was too focused for that. I guess the way I thought about it was that I had a lot of preparation built up inside me, and all I had to do was let it out slowly over the next 13 hours or so. Then I said to myself, "Okay, I can do this." And off I went.

To my great relief the water did not feel cold. The way you react to the water temperature varies a little bit day to day, depending on who knows what? Amount of sleep, what you ate, the wind, the Tokyo stock market? I've never figured that one out. But on Saturday as I began the water felt fine. Now mind you, not once in all my training or my actual crossing did I like the cold water. I am always vaguely aware that it is there, and don't really like it. For me, the cold water is like an ice monster locked in a closet (like in a kid's bedroom closet in the dark). I can put it "out of sight, out of mind," as it were, but the ice monster never goes away. It is always threatening to come out and get inside me and make me miserable and freeze to death, and I have to mentally make sure that door stays locked (I think a big part of dealing with the cold water is mental). For some people who train in cold water more frequently than I, there is no monster. Sixty-three, even sixty, degree water is no problem for them at all. But, as I said, for me the ice monster never goes away completely. The "funny" thing is that not once in all my training or this Channel swim did I ever get "core cold." I never got to the point of shivering, turning grey/pale, losing focus, or having slurred speech (some of the classic signs of hypothermia). And, thankfully, Saturday was a good day for how the water felt, so it wasn't too terribly difficult to keep the ice monster in the closet.

I came up to the boat and headed toward France, sort of. Those of you who followed the GPS tracker know that you don't swim straight across the English Channel, no one ever has. The accepted best route is to leave shore just before or just after high tide in Dover. Then you are pushed by the ebb tide (moving from high to low) almost directly east for six hours, toward the North Sea. You are not actually swimming toward France, so much as the Netherlands. But while the tide is pushing you east, you are swimming forward, across the tidal current, and you and the boat are always aimed at France. After six hours, when the tide changes (i.e. when the flood tide begins, moving from low to high), you are pushed south, or a little southwest, toward France.

For almost this whole first six hour period I felt good in the water. For about the first two hours (between 3-4 miles) I could see the white cliffs of the Dover area behind me, and that was a good reminder that just because you can see something doesn't mean you are anywhere near it, as far as swimming is concerned. It can take forever to get to something that looks just ahead of you, especially at night. I don't remember much about the first five hours, other than feeling good. I just focused on swimming smoothly. I was glad the feedings were going well and glad I wasn't cold, and that's about all I remember. Except my goggle trouble. I realized about two or three hours in that my goggles were too tight and were hurting my eye sockets. So, I had to stop swimming (something much to be avoided - due to the ice monster), and I had the crew throw me a back-up pair, and asked them to loosen the strap on the first one. But the back-up pair got foggy right away because I neglected to tell the crew to use the absolutely fabulous miracle product known as goggle anti-fog spray before they gave me the back-up pair. I hate it when my goggles fog up, as they always do in cold water - I refuse to swim for two minutes with foggy goggles - and the anti-fog stuff works wonders. So then I had to stop again, to switch back to the first pair, now loosened. I started swimming with the first pair again, but then they were foggy too, so I had to stop for a third time - yikes, the ice monster might get out! - to have the crew spray the first pair. Then as I was sending in the first pair via a water bottle, I didn't stick them in the bottle far enough and they went bye-bye, lost at sea - with my required safety beacon still attached. So, back to the back-up pair. I had the crew send me the anti-fog bottle (via a pole they have on the ship with a big cup at the end) and I sprayed the back-up pair myself. The back-up pair was fog free and very comfortable for the rest of the swim, and I managed not to get cold, even through all that stopping - maybe five minutes total. That goggle problem was the only minor technical glitch in the whole swim, thank goodness.

I don't know why, other than "these things happen," but sometime between hours five and six I started feeling worse. At some point I must have been feeling bad enough to want an honest estimate of how far I had to go, and I asked the boat crew something about the time or distance. Dave (the first mate) said "About half-way there, mate, just keep swimming." I realized that I had gotten a little overly-confident during those first five good hours, thinking I was cruising right along, and would have a sweet, short (i.e. fast) swim. That "about half-way" point was 6 hours 45 minutes into the swim, which put me at a 13:30 crossing. That was a little depressing, given what I had been thinking, but then I told myself that 13 hours was what I had been telling myself and everyone else for a long time, and that was just fine. (Of course, as it turned out, Dave was spot on, as I finished in 13:31).

I continued to feel pretty bad for about three hours. Before the end of that time, I thought about stopping and being done with it. I felt tired and unmotivated and just sick of swimming. It wasn't fun. I remember one time in particular I happened to get a good view of the back of the boat where the ladder was. Oh, that ladder looked good! It was the first step toward a hot shower and sleep.

I guess three things kept me going. First, I just couldn't think of a good enough reason to quit - a reason that I could rest comfortably with. I thought about it, and my arms/shoulders didn't really hurt that much, the sea conditions were not bad, I wasn't cold, I hadn't been stung by a jelly-fish, nothing. There was no good reason to quit. It was just plain old fatigue, and DUH!, you're swimming the English Channel, mate!

Second, there was certainly a bit of good, old fear of shame involved. I didn't want to have raised all that money for the school in Angola, and then not make it. I didn't want to appear like a fool, someone who would set off on a cool sounding challenge, but then not accomplish it for no good reason. I didn't want to have to eat my words for all the times I said to people "Don't worry, I'll make it." And probably lots of other thoughts that had to do with what other people would think of me if I quit. "What other people will think of me if I quit," is not a healthy motivator for endurance events, but it does usually have an effect. Ultimately, though, it's really not that strong of a motivator, and if you are not internally motivated in what you are doing, you're toast.

Third, I kept thinking about something I read in Dean Karnazes great book "Ultramarathon Man." During one unbelievable run he did (I think it was like 150 miles), somebody asked him how he felt, and he said during his long runs "There are good times and there are bad times...this is not one of the good times" (** see note at end **). I just kept telling myself that this was not one of the good times, but that it would pass. And eventually it did.

At sometime during that hard time, Henry told me that he had received about 50 emails wishing me good luck, etc. It was a nice bright spot in that tough time. It was great to know that so many people were following the GPS tracker and the Twitter messages, and gave me that "team sport" feeling I mentioned back at the beginning of this post. Thanks everyone!

Sometime around hour nine I started feeling good again. Around hour eight night had fallen, the air temperature dropped, and I started to feel colder. That was probably the worst moment really. I was scared I was going just going to start getting colder and colder, and I knew I was still at least five hours away. But a little time passed and although I was a bit colder, it was just a bit, and the decline did not continue. There was no downward spiral of cold. I realized I could deal with the cold still, even at night, and maybe the relief of that thought is what led me to feeling better around nine hours. I remember looking at my watch at 8:15 p.m. (almost exactly nine hours in) and that is the turning point in my mind.

This is probably the right time to talk about my feedings. For the first few, good, hours I was feeding every 25-30 minutes, taking 15-20 seconds per feed. I kept track of the time myself, which I like to do because it keeps me focused and in control. "Feeding" basically means swimming near the side of the boat for a drink of Maxim, lowered in a water bottle on a rope. Maxim is an energy drink that is legendary among long distance swimmers. It is nothing but water and maltodextrin, a type of sugar that is absorbed quickly by the stomach (it has better calorie uptake rates than fructose or sucrose, for example). It also has no electrolytes, because when swimming in cold water you are not really sweating much, if at all, and you are swallowing some salt water naturally, which apparently gives you the sodium you need. It is important to feed quickly and feed often. Quickly because of the cold, and because those are just "wasted" seconds in your swim. You might feed forty or fifty times during your swim, and at just thirty seconds a feeding, that could be at least twenty extra minutes in the water - and every extra minute is a minute that might end your swim. And you have to feed often because you have to get a relatively constant flow of calories in your body. Calories are energy, and the more energy you get in (and keep in!), the more glycogen you can make and burn, and the more glycogen you burn (instead of fat), the less fatigued you feel. (This summer a guy made a world record attempt for a Channel swim and he was feeding every eight minutes, at about three seconds each! He missed the world record by about twenty minutes, by the way. The record stands at six hours fifty-seven minutes.) The science of feeding for endurance performance is a lot more complicated than that, and fascinating to me, but that's for another time! Anyway, sometime during the difficult middle hours I started feeding every twenty minutes, which might have helped me get down more calories, which might have eventually led to me feeling better.

Hours 9 to 11 1/2 were great. I felt good and confident, and I was able to pick up the pace. I was working hard and really enjoying it again. I actually don't remember much about this time either, just cruising along, thinking about my stroke, thinking about how amazing it was that I was out here in the middle of the English Channel on a pitch black night, just me and the water and the boat and the dark, and I felt good! Henry, the fabulous crew member, had the job of shining a spot-light on me in the dark - actually just in front of me, and it was great. I could just focus on that one little spot, not think about France, and get on with it. At some point, Eddie, the pilot, spoke up and said, "You have to work hard here now, mate." I responded: "Like I wasn't working hard before?" "Work harder," he said. So I did, picking up the pace even more. I think that doubly increased pace lasted about an hour.

