An update -- at last!

Sorry about the delay in my posting; the closer the trip gets, the more busy I seem to become. A myriad of not-Africa-related things like three jobs, a mouse chewing through my moped's fuel line (thanks Dad for taking care of that fiasco!) and my laptop giving up the ghost meant that updating this had to take a temporary back seat.

It is now less than 10 days before we travel to Africa. We've had quite a few meetings since then, most notably learning about South African history and a few more activities for the kids.

I wanted to write this post mostly about our meeting yesterday, which consisted of a self-defence lesson through IMPACT Chicago, which I have decided is a simply awesome group. (Check out the video on their front page... we didn't learn all those moves, but the palmheel-to-the-face, knees-to-the-groin and head, and kicking from a prone position were all covered)

We started at 11. Our trainers were Naomi and Mark. Naomi was a very sweet woman who was also a social worker. Mark was this huge bouncer-type guy with a shaved head and goatee-beard thing going on. Both of them were exceedingly nice and fun and caring. Even though we learned a lot of "moves", we also spent a lot of time talking about what we were doing. Normally I'm not a huge fan of talking-about-feelings type activities, but it was definitely important here, and I appreciated it.

I was surprised at how emotional I did feel about the whole thing. As a girl, especially one as short as me, I get kind of talked down to about my physical strength all the time. Guys love pulling that "try to punch me in the arm as hard as you can" thing and if I do it I'm invariably told "haha, that didn't hurt at all!" So, while I never discounted myself as a fighter if I were to ever be attacked in any way (as I like to say, "I'm small, but I'm scrappy"), but I did seriously doubt my ability to defend myself effectively. I think subconsciously I figured that I'd fight, but that it probably wouldn't work.

Not so at all (as this course taught me). Just by giving us a few tools, a few pointers, I feel capable of defending myself now. If push comes to shove, I can hit hard enough to knock someone down, and hard enough again to knock someone out. I can use what strengths I do have to my advantage. Am I ever going to be able to take a guy on in a fistfight? Probably not. But I'm not looking for a fight; I just want to protect myself, and that I can do pretty confidently.

This epiphany came pretty early in the class after we realized that the knees-to-the-groin that we were delivering were literally knocking Mark (6-foot-something and 200+ pounds of muscle) off his feet. He didn't fall down after them, but that's only because of the extensive, specialized padded suit he wore. I think we'd all assume that his being lifted off his feet by our strikes was an act by him, but it wasn't. That realization, that I am able to do something like that, was suprisingly emotional. After a lifetime of being subtlely told that I couldn't take a guy in a fight, the truth hit like a freight train.

I will say this; if I ever have a daughter she will take one of IMPACT's core classes before going to college. I know that Marsha (DeWilt team) told me afterwards how relieved it made her to see her daughter, Jessy (who is going with me to Ingwavuma) be able to easily defend herself; I think my mom and dad would've been similiarly relieved if they could've seen me.

Another wonderful thing about this training was how much I think we as a team bonded over it. There's just something about cheering each other on and being cheered on in turn in such a charged, adrenaline-fueled atmosphere that brought us so much closer. I just can't express enough how amazing this class was. I hope that someday I have the opportunity to take one of their full, core classes, which takes a few weekends and over a full day of classtime. Unfortunately, but they're in Chicago and kind of expensive.