One striking feature that keeps recurring everyday I set out for my routine morning walk is a woman I meet coming from the opposite direction.
She always has a heavy load atop her head and holding two other loads in both hands, balancing delicately the load on her head. It’s not just the loads that fascinate me but the distance this woman covers every morning carrying the loads. At the point we meet, she must have covered at least three kilometers. My guess is she’s carrying food which she sells in the town (most likely pap and bean cake).
What keeps ringing in my mind is the fact that while I walk to exercise and keep fit, her walk is to go and earn a living and in the process, she’s exercising without even thinking about it. What I’m putting much effort to do, puffing, panting and sweating, she’s doing without losing any sweat. It’s something she’s taken in her stride.
Any wonder then that these village people are healthier without making conscious effort to be so?
My daily routine exercise entails covering a distance of at least 4 kilometers in about 50 minutes, walking at an average pace of 12 minutes per kilometer. I know this because I’ve downloaded an app on my phone that calculates and tells me how fast I’ve walked and at what pace.