The goal with that "work harder" was to get me in position to come ashore at "the Cape," Cap Griz Nez. That's the goal of every Channel swimmer because it is the shortest possible route across the Channel. Hitting Cap Gris Nez can make a two or three hour difference in your time. (Not that time matters, but like I said earlier, every extra minute you are in the water is a minute that might end your swim). The problem with hitting Cap Griz Nez is that the approach is surrounded by an unbelievably strong current - four knots, actually (five MPH) - moving generally west to east. Not even Michael Phelps can make progress against that current. You have to get in a position way to the west of the point of the Cape, and then make the approach, hoping you are strong enough to get to shore before you are swept past the point - adding a minimum of an hour to your swim. (I just watched a woman make the point by about five yards - she was five yards away from adding 1-2 hours to her swim, but she made it!)

At about 11 1/2 hours that time of feeling great, alas, came to end. The last two hours were just a long, hard slog. But this tough time period wasn't like the tough time in the middle. It was hard physically, but not too bad mentally. I increased my feeds to every 15 minutes, not so much for the calories, but because the way I was getting through it was by counting my strokes between feeds - swimming feed to feed, rather than swimming to France. "Four hundred strokes to the next feed. I can do four hundred strokes." (VERY, VERY, VERY important for long distance swimming - just swim feed to feed!) I pretty much knew I was going to make it and just had to gut it out. I ended up not really getting anywhere near far west enough to make a go at the Cape, and when the tide changed and started pushing me east again, I just came around the Cape into the adjacent bay. On the GPS tracker you could see that very clearly. It must have been about the time I was missing the Cape that I asked for a time estimate to finish, and Dave, the first mate, said "You've got about two hours to go, mate, okay?" (Yes, they always say "mate!") And I said, "No, that's not okay." But I just got right back to slogging it out.

Because it was night, I had been able to see lights on the French shore for hours, but couldn't really make sense of them, and had no real sense of how far away anything was. I knew I was making progress, but didn't know how long it would take, even with Dave's estimate. I just kept looking for the little dingy to be lowered off the back of the boat, because that little dingy would follow me into the shallow water where the boat couldn't go. Swim feed to feed. Four hundred strokes. "Are they moving to the dingy yet?" The lights of the little town of Wissant, France where right ahead of me, but I still couldn't tell how far away it was, or how long it would take to get there.

Finally, finally, I noticed they started fiddling with the dingy! I remembered to remind Henry to give Dave the camera so Dave could take pictures of me on the beach. Most people don't get pictures when they land at night! I just kept swimming ahead, and the dingy must have followed me in for about 400 yards. Even when we were 10 yards off the shore I couldn't tell how far it was - it was really dark! Only when Dave said I could probably touch bottom (I couldn't) did I realize how close it was. I ended up landing on the giant rocks that must serve as erosion control for Wissant. Because of the rocks, I didn't really have to clear the water completely, but I did anyway, carefully climbing up. I got Dave to take a picture and then went to find a rock to take home. It was hard finding one, because of the giant boulders. I ended up climbing all the way over the rocks and found myself along a little street in Wissant, looking for a little stone in the middle of the night. I don't think anybody saw me, as it was 12:45 a.m., but I must have looked pretty funny. I finally found the stone and headed back to the dingy, which took me back to the boat, which took me back to England.

Thus I swam the English Channel.

** I slightly "misremembered" the quote. The exact line is "There have been high points and there have been low points. This is not a high point." (Ultramarathon Man, p. 236)

Swam, Mike Swam

2009-09-20T10:53:00.008-05:00

I think I'll start with some pictures and then intersperse narrative. So...

A journey of 21 1/2 miles begins with getting in the water. Samphire Hoe, England, 11:14 a.m. local time, Saturday, September 19.

The beginning on video.

The crew: from left to right, Nathan, the official observer from the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation, Dave, the first mate, and Eddie, the pilot extraordinaire.

The white cliffs: looking back while swimming I could see them for about the first two hours.

Swimming along. Yes, it was uphill the whole way!

A typical feeding. I drank "Maxim" the whole way - a great energy drink for when you do not need electrolyte replacement.

I thought this boat was a lot bigger and a lot further away. No wonder Eddie had the sirens blasting. Apparently we had the right of way. He wasn't too happy.

Swimming at night. That green dot (if you can even see it) is me. Actually, it wasn't like that. Most of the time Henry was shining a spot light just in front of me, and the boat was a little closer than this picture implies.

I made it. Wissant, France, 12:45 a.m. local time, Sunday, September 20.

More narrative later.

A great experience

2009-09-19T23:00:00.003-05:00

Well, I made it. It's 5:00 a.m. and we just got back to the hotel. Just a quick update and thanks with more to follow after I sleep.

I actually enjoyed the majority of the swim. Hours 1-5 were good. Sometime between hour 5-6 it transitioned in a not good time that lasted until 9 hours. Hours 9-11.5 were pretty enjoyable actually. Then the last two hours were pretty tough. Official time of 13:31.21.

There were definitely times especially between hours 6-9 when I doubted I would finish, but overall, it was a great experience.

Thank you everyone for many kinds of support! The emails were wonderful!

Peace,
Mike

Alright, here we go

2009-09-19T02:58:00.002-05:00

Just got off the phone with the pilot, and the sea is lovely and calm this morning, so here we go. I should be getting in the water about 11:30 a.m. my time (5:30 a.m. CDT).

Remember, you can follow my progress by going here, and then clicking on the "satellite tracker - Anastasia" link. And, if my phone works as we hope, Henry will send some Twitter updates while I'm out there.

Thanks for all your support and good wishes everyone!

Click here to donate to help build a school in Waku Kungo, Angola!

"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." (Genesis 1:2)

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." (Walt Disney)

Peace,
Mike

Then again, maybe not

2009-09-18T07:53:00.003-05:00

I just got off the phone with the pilot, Eddie, and he says it really is still too rough out there, and we should wait another 12 hours, or, more likely, 24 hours. So, no go tonight. Where's that Jesus guy when you need him? ("He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm" Mark 4:39.)

That's the nature of the beast here. But the next four days all look quite good, and he's certain I'll get out soon, almost surely tomorrow.

I still feel good, and can easily wait for the right time.

Thanks for all the good wishes! I'll get out there soon!

Really Good News

2009-09-17T10:46:00.004-05:00

If you read all the way to the end of yesterday's post, you saw that I have some really good news. No, I didn't secretly already swim the Channel in record time. But just as good, or better.

I got word a couple of days ago that the Tuthill Fund is making a $10,000 donation to the school building project in Angola! The Tuthill Fund is an endowment fund committed exclusively to international mission projects associated with the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ (the regional grouping of churches my church is part of). The donation must be approved by another governing board, but that's pretty assured.

So we now have $32,358 toward the building of the school in Waku Kungo, Angola!

Of course, the goal here is $50,000. That is how much it will take to build a wonderful new school building where hundreds of children (and some adults) can get the education they need and deserve. Many of you who are reading this blog have helped get us up to the $32,358. Thank you!

If you have not donated yet, this would be a fabulous time to do so - practically as I am swimming! To donate online with a secure credit card transaction, all you have to do is go to www.SwimMikeSwim.com and click on the "donate" link. You can also just write a check to "SwimMikeSwim" and send it to Second Congregational Church, 318 N. Church St., Rockford, IL 61101. Every cent of your donation goes directly to help build the school in Waku Kungo.

One more thing, in case any of you are looking for a nice way to use several thousand dollars at your disposal. Our Angolan partners wisely want to wait until all the money ($50,000) is in hand before they start construction on the school. This gives them considerable cost savings in construction. I am confident that we will soon get to $40,000 in donations, but it sure would be nice to be able to give our partners the full $50,000. So, anybody want to loan us, unsecured at no interest, another $10,000 as we work to bring in the remaining donations after the swim? If you have the means and the interest to do so, just send me an email (jmichaelsolberg at gmail dot com), and we can discuss it.

Thank you everyone for your support as I face (tomorrow!) the challenge of my life, so that the kids of Waku Kungo can face the challenges of their lives through education.

Friday, Sept. 18, 11:00 p.m. BST - 5:00 p.m. CDT

2009-09-16T10:19:00.009-05:00

Okay, here we go. IF the wind does what it is supposed to (well, at least what it is forecasted to do), right about 11:00 p.m. local time this Friday, September 18 (5:00 p.m. CDT), I will be standing on the beach of Samphire Hoe about to wade into the 63.5 degree water of the English Channel and swim to Cap Gris Nez, or Wissant, France. Wahoo. Finally.

When the time comes you can track me across the Channel by clicking on this link and then clicking on SATELLITE TRACKER - ANASTASIA. See the entry below from September 5 for a full description of what to expect from this GPS tracker. The tracker should be active by about 5:00 p.m. CDT, if we are on schedule.

Also, if my cell phone service works as it should, then Henry will be sending out "Twitter" messages during my swim, which (I think) you can read at www.twitter.com/swimmikeswim. You can also arrange to receive those Twitter updates (I refuse to call them "tweets") on your cell phone as a text message if your prefer, but you'll have to figure out how to set that up yourself. Just ask someone under 30.

Okay, now for some information about the swim. First, yes, I will be doing the first seven hours of my swim in the dark. I always knew swimming at night was a possibility, although I guess everybody hopes to avoid it, if possible. This time, avoiding it wasn't possible. Because of the timing of the tides, it was either seven hours of dark, followed by six or seven (hopefully) hours of daylight - or seven hours of daylight, followed by six or seven hours of night. The later would not be fun, so an 11:00 p.m. start it is. This way at least I get to arrive on a lovely French beach in the daytime. I have trained at night, and it is a little "spooky" at first, but really I don't mind it at all, so it shouldn't be a problem. Oh, I should add that this will be the night of a new moon, so it will be really, really dark out in the middle of the Channel. Just me, the water, the black sky, and the boat - how relaxing, no distractions.

Second, as I mentioned a few days ago, this will be a very strong spring tide. Because we are just a few days off the autumnal equinox, that invisible moon is aligned to pull a lot of water up the Channel. That will make the last mile or so of the swim very hard, but it could actually give me a little help if I time it right, that is, if I finish in twelve hours or less (possible with calm water, but unlikely really).

Third, don't get too confident of my success just because I am getting close to France. That last mile or two is the toughest, and lots of people can't make it to shore, even though they have come so far. You'll know I've made it when that little GPS dot is right along the French coast, or you get a message by Twitter, or email, or whatever.

That's all I can think to write right now. Any questions?

I feel great. Not nervous at all right now, but we'll see how well I sleep the next couple of nights.

Oh, and I have some fabulous news on the fund raising front, but this post is already long enough. Soon.

Peace!

Tuesday in Dover

2009-09-15T07:11:00.002-05:00

Not much new to write, really. Saturday still looks like a possibility, but it's still four days out, so we'll just have to wait and see. I'm hopeful.

A Ray of Hope?

2009-09-14T12:12:00.005-05:00

It's Monday in Dover, and I will not be swimming any time soon, but there is a ray of hope for next Saturday (the 19th). The current forecasts show the winds finally settling down on Friday night and into Saturday. IF (that's a big IF at this point) that forecast holds, then Saturday could be the day. I'll keep the updates going as we go along, and hopefully that forecast will continue. For fun, you can keep track yourself here.

If it is Saturday (or Sunday), it will be a slightly challenging day to swim. It will be during a "spring tide," the stronger tidal period when it can be more difficult to cross. And just coincidentally, this will be the strongest spring tide of the whole year (they vary by a few feet depending on the position of the moon and earth). It is something of a mixed bag, actually. You can get a little extra boost from the spring tide as you head toward France from the middle of the Channel, but getting into shore, i.e. the last mile or so, can be tough. Still, lots of people are successful on spring tides, and if it is my only shot (which it may well be) I'll take it!

My Mom arrived today, and it just happens to be her 70th birthday, so Happy Birthday, Mum!

I'm still doing quite well with the wait - still just good, positive energy, and no nervousness really at all. I still feel great in the water, and certainly have a few more days wait in me.

Cheers.

No news is not good news

2009-09-13T10:55:00.002-05:00

Well, I have nothing new to report, which means I won't be swimming anytime soon. Winds look strong at least through Thursday, according to current forecasts (and Thursday is as far as the forecast goes). Oh well, I had a 2 1/2 hour swim this morning and felt great in the water, and I'm still feeling nothing but positive and patient. So, on with the waiting.

So far, I've met lots of extraordinary people on the beach here in Dover. Loads of Channel swimmers, of course - wannabees like me, and successful crossers. There are at least two women here waiting who are aiming for double crossings - yes, that means swimming over to France, and then swimming right back. (A few people have done triple crossings, but no one has ever done a quad - I think the swelling of the tongue and throat from the salt water has been the limiting factor there, just so you know.) I met Terry Laughlin, of Total Immersion. He made a video that I watched over a year ago, and it taught me a lot about open water swimming. Cool to meet him in person. I met John Van Wisse, an amazing Australian swimmer who has won the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim a few times (that's 26 or so miles around the whole island of Manhattan), in addition to other stuff. I swam with him in the Harbor - man, he's fast. And then I met Dan Martin. He's planning on doing a triathlon - around the world. Swim from New York to France - eight hours of swimming a day, boat at night, boat let's him off in exactly the same spot next day - should take four months. Bike from France to the tip of Russia - something like 10,000 miles - will take a long time. Run (or walk) from Alaska to New York - long time. He's supposed to start in May, 2010, and finish in late 2011. I didn't believe it at first, but he has a website that chronicles a bike trip from Korea to Cape Town, so I guess it's legit. No website for the world-wide triathlon yet. He says it will be up next month. Wow.

Now, back to waiting...

"Jeopardy" music, please

2009-09-12T15:40:00.004-05:00

Nothing new to report today. It doesn't look like there is any chance of me swimming before Wednesday, and as I think I said before, that's not because Wednesday looks promising, but because the pilot doesn't trust the forecast any further out. So, cue the "Jeopardy" music...for the next three days at least.

The good news is that I still feel nothing but good and positive. I knew this depended on the weather, so it's nothing unexpected. I've been swimming about an hour a day, and I feel great in the water, so my taper is having the desired effect (ugh, I wrote that before, didn't I? "Groundhog Day" syndrome).

Henry, of course, is along with me, and he's doing great, waiting with complete patience and good cheer.

By the way, neither Henry nor I got colds or otherwise sick after the eight hour flight here. A miracle!

Still Fast

2009-09-11T11:34:00.004-05:00

It's Friday afternoon in Dover, and there hasn't been much change in the wind. Which means I will not likely be swimming anytime soon. Based on the wind forecast I had some hopes for Sunday, but the most recent forecast makes that look unlikely. That darn anti-cyclone centered off the west coast of Ireland! How dare it make me wait to swim the Channel?!

The title of this post is a quote from the book I am reading, "Endurance." As I mentioned before it is about Shackleton's attempt to cross Antarctica in 1915. It didn't go well. They got caught in pack ice before they even reached the continent, and spent a very long time, in very bad weather, held fast by the ice. Day after day, their diary entries say "still fast," with their lives at risk everyday, sometimes every moment. Certainly puts my swim, and my wait, in perspective.

I do have some wonderful news: the fund raising for the school in Angola just went over $20,000! My goal is $50,000 (because that is what it will actually take to build the school), so we have a ways to go still, but I am fabulously pleased to reach $20,000. There have now been hundreds of people who have contributed, and I am most grateful to all of you! On behalf of the kids of Waku Kungo, thank you!

Hmmm...I think I buried the lede!

Cheers!

Thursday in Dover

2009-09-10T08:52:00.003-05:00

Not much change today. I'm still waiting for the wind to die down. Sunday looks like the next possible day to swim, but that's very iffy at this point.

Saw District 9 last night: good, disturbing, and imperfect film - and pretty violent. I guess I have a little more positive view of humanity than some.

Reading "Endurance" - the classic story of Ernest Shackleton's 1915 (or so) attempt to cross the Antarctic continent. They didn't even get started on the crossing, but the result is a great adventure story. Great read while waiting to swim the English Channel. Makes my little swim look like a day at the beach!

A Long Wait?

2009-09-09T12:14:00.005-05:00

I'm pretty well settled in Dover. Got a good night's sleep after traveling and seem to be adjusting well to the time change (we are six hours ahead of CDT). I swam this morning and the water temp felt fine and I felt good, so that means my taper is having the desired effect.

Now we wait for the winds over the English Channel to die down a little. I talked to my pilot this morning, and he said the earliest I could swim is Saturday, although I think that is just because he doesn't trust the weather forecast more than three days out, not because Saturday looks promising. I read one wind forecast that indicated things could get a little better on Sunday, but I don't think that's very reliable four days out.

For Channel swimming, most around here seem to trust the government weather office most of all (the Met Office, similar to NOAA). If you are fascinated by weather forecasts, below are the sites I'm looking at while patiently waiting in Dover. I pretty much need the wind to be below 13 mph, or 15 mph tops, before my pilot will say "let's go." These sites often use the "Beaufort Scale" (scroll down at that link for a nice chart) for wind speed, on which 1 and 2 are great for swimming the Channel (and rare in the English Channel), 3 is good, 4 is questionable, and 5 and above are certainly a "no go."

Wind forecast.

Inshore marine forecast.

Marine shipping forecast.

Extended marine forecast. On this last one, we are right between Cullercoats and Niton, so read them both and see if they refer to the Dover area or the eastern English Channel.
--

In Dover

2009-09-08T14:17:00.002-05:00

We arrived in Dover today ("we" is Henry and me). I have a couple days to get settled and adjusted, and will then probably be waiting on the weather, as the wind doesn't look too great for swimming the next few days. Good for sailing? Yes. Good for swimming? No. Falling asleep...

Cool. Thanks.

2009-09-06T09:02:00.003-05:00

Thanks to whoever left the inspirational jellyfish for me! I hope that's the only one I see until I finish my swim!

Real Time Tracking of My Swim

2009-09-05T21:00:00.006-05:00

We are making final plans for how to communicate back to everyone information about my swim. Things are still a little up in the air because I am not sure what form of communication will work out in the middle of the Channel.

The one sure thing, though, at this point, is that you will be able to follow the course of my swim live, by following this link: http://www.ais-doverstraits.co.uk/, and clicking on "Satellite Tracker - Anastasia" (Anastasia is the name of the boat.)

That will give you a blip on a map every now and then (ten to thirty minutes apart usually), giving you my position. You will notice that you can zoom in and out on the map for the view that works best for you. Remember that I will not swim straight across, but will be pushed east (to the right on the map) for six hours, and then back to the south-southwest for six hours. Ideally, I'll walk onto the French beach (or rocks) at Cap Gris Nez at the end of that twelve hours. More realistically though, I'll probably start getting pushed back east again before I hit the beach around Wissant.

Any questions?

I'll post this again before I swim.

Pictures from Dover

2009-09-03T11:23:00.004-05:00

At last, a little picture of what Dover is like.

First, the legendary white cliffs of Dover. They are made of chalk basically. The stuff just crumbles in your hands.

Dover Harbor, where I swam many hours. My swim will actually begin on a beach outside the Harbor call "Samphire Hoe," it looks much like the second photo below.

The woman in the light blue t-shirt is Freda Streeter, the Queen of the Beach. Just because she loves Channel swimming, and pretty much knows more about training for a Channel swim than anyone else in the world, she (and a few other wonderful people) helps swimmers out every Saturday and Sunday from May - September. Sometimes she is on the beach for eight hours, giving assistance and advice. Her daughter Alison, MBE, is the Queen of the Channel, having swum the Channel more times than anybody else - 43 times! (The male record by the way is 34 times.)

Dover Castle, built in the 1100s.

Pictures!

2009-09-03T10:12:00.005-05:00

We had a great time in Europe. As I have said before, Norway was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It is sort of like the Colorado Rockies, but with ocean interspersed with mountains. The pictures don't do it justice, but you can get the idea. We went a few other places too, as you can see.

I'll make a separate post for Dover.

Bergen, Norway

The place where we all began. Just kidding. It's a furniture store in Bergen.

The obligatory Norwegian troll picture (the troll is the one in the middle).

Muriel overlooking Bergen.

One of the places marked "Solberg" on the map, although the locals had never heard of it.

Everyday scenery in Norway.

The autobahn (don't be silly, that's kph, not mph - I promise I never went over 125 mph!)

Wittenberg Castle Church - where Martin Luther finally managed to upset the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church and start the Protestant Reformation.

Luxembourg - a beautiful city (sort of like Paris, but smaller and cleaner).

Near our Paris apartment.

The Louvre was crowded!

Notre Dame.

And a good time was had by all.

Weather

2009-09-03T07:52:00.002-05:00

Okay, I'm just saying: I know there is no point in worrying about it, and it is 100% out of my control, but I have been observing the weather in the English Channel the last few days - and it has not been good for swimming. Today is the last day of a neap tide (the weaker tides on which Channel attempts are normally made) which went from August 26 to September 3. There are probably 20 people who hoped to make their swim during this tide, and not one of them got the opportunity. The wind was too strong the whole time. I am not exactly sure what happens to them now. Based on current forecasts (with very sketchy reliability), it looks like Sunday is the first day someone could swim, but even if that forecast holds, they would be swimming on a stronger "spring" tide, which is harder (although can actually be faster for some swimmers). No fun either way.

My swim window begins with the next neap tide on September 11. If I understand right, these people who didn't get any decent weather do not get pushed back to my window. On the 11th, I still get the first shot. September is supposed to be a good month for weather - a little cooler air temps than the end of July and August, but more settled weather patterns. We'll just have to wait and see what happens in the next week or so. I have a retreat scheduled at Iona (an ancient retreat center on an island off the west coast of Scotland) beginning on the 19th. If I haven't swum by the 18th, I'll have a tough decision to make.

Again, there is no point in worrying about it, but I'm just sayin'...

How Time Flies

2009-08-29T15:46:00.002-05:00

Yikes, time flies when you are in final prep for the English Channel. The first day of my swim window is just two weeks from yesterday. Wahoo! It's almost here. Since I got back from Europe I have been getting back up to full strength and putting in some good hours, and it has gone well.

My arm (actually, my right triceps injury) is pain free, although maybe a little "tender" after a few hours of swimming - but at that point everything is "tender" so it's hard to tell. Anyway, it is not affecting my swimming at all. I went to the doc and am getting some physical therapy, just to make sure everything is healed as much as possible before my swim.

I did my long swim last Tuesday in Lake Geneva, and ended up going 8 1/2 hours. I had a couple of rough hours in the middle, but for the last two or so I felt good and finished strong, so it was pretty encouraging. If my rough estimate based on a look at Google Maps is anywhere near accurate I only covered about 13 miles, which is not great, but even that is on pace for a 13-14 hour Channel swim, which is pretty much what I have said all along, so all is good. Dave Tanaglia accompanied me in his kayak pretty much the whole 8 1/2 hours, and Roger (last name?) and Gary (last name?) swam with me some of the time. Dave's help was invaluable, so thanks Dave! And thanks to Roger and Linda for their very kind hospitality as a base for the day.

More soon, with pictures of Dover and Europe, I promise!

And now back home

2009-08-17T12:38:00.002-05:00

I'm back home now until September 7, when I leave for Dover for my swim (finally!). Nothing much fascinating to report. I'm just doing some final training. I will do a long swim this week (six hours?), and then, if I can find proper accompaniment, I hope to do an eight hour swim in Lake Geneva next week. Then it will be shorter stuff (nothing over three hours) until I leave for Dover. I wish I was swimming tomorrow. I am mentally and physically ready. Now I just have to keep the edge for three more weeks.

The fund raising has been a bit slow lately - received $16,212 to date. I'm hoping there is a nice bump as we get into the final weeks here, but clearly we won't get to $50,000 before I swim. But we'll keep working on it until we raise the full $50,000. The kids of Waku Kungo need it! The Angolans would like to get building, but will understand. They are very used to waiting, as nothing construction related seems to happen very fast in Angola. We will send them what we have so far, and I will still go there in October, and have a ceremonial ground breaking.

Cheers.

Back in Dover

2009-08-10T06:13:00.003-05:00

Arrived back in Dover yesterday for some more training, following a few days in Paris. Paris was great, of course. It remains a mystery why the recipe and technique of great pastries can't make it across the Atlantic. Wow, that stuff is good. The tourist sights were very crowded but fun to see, and we had fun playing games and working on a puzzle (which we failed to finish sadly - too much to do in Paris!).

I swam six hours yesterday, which I was happy with after swimming only once for the past three weeks. The first two hours were very tough, perhaps just because it was early (I started a little after six), and I don't normally swim that early. But then things fell into place and it was good. My right tricep (or is it still triceps even when singular?) is still a bit tender, but not painful. I have stopped even thinking about the water temperature. Dover Harbor is 64 or so now, and other than the slightly unpleasant moment of first getting in, it is no problem. As long as I can keep working during my Channel swim, the water temp won't be a problem.

I almost got to go out on the boat for another swimmer's Channel swim last night. I reported to the boat at midnight as arranged, and then the guy didn't show. He had a mix up with the pilot about the departure time. Now he missed his shot, at least for a few days. Note to self: show up when the pilot says!

After my first visit and this visit to Dover, I feel like I have a pretty good picture in my mind of what to expect - as much as one can at least, as the Channel always surprises. My swim window begins one month from tomorrow. I'll do two or three more long swims at home - hopefully getting up to eight hours for one of them (but where and how to do that is an issue), with shorter swims in between. Then back off for about a week, and I'll be good to go. Can one be hesitantly confident? I guess that's how I feel.

Home on Wednesday. Cheers.

Bonjour from Luxembourg

2009-08-01T09:23:00.003-05:00

Hmmm...keeping this up to date: Norway was amazing. I'd love to go back there for an "adventure" trip sometime - hiking, rafting, kayaking - something. It's by far the most beautiful country I've ever seen. Since Norway we have driven through Sweden, Denmark, and Belgium, and spent a couple of nights each in Germany and France. It's been great fun. Then we got lucky yesterday: we picked a lovely looking hotel in France, drove a coule of hours to get there, but it looked pretty sketchy. Then we did the same thing again, one hour away. Then we did the same thing again, another hour away. Then we drove another hour to Luxembourg, and found an amazingly gorgeous city, with a nice hotel thrown in. So we are in Luxembourg for a couple of days, before two nights in rural France, and then on to Paris for five nights.

I've not been able to do any swimming (which was good for the first week, letting my arm recover fully), but have been running regularly. It's probably not ideal, but when this is done I'll have a full month of uninterupted training before my swim and I'm sure I can get back to full strength quickly before tapering for ten days or so (I know from past experience that I do best on a short taper).

That's all the time I have for now. Au revoir!

From Bergen, Norway

2009-07-23T04:31:00.000-05:00

I have made it to Bergen and the family should be here in about an hour. It is beautiful here, and I have barely left th airport. Very northwoodsy. Typing on my phone is slow so I'll just say that I think I really do look like the people here.

And I should also say that my recovery from ny seven hour/six hour back to back days went well - except for my mouth! The salt water killed my tongue and eating was painful for three days. Thank goodness for ibuprofen!

Peace

Report from Dover

2009-07-20T04:41:00.002-05:00

Greetings from Dover, England. I am here for a week of training, and it has gone very well. I swam seven hours in the harbor on Saturday, and then six hours on Sunday. This was very close to Channel conditions, probably a bit rougher actually, so it was excellent training.

There is an amazing group of people who train here each weekend, with Freda Streeter as the de facto coach of them all. Freda is the mother of Alison Streeter, the Queen of the Channel. Alison has swum the Channel 43 times, so her mom knows quite a bit about what makes for adequate training. The 7 hour/6 hour combo I just did is the maximum distance they go here in training, and I finished without too much trouble, so I feel good about my training with seven weeks to go - although, trust me, I'm not getting overly confident! They say the physical training is about 20% of the task, and the other 80% is in your mind. I did have a pretty sore right tricep, but I think that was from the need to lift my head up to see where I was going frequently - which is something I will not have to in the Channel, when you just site off the boat to your side while breathing. The water temp was not bad at all, so my acclimation has really worked well. Thank goodness for my backyard pool!

Other than swimming I haven't done much other than spend one day in London, where the highlight was seeing the new Harry Potter movie in the same theatre - although 10 days later - as Daniel Radcliffe (Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were across the way, as the world premier was on two screens to make more room).

I probably won't get a chance to write again before I leave Dover (and meet the family in Norway), so "cheers!"

Oh, and if you have donated yet to build the school in Angola, go to www.SwimMikeSwim.com and take care of that!

Peace,
Mike

Seven hours for my seven pounds (and the rest of me)

2009-07-14T17:53:00.001-05:00

Oh, yeah. Seven hours a few days ago in my backyard pool. Woo...that was fun. Actually, it was good training, but the water was balmy, at 69.

The Sabbatical Begins

2009-07-10T09:20:00.002-05:00

The sabbatical has begun. Thanks to a wonderful (and wise) provision of my work at church, and an unbelievable grant from the Lilly Foundation, I have now begun my sabbatical. I don't go back to work until October 27. I know, it's not fair. Everybody should have a sabbatical, I agree! I promise to use mine wisely, for real renewal to help me serve the church faithfully and passionately in the future.

Anyway, back to more mundane matters - Yesterday was a fabulous training swim: 7 hours tethered to the side of my backyard pool. I say "fabulous" because it was a good challenge mentally to swim through the darkness (I started at 3:00 a.m.), the monotony, and the sensory deprivation. To add to the fun, my stomach didn't feel right for a couple of hours. So, naturally, I loved it. Great training! The only problem was that the water wasn't cold enough: a balmy 68. Oh well.

YIKES!!!

2009-07-02T17:32:00.002-05:00

And I mean YIKES!

Giant Jellyfish Invade Japan

A fun small step

2009-06-29T22:40:00.002-05:00

I don't normally write about my shorter training days, but my workout tonight was sort of fun. I swam 8000 yards in 1:57 (one hour, fifty-seven minutes). That's the fastest I have ever swum 8000 yards in my life. It's good for morale to be swimming relatively fast right now, because in the middle of all the distance, speed usually suffers some. So, wahoo. Ten weeks and five days to the beginning of my swim window. but who's counting?

Luis Samacumbi for SwimMikeSwim

2009-06-26T08:08:00.003-05:00

One of the people who is working on the school project in Angola is here visiting in the U.S. this month. His name is Luis Samacumbi, and he is the director of social programs for the Congregational Church in Angola. Here is a short video of Luis talking about the project. The visual quality is not great. But the sound is good. Luis is a wonderful guy and a great leader for the church in Angola. Enjoy.

San Francisco Six Hour

2009-06-22T15:01:00.009-05:00

I'm back home after my week in San Francisco. It was a great week of training in open ocean water, right about 60 degrees all week. I successfully completed my six hour official qualifying swim without any problems, covering about 12 1/2 miles. The 60 degree water seemed fine. I remember jumping in my pool three months ago at 64 degrees, literally just in and out, and thought it was torture. Now, six hours at 60 degrees was no problem - it's amazing what acclimation can do for you.

That six hour swim was in "the Cove" (above) at the north end of the San Francisco peninsula, just west of Fisherman's Wharf. The Cove is only partially enclosed, and you are still exposed to tide currents and choppy water, which means that it was excellent training for the Channel. While there, I also did a two hour swim in San Francisco Bay proper, with a kayak escort, big swells and serious chop. I nearly swam under the Golden Gate Bridge (below), so that was pretty cool.

I was a little on edge in the water at first. You really can't see more than three feet in front of you, and every once in a while a jellyfish suddenly appears in front you - yikes. They are pretty creepy - brown and about 10-12 inches around with 2-3 foot tentacles. I didn't actually touch one or get stung, but had to rear up and dodge several of them. Then it was hard to relax for a long time, so they are a pain. The thing that made me most uncomfortable in the water was seeing shadowy things below me without knowing what they were. It took me about three hours in the water to realize that the shadowy thing below me was...my shadow. I was being creeped out by my own shadow: classic. After I figured that out, I felt a lot more comfortable, until I dodged the next jellyfish. Anyway...there are jellyfish in the English Channel too, so it was good experience! Here's an article about the jellies in the San Francisco Bay.

I was a guest all week with the Dolphin Swim Club and South End Rowing Club, two clubs right on the Cove. Basically they are open water swimming clubs and these people swim all year round - no wetsuits. The water gets down to 48-49 in February, so they are amazing. Sixty degrees for them in balmy. Thanks to Suzie Dods and Mike Tschantz-Hahn for their great hospitality!

Okay, now some more pictures. Peace, Mike

Me, taking in some calories during the swim (above).

The Dolphin Club (above)

Swimming in the Cove (above)

See, it really was San Francisco! (above)

Big Week Ahead

2009-06-13T19:47:00.002-05:00

Very early on Monday morning I am leaving for a week in San Francisco. The main purpose of the trip is to get experience in real, cold ocean (i.e. salt) water. Each day I will do at least one swim, and hopefully two swims on a few of the days. I will also do my official six hour qualifying swim in "the Cove" (i.e. San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park - a reserved breakwater area that is wonderful for swimming). The Q swim, as the qualifying swim is known, has to be in water of 60 degrees or less (the water temp there is 58 today), and under Channel rules: no wetsuit or other insulation, no assistance other than food given to you, etc. The six hours shouldn't be too much of a stretch now, but if the conditions are rough that could make it interesting. I am also going to hire a kayaker one day to go outside the Cove into San Francisco Bay proper, to experience "real waves." That should be interesting. Anyway, the week will be fabulous training and I am looking forward to seeing how I do in salt water.

Final Swimming for Schools Update

2009-06-13T19:44:00.002-05:00

The swimmers from the Washington swim team, and all the other kids from the school, together raised $1548 to help build a school in Angola! Terrific job swimmers, and everybody else too. Special thanks to Kathi Ferrero and Jill Faber for making it possible.

58 and cloudy

2009-06-10T10:27:00.000-05:00

It was cloudy and the water temp was 58 in Lake Michigan yesterday, but I had a nice three hour swim. I hadn't been in cold water for a couple of weeks (at 67 my pool doesn't qualify any more), so I was a little cold for the first hour or so, but the last couple of hours were good. And the Gino's East pizza afterward was fabulous!

The Year's First Channel Attempt

2009-06-06T11:13:00.002-05:00

Some of you might find this interesting. Today was the first day this summer for someone to make an English Channel swim. It was a six person relay. The Channel was 56 degrees and a little bumpy today. Below are two photos to show you what I mean. Open full size to get the full effect. The team ended up abandoning after about 15 hours, five miles from France (the hardest part of the swim due to the currents).

Swimming for Schools update

2009-06-04T12:07:00.001-05:00

More is still coming in from the Swim-a-Thon. Up to just under $1500!

Swim-a-Thon Wrap Up

2009-06-03T21:30:00.002-05:00

It looks like the total of our Swimming for Schools Swim-a-Thon will be just over $1100. Way cool. Congratulations! and Thanks! to the swimmers and students of Washington Gifted Academy. The children of Waku Kungo will be blessed by your/their concern and generosity.

I am so glad we had a chance to involve the kids of Washington, and especially the swimmers, in this project. It is good for habits of community service to start early and thus be taken for granted - "Of course I'm involved in community service - duh!" - that's just the right attitude.

I have to say special thanks to Kathi Ferrero and Jill Faber for helping to make it possible!

Swimming for Schools Swim-a-Thon

2009-05-30T18:15:00.003-05:00

Wow, that was a blast! Today we had our Swimming for Schools Swim-a-Thon, and the "kids" of the Washington Academy Swim Team (City Champions!) were great, swimming a combined 46 1/2 miles, having fun, and raising $668 (so far) for building the school in Waku Kungo! Way to go, swimmers! More Swimming for Schools funds will be coming in from Washington Academy next week, so here's hoping we get to $1000.

We even got two good reports on local news - thanks WREX AND WIFR!

You can contribute to the Swimming for Schools Swim-a-Thon right now - just click on this link to www.SwimMikeSwim.com and click on "donate." Thanks!

Back at it

2009-05-28T10:18:00.002-05:00

Okay, after a brief rest due to my cold I'm back to training. I got in a swim in Lake Michigan on Monday, about an hour in 56 degree water. That was no problem and I would have liked to go longer, but just didn't have the time.

On Tuesday, I did a long swim at the YMCA. I figured a warm pool swim was probably wise, so as not to stress my immune system yet. So I did six hours six minutes = 21,000 yards = 840 lengths = 11.93 miles. If I had realized I was so close to 12 miles I would have just finished it. Oh well. Next time.

I feel good about where I am at distance wise, and probably more importantly, with my acclimation to cold water. Two months ago, I was very worried about that, but have done pretty well in the cold water. All my extra pounds are good for something!

Just keep swimming!

No training

2009-05-20T09:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess my immune system didn't like 5 hours in 61 degree water. I'm sick today (and yesterday). Just a bad cold, I guess. Hopefully back in the water tomorrow.

Lake Michigan at last

2009-05-17T21:07:00.002-05:00

Today was my first swim this year in Lake Michigan. The temp varied between 56-58. It didn't feel bad at all, but then, I only stayed in for 50 minutes (due to time restraints, not the cold). I swam with a guy named Mike who lives in Chicago, very close to Foster Street beach. He is swimming the Channel in July, so is getting in as much cold water work as possible.

Swimming in open water was interesting. It was choppy and wavy of course, which made it very hard to get in any kind of rhythm. Staying in a straight line by sighting was hard, but I guess I would get used to it. But then, I don't have to do that in the Channel, as I just keep the boat 25 feet to my left or right.

This other Mike said that salt water seems 4-5 degrees warmer than fresh water - I hope that's true!

I'm fairly sore from the 5 hours yesterday, but just good soreness, not injury soreness. I'll rest for a day or two and should be okay.

Ta-ta.

Training News

2009-05-16T20:10:00.002-05:00

Five hours in 61 degree water today (tethered in the backyard pool). Longest yet in cold water. The first three hours were a breeze, but the last two got a little tough. I wasn't cold and mentally I was okay, but the shoulders and arms were aching more than ever. I wonder if I was pushing a little harder than usual in the beginning because I felt so good? Oh well, muscles recover, and it was great training.

Tomorrow I am going in for my first swim in Lake Michigan, near Foster Ave. beach. The water will probably be about 52, so that should be fun. I doubt I'll be able to do more than 1/2 an hour, but we'll see. An open water swimmer in Chicago is letting me tag along.

Some awesome kids

2009-05-15T12:54:00.004-05:00

Yesterday and today I gave a presentations to several groups of kids from Washington Gifted Academy here in Rockford. I saw the whole school (other than 5th graders, which will be next week) over four presentations. The kids were great, and seemed very interested in the English Channel swim and school building project in Angola. I really got the middle schoolers attention with a photo I took in Angola of a skull hanging on a tree (marking territory during the civil war). I think they got the message that kids everywhere value education, and that they can really make a difference by helping the folks in Angola help themselves through education.

I look forward to seeing whether 6th, 7th or 8th grade raises the most money!

And I look forward to seeing how much the 1st-5th graders can come up with.

Thanks kids!

You can donate now by going to www.SwimMikeSwim.com and clicking on the "donate" link!

Swimming for Schools

2009-05-15T07:36:00.004-05:00

The big news currently is that we are soon to have a big event called "Swimming for Schools." This is a fundraiser and educational project involving Washington Gifted Academy, where I have been the swim team coach the last couple of years (All City Champions 2009!). Members of the swim team will participate in a "Swim-a-thon" on Saturday, May 30, collecting pledges and donations for their swimming. Plus, kids from the whole school are being encouraged to bring in money for Swimming for Schools. The lower grades have been matched with certain swimmers to raise money for them, and the 6th, 7th and 8th grades are squared off against each other to see who can raise the most money. Who will it be???

To contribute to the Swimming for Schools project (and, yes, all the money goes to build the school in Angola!) just go to www.SwimMikeSwim.com and click on the "donate" link. Thanks!

Update

2009-05-14T21:02:00.002-05:00

I have realized that it would be helpful to have a "bloggish" link on the SwimMikeSwim website which leads to regular updates on my training, and other stuff. So that is officially the renewed purpose of this blog.

So where are we?

Swimming - Last Monday (May 13) was 4 1/2 hours in 61 degree water, backyard pool, tethered. I had a rough beginning to that swim but the last three hours wasn't too bad. Overall, I'm very satisfied with my training so far, and looking forward to my six hour qualifying swim in San Francisco in the middle of July. On this blog I'll only mention the long swims, but I also do regular speed work at the Y.

Fundraising - We are at just over $4000, which is nice, but I'm hoping things really pick up soon. We have a Swim-a-thon fundraiser through Washington Academy (where I was the swim coach) on May 30, and hopefully that will bring in a nice sum (even if it doesn't, I'll be happy just to get the kids involved in a service project and have them learn a little bit about Angola). We are also planning a community wide "Faith Night" at Magic Waters (local, big time water park). If that takes off, we could make several thousand off that. Here's hoping!

That's all for now. Regular updates to follow.

New Website

2009-03-20T00:06:00.004-05:00

Well, today was the big roll-out of the publicity effort in support of the fundraising for my Channel swim. SwimMikeSwim.com is now a separate website, with lots of information borrowed from the blog here, along with some new stuff, and it makes donating very easy!

I'm not sure what will happen with this full blog, given the prevalence of Facebook and Twitter (see SwimMikeSwim at both!), and the centrality of SwimMikeSwim.com. So, we'll have to see if there is still a role for this. Probably. It's good to have a longer format sometimes.

The good news is that the local paper, the Rockford Register Star, picked up the story right away and there is an article in the on-line version tonight, and hopefully will be in the print version tomorrow!

Fundraising!

2009-03-01T21:24:00.003-06:00

Wow. You put a bunch of talented, thoughtful, compassionate people who are generous with time in a room and great things can happen. Today I gathered a few wonderful people together to help get the fundraising part of this moving along, and we made great progress in just a couple of hours. These folks were very confident we would be able to get significant publicity, in Rockford, Chicago, and maybe beyond! We have some jobs assigned, and will soon be making calls to some key people and businesses, trying to get seed money to enable more serious fundraising. Anybody like to donate $2000 to help make the $50,000 possible??? If so, click here! (And then click the green button on the left hand side of that page.)

This blog will hopefully soon expand into a fundraising juggernaut, with more information and a broader audience in mind. But I'll still keep the personal touch, as this whole effort to raise money for the school in Waku Kungu is deeply personal to me!

Peace!

A Sign Post

2009-01-03T10:35:00.004-06:00

On January 1st, I met a mid-term goal I had set for myself and swam 16,000 yards (9.09 miles). The Channel is just about 38,000 yards (21.65 miles, or so). To maximize the fun (ha!) I swam in the YMCA 25 yard pool, as I usually do. That's 640 lengths. It took four hours and thirty six minutes, including a couple stops to chat and unhurried feeding with E-gel.

It feels good to meet a goal, a sign-post along the way. Just 12 miles more! But the distance isn't the only consideration, perhaps not even the most important one. That's 12 miles more through 60-degree-salt-water-with-waves-and-wind-and-currents-and-darkness. So although it is good to be 42% of the way there distance-wise, I'm probably only 20% of the way there difficulty-wise. Good thing I don't swim for another 9 months - plenty of time!

The fund-raising is progressing. In the next week or so, I'll come up with some sort of visual to track the donations. This month I will be meeting with a committee of people to plan the fund-raising in earnest and begin to get the word out more broadly. You can be an early supporter! Donate here (click on the green button on the left side of that page).

A blessed new year to all!

Just Keep Training (and encouraging donations!)

2008-12-20T10:17:00.017-06:00

First of all, Merry Christmas! May the Prince of Peace bless, guide and strengthen you.

Second, how about a Christmas gift for the kids in Waku Kungo, Angola? Of course, I am doing this swim to raise money to build a school in Waku Kungo, and your gift would be a great help! Donate here (click the green button on the left side of that page). Of course the economy is bad, and we might think finances are tight right now, but for a little motivation do two things: go visit GlobalRichList.com. That helps put things in perspective. Then consider that the average "real purchasing power" of people in Angola is about $3,000 a year. Imagine trying to survive, and house, and feed, and educate yourself and a large family (the average woman in Angola has six kids) on $3,000 a year. Puts our "recession" in an interesting light, no? But you can make a real, long term difference by supporting education in Angola!

So, swimming the Channel: the last few weeks have been mostly about getting in as much training as possible. Swimming 10,000 yards in a 25 yard pool isn't exactly entertaining, but it must be done. I've been trying to mix up long sessions at "forever pace" and faster training. Especially in the early phase of training, the long, relatively slow sessions should be about 30% of total yardage, and swimming faster than Channel pace with a little bit of rest should be about 60% of training. The other 10% is really fast with lots of rest. I probably don't do enough of that, and should fix that. A normal training session at this point lasts from one and half to three hours. I am building up to do a four hour continuous swim on New Year's Day.

The President of the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation (Mike Oram) runs a Google Group for Channel swimmers (successful, experienced people, and newbies like me). It is a great source of information, and the successful Channel swimmers are wonderfully willing to share their experience and advice. They all just want to get the next person across. I've been reading past notes and getting good information through emails. Some of my most important recent learnings:

** I really, really need to get salt water experience as soon as possible. Salt water is hard on you - both skin and digestive system. You naturally swallow some water when you swim and your stomach generally doesn't like it. You have to get used to it. My experience in salt water amounts to playing at the beach in Florida, so I have a lot to learn here.

** There are more open water swimmers in the midwest than I would have thought. I have made contact with some successful Channel swimmers from Chicago who swim in Lake Michigan as soon as it gets warm enough (sounds like they consider 55 warm enough!). That should make for some excellent open, cold water training.

** The best place to train in conditions that are similar the English Channel is San Francisco Bay. There is a great open water swimming group there (the Dolphin Club), some of whom swim year round. I am hoping to get out to SF in June for a "Channel Swimming Camp" they have. Sounds like it would be invaluable experience.

** Here are two interesting photos that Mike Oram sent me, to make the point of how unpredictable the Channel is, thus how thoroughly prepared you have to be. The first picture is of the Dover Harbor on a, shall we say, "challenging" day (yes, the Harbor! And note the sky is even blue in the background.). The second is in the middle of the Channel on a perfect day. (No one would actually attempt a swim on a day like the first picture, but it does make the point.)

Also, at the top of this post is a picture of the Anastasia, the boat that will escort me across.

I also learned recently that my pilot, Eddie Spelling, had 19 Channel crossing scheduled for 2008. Fifteen of those were successful, three were unsuccessful (got tired, then cold), and one was not able to make attempt due to extended bad weather.

Not much is new on the Waku Kungo school front. Donna Dudley, my main contact person in Angola, was here the States recently and I gave her a digital camera to give to someone in Waku Kungo. So hopefully in a month or so, they will be able to send me pictures from Wake Kungo. That would be great!

Remember, donate now to help the kids of Waku Kungo, Angola, get a decent education and grow up to contribute to well-being of others in Angola.

Peace and a Merry Christmas to all!

More about Waku Kungo

2008-11-26T13:05:00.008-06:00

Like many swimmers, I am using my English Channel swim to raise money for charity. "Charity" has gotten something of a bad name because some think it implies that the recipients are not able to take care of themselves. But the root of "charity" is simply "concern" or "love," and charity is the virtue of love directed first toward God but also toward oneself and one's neighbors as objects of God's love. So the word "charity" is just fine with me.

I wrote a few months ago about the project I am working on (see the post from June 20, 2008). In consultation with our church partners in Angola (the Evangelical Congregational Church in Angola - or IECA - pronounced YEAH-kah) , we decided that the best project would be to support the building of a school in Waku Kungo.

Like most people in materially poor countries, people in Angola realize that education is absolutely critical to their future. It is IECA's top priority for their social mission programs. They already run dozens of schools throughout the country, some of which provide the only access to education for children of the area. In Waku Kungo, there are functioning public schools but they are vastly overcrowded. Angola has a very young population, with about 50% of people under age 20. There are about 37,000 students enrolled in schools in the Waku Kungo area, but still another 6,000 or so who are currently outside of the school system. What limits school enrollment is the sheer number of available classrooms. So the schools run by the government don't come close to meeting the need, especially in a quickly growing city like Waku Kungo. Even those who are enrolled usually only are able to go to school for two or three hours a day, and of course, face huge challenges in doing even that.

The government only spends 3.8% of its budget on education. That is below average even compared to the other nations of southern Africa. Furthermore, only 18% of that 3.8% goes to elementary level education. Within Angola, relative income level makes a huge difference in access to education. The World Bank says that only 35% of the poorest fifth of children in Angola have access to any education at all, compared to 77% of the top fifth (note that the top fifth still live in terrible poverty).

Wonderful children like these two need to have a chance:

IECA, therefore, works hard to promote education, especially at the elementary level where it matters most of all for giving kids a shot at a self-sufficient future. This allows them to carry out the official mission of their social programs:

To create a more just Angolan society, founded on ethical-moral

and biblical principles, leading to a better world for all.

IECA already has a school in Waku Kungo where they provide the primary education for some kids and supplement the public education system with additional education for others. They are currently about to help about 120 kids. With a new building and a power generator, they could triple the number of kids they can serve and help them all much more effectively.

The kids can go from a building that is made mostly of corregated tin and plastic, with a dirt floor and no electricity, to something like this:

For $50,000 (the amount I want to raise through my English Channel swim) they can build a solid, durable and functional building with four classrooms, one office, one teachers'/prep/supplies room, plus bathrooms.

That's what this is all about. You can donate here (click the green button on the left side of that page).

Ways to Fail

2008-10-31T13:27:00.003-05:00

It is probably best to get this out of the way early and then move on to "failure is not an option" mode. Based on what I have learned from other people's experience (oodles of website/blog personal accounts, and three print books) there seem to be several common reasons people fail to make it across the Channel.

But first, donate now! (click on the green button on the lelt side of that page). You can help build a school for smart and eager, but very poor and educationally underserved kids in Waku Kungo, Angola. More about the school in the next few days. Okay, on to ways to fail at this swim.

1. Bad luck - This may seem like a poor excuse, but everyone says that luck, simple random chance, has a significant role in your swim. The biggest variable is the weather. Sometimes, with basically a one week window of opportunity, you just don't get a day that gives you a reasonable shot at success - the wind and waves are just too much. People do occasionally complete all the prep and do everything right, and then not even get a chance to swim. That would be a major bummer! Then there are the marginal weather days, when an attempt is possible, but not promising. If you get one of those, and the weather turns worse instead of better, then the swim can be nearly impossible. Then there are the simply surprising days, when the weather gurus predict a good day, but it doesn't pan out that way. The tides and currents can also be slightly variable depending on the weather and lunar alignment. Your boat pilot knows the basic patterns and timing, but the wind can make things change a little early or late, which can ruin the timing of your swim - and timing is critical (the pilot charts your path based on expected swimming speed and expected tide/current pattern).

Outside of the weather, jellyfish stings are also unpredictable and can keep you from continuing - although most stings do not seem to be very severe and most people tough it out.

Then there is also regular illness or injury. Either can keep you from having a successful swim.

Of course, you can take these situations of "bad luck" and deal with them more or less successfully. A very strong swimmer in good shape will be able to deal with worse weather than those less prepared. You can be mentally prepared to swim through the pain of a jellyfish sting, and carefully control your training to decrease your chances of illness or injury. Still though, sometimes stuff (especially the weather) is just beyond your control. It is one of the things that makes swimming the Channel such a challenge.

2. Cold water - Given decent weather, the number one reason people fail to make it across the Channel is succumbing to the cold water. When I swim the water will likely be somewhere between 60 - 64 degrees. (It was 63 at the equivalent time this year.) For the Channel, that's not too bad. Getting used to swimming in cold water is absolutely essential to a successful swim. If you don't acclimate, you don't celebrate! Of course, this is completely within your control. People do seem to acclimate to cold water more or less easily, but everyone can do it with enough effort. This summer/fall I found it fairly easy to get used to water down to 64 degrees, but only was up to 2 hours at that temp. Swimming for many hours in cold water will be a top priority next spring and summer.

Oh, I should probably say that body fat is also a key to staying warm enough in the water. This might be the only athletic challenge for which a significant amount of body fat is better (I suppose that's also true for sumo wrestling - but is that really a sport?). Being in shape and lean is a good way to lose to the cold. Being in shape and having quite a few extra pounds on you is good. I am about 20 pounds over my Ironman weight (which honestly was too high for an Ironman who focuses on time - but I don't), so at least I have that one covered!

3. Inadequate training - Of course, you also have to put in the mileage. Sometimes people are not able to complete their crossing because of sheer exhaustion or pain, due to inadequate training. In reality though, even in this case, the thing that stops you is the cold. When you are so tired, or in pain, that you have to slow down, then your body is no longer producing enough heat to keep you warm, no matter how well acclimated you are. The key is to be in good enough shape that you can keep working hard and producing enough body heat for the many hours of your swim.

4. Mental mistakes - You can greatly decrease your chances of a successful swim by poor mental training, and poor planning and poor decision making. Training your brain for the boredom is important, because if you get bored and get discouraged you can pysche yourself out and give up. Training your brain for swimming in the dark is also important, as most swims include at least a few hours in the dark (if your window of good weather starts at 8:00 p.m., you swim anyway), and those can be pretty tough hours mentally.

As for planning, your nutrition plan for the swim is key. Of course, you have to eat and drink during the swim, and that means you have to eat and drink in the same way during your training swims to find out exactly what works to keep you going, and what doesn't. You have to develop a successful plan and then stick with it during the swim, allowing for real time adjustments. If you don't take in calories, you end up with no energy, and you slow down and get cold and get out. If you don't take in water/fluid, you get dehydrated, your muscles can't function, and you slow down and get cold and get out.

The other main mental mistake is probably failing to be honest and accurate about your swimming speed. Your pilot calculates the best path across the Channel based on your predicted speed. If you tell your pilot you expect to swim the Channel in 14 hours, you are going to be in trouble if it really takes you 16. The pilot can make some adjustments mid-swim, but if you are slower than you said, and you "miss the point" at Cap Griz Nez, you make things very difficult for yourself, adding hours of depressing, and sometimes fruitless, effort. (Going faster than you said is not disasterous, although your swim won't be as fast as if you predicted your speed properly.)

So, from what I have learned, that's how you fail! A few years ago, "they" used to say that fewer than one in five people were successful in their attempt to swim the Channel. It seems that the success rate has increased in recent years, due to better boat piloting (thanks to more experience and available information), and better swimmer preparation. If I understand right, the success rate is now about 40-50%.

As I prepare for my swim, I like knowing about all the things that can go wrong. The more you know, the more you can control. The more you can control, the better your chances of success. If I give it my best mentally and physically, I think I have a very good shot at becoming one of the first 1000 people to swim the English Channel!

Remember, donate now! (click on the green button on that page).

Just Training

2008-10-28T10:12:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was a "long" training day: 2 1/2 hours. "Long" is in quotes because 2 1/2 hours will eventually be just a warm-up for the 13 hour Channel swim, but it was long for now. 5000 straight swim, 10x100 on 1:30 (coming in btn 1:20 and 1:25), 4000 straight swim = total 10,000 in 2 hours 30 min 45 seconds (5.68 miles).

2 1/2 hours in a 25 yard pool does present certain boredom issues. To keep track of the distance and speed I have to count lengths (10,000 is 400 lengths), and in order not to lose count, I pretty much don't think about anything else. So that gets old. But so far the challenge of keeping up the pace and focusing on my stroke quality has been adequate to keep me entertained.

One way to address that problem is to go find an Olympic distance pool. Unfortunately, the closest one set up to allow long course (50 meter) swimming in the winter is at a YMCA just north of Milwaukee. I went there on Sunday and it is just beautiful. It is one of the best pools in the country (and may have been the best 30 years ago when it was built). I hope to get up there a couple of times per month in the winter. As soon as it is warm enough in the Spring, I'll do long swims in open water.

The Blog is Active Again!

2008-10-27T09:28:00.003-05:00

Well, I got the basic information up here early, and now it is time to make use of the blog on a regular basis.

First, one bit of great news: my church received a grant from the Lilly Endowment National Clergy Renewal Program to finance the activities of my sabbatical, including the English Channel swim. I was committed to the swim anyway, but this grant will make it easier to cover the costs of swimming the Channel. (Just to be clear - 100% of your donations go directly to the school in Waku Kungo, Angola.)

Second, good news on the Waku Kungo front. The school project is now fully approved by our church partners from IECA (the Congregational Church of Angola), and I have learned some more details about what we will be doing. As I mentioned before the church already has a school functioning in Waku Kungo, but it is very rudimentary. Our project will enable them to build a permanant school structure, and triple the number of kids they can help educate - from 120 to 360 or so. It is amazing to think that with only $50,000 they can do so much. IECA knows that education is the key to the economic and social well-being of their people, and it is their top "social mission" priority. You can donate here (click on the green button on the left side of that page), and help transform the lives of hundreds of wonderful kids in Waku Kungo.

Third, my training: I have begun to train in earnest for the swim, and am now slowly increasing my yardage. I am trying to do this intelligently, taking advantage of my knowledge of endurance training from running/tri-ing, of my experience in swimming, and of modern research about swimming. I know from experience that I want to do more at this point than I probably should do. The basic danger is that I will pull a muscle and lose two or three weeks of good training, so I am holding back some. Swimming (consistent with running) research says, perhaps surprisingly, that I need to include a good deal of harder, shorter training at this early point. That builds more muscle mass, which means you have more draw from a little later when you focus on endurance more.

But I am doing some longer stuff too. Without too much difficulty I worked up to a four hour, eight and a half mile swim in Lake Michigan: photo above (yes, the little splash is me - thanks to Frank and Diane Bunker for the escort!). The water was 67 degrees. I would have preferred colder, for the experience, but that's when the timing worked. I did two hours in 64 degrees in the back yard pool (yes, swimming in place, tethered to the side with a fancy rubber cord - yes, it gets boring). The Channel should be around 63 when I swim, so I know have a little better idea of what is involved in getting used to the cold, and am confident I can do it. That will be one of two top goals beginning about April of 2009 (the other being endurance of course).

For the record and anybody actually interested in the swimming: A good set for me right now is 10x100 (yards) on 1:30. Yesterday I was coming in at 1:20 for all of them, with the last one on 1:14. I did a 1000 yesterday on 13:50. I do lots of 1000's on 15:00 intervals, and am keeping a consistent pace of 4000 yards per hour, no matter the set. That is in a 25 yard pool, with turns obviously, so I am not sure how that translates to swimming speed in the Channel. But it is pretty consistent with my eight and a half mile four hour open water swim.

Well, that's enough for now. Remember donate here! I'll be writing regularly now, so come to SwimMikeSwim.com often!

Peace

Swimming for Waku Kungo

2008-06-20T12:43:00.000-05:00

Swimming the English Channel is a difficult challenge. But it is nothing compared to the challenges that the vast majority of people in Angola face on a daily basis. I will be swimming not only for myself, but for the church and the children in Waku Kungo. (This post gets a little long, so before I lose you, I invite you to donate here - through the green button on the left side of that page.)

It is, admittedly, something of an indulgence to attempt a Channel swim. It will take hundreds of hours of training and thousands of dollars. That is time, energy and treasure that could well be directed toward something that is a little (or a lot) less about me. When I swim the Channel, however, it will be part of a three month time of personal and professional renewal. As scheduled when I was called six years ago, I will be taking a sabbatical from my ministry at Second Congregational United Church of Christ. During this extended time away, I will engage in worship, service and play - all key elements of deep personal and spiritual renewal. The time of renewal will allow me to begin a new chapter in my service to my church, and remain vital for long term ministry at Second Con. The experience of pastors and churches through the years has shown that this kind of renewal is tremendously valuable for both the pastor and the church. So, while I don't discount the "indulgence" aspect of this, I see my Channel swim more as a "gift" that am receiving from God and my congregation: a gift for which I am tremendously grateful.

Through some serious work I did for my Doctor of Ministry degree, I discovered that the Bible has a vision of how God's people best experience true renewal: worship, service, and play. The Sabbath is a weekly day of renewal, and those three things are what the Sabbath is really all about. As sort of a "super-Sabbath," worship, service, and play also are key to what a sabbatical is all about.

As a way to experience a deep and faithful type of renewal I wanted to make service to others a key part of my sabbatical. So with my Channel swim I will be raising money to build a school in Waku Kungo, Angola.

I first visited Angola in 2005 as part of a "relationship building" trip with the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ (our regional grouping of UCC churches). We have an ongoing partnership with the Evangelical Congregational Church of Angola (or IECA, pronounced YAY-ka). During that trip I saw first hand what amazing faith and joy the people of IECA have in the midst of economic and social challenges that most of us cannot imagine.

Angola suffered through a horrific civil war (what other kind of civil war is there?) from 1975-2002. It was based in an internal fight for power as colonial Portuguese rule came to end, and inflamed by the involvement of the Soviet Union and the United States. It was a hot-spot in the euphemistically named "Cold War." It may have been "cold" for us. But millions of people died because of it.

In 2002 the civil war ended. Ironically, the "wrong side" won (the side supported by the Soviets early on - although in the 27 years of the conflict the politics of the whole thing changed several times), but Angola came out of it with a free market economy and a (marginally) democratic government. Since 2002, the country has begun to make economic progress, but the vast majority of people live in what we would call "poverty." For them, it is just everyday life, and nearly everyone around them faces the same situation. The average family income (which is skewed because of a wide gap between rich and poor and a very small middle class) is about $3000 U.S. dollars (that's actual purchasing power). And that is with no government social support. Just try to imagine meeting every need of a family on $3000.

Because of my 2005 trip and our ongoing relationship I knew I wanted to devote the service part of my sabbatical to the social ministry that IECA is doing. They do so much with so little. In conversation with IECA leaders, and following their lead, we decided that the funds I raise would go to build a school in Waku Kungo. In their social ministry IECA places a huge emphasis on education, realizing that education is critically important in both personal and economic development. Waku Kungo is one of the most under served areas in which IECA is active. Children in Waku Kungo now learn in a "building" of mud blocks and a grass roof. They have no educational materials: no books, desks, paper, pencils. And the kids who face these conditions are the lucky ones. Many, many children get no schooling at all. By building a new building, of better materials and larger size, the church will be able to accommodate many more children and provide a much more positive environment for learning for these children who eagerly long to learn.

You can help make their dream of a new school building a reality by contributing now (through the green button on the left side of that page).

Come back soon for more information about the challenge of swimming the English Channel.

Peace

Swim Mike Swim

2008-05-22T21:50:00.001-05:00

"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." (Genesis 1:2)

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." (Walt Disney)

Sometime near the end of July, 2009, I am going to swim across the English Channel. It's hard to explain why I am going to do this, but it has something to do with those two quotes. In water I feel peace, as if the Spirit of God is still moving upon the face of the waters. Life was created in water, and water still gives life.

That may account for the water, but what about the swimming? And what about the 23 miles of 62 degree water and powerful tides between Dover and Cape Gris-Nez? Well, that's where Walt Disney comes in. It is kind of fun to do the impossible - or at least the ridiculously challenging. I'm not into danger, but without a challenge before me, I feel a dull torpor. Most of the really important stuff in life (like discipleship, marriage, parenthood) doesn't come with much of a finish line. So it's nice to take on a clear challenge, and in the end be able to say to yourself, "That'll do, pig. That'll do." I think that is what real fun is all about - what people used to call "pride," before that word got confused with "arrogance."

I want to swim the English Channel for another reason as well: to raise money to build a school in Waku Kungo, Angola. I'll have to explain that part of this challenge in an upcoming post, but I'll just say now that doing something for the children of Waku Kungo is not a burden, but a gift. "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required." (Luke 12:48)

You can contribute now. Donate here. (Through the green button on the left side of that page.)

Until next time, it's "Swim, Mike, swim."

Peace