What is the soul? The answers to that question seem to vary depending on what time period or culture you derive it from.

Varying Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain sources refer to the soul through the term आत्मन् (Ātman), which can translate to breath, or essence. While the three beliefs have very different perspectives on the nature of Ātman, there is a collective agreement that the soul refers to a sense of self, or being. That the distinction of Ātman requires a form of sentience, where the ability to think and feel are determinant of having Ātman. Another aspect of Ātman (at least from a Theravadan Buddhist perspective) is that it is ever changing, flowing, and ultimately impermanent.

Ancient Greek philosophers of the 5th or 6th century seemed to equate the soul with presence. The soul was referenced through the word έμψυχος (émpsukhos), meaning "animated" or in other words, having life or being alive. There is some irony in the word émpsukhos and it's translation of being animated, as early Greek philosophers like Thales would postulate that inanimate objects capable of animate action (like magnets causing objects to move) could be considered alive, and therefore have a soul.

Christian theology seems to reference the soul in many ways and make clear distinction that it is separate from the spirit, the heart, the mind, and body, but at the same time is in some form or way connected with them all. That it is our permanent material representation and being as we are alive, and our permanent immaterial representation after we depart.

Modern scientific scholars seem to have a different opinion altogether. Freud referred to the soul as the psyche, and how it regulated both our conscious and unconscious thought. Neil Degrasse Tyson stated in one of his interviews that the soul itself didn't exist, and that our sense of being is derived from the neurosynapses of our brain.

Where am I going with this? The title of this blog post is a follow-up to my previous post (https://www.globalfastfit.com/post/in-search-of-self) in which I reference the search for self as a retrieval of one's soul. That the ailments that come from what I now know as dysautonomia (https://thedysautonomiaproject.org/dysautonomia/), strip its bearer of that sense of self through a mental process called dissociation.

The medical help I've received and the lifestyle changes I've made have allowed me to regain some of my working and long-term memory back. More information can be processed with each passing day, and some day to day activities that were once difficult e.g. reading, writing, driving, etc. are now beginning to shift back to normal.  

And yet still, one does wonder if the end of this journey to recovery is enough for the solace I seek. Does it return to a point where I can become who I once was? Will I be the same person who enjoyed the things that I did, or are those lost forever? Are they lost because of the illness itself, or the journey it put me through? Is that journey just an aspect of Ātman? Or should I just be thankful that my existence has émpsukhos. Do I have to wait until I depart to get my answer? Or is there nothing in the end, but neurosynapses that just may or may not function effectively again?

One does wonder.

I've been purposely silent for the past few months. Mainly because my past blog posts have painted a rather bleak outlook on a progressively worsening condition affecting my ability to live a normal life. I had decided that one of two things would eventually happen:

My condition would deteriorate to the point that I'd no longer be able to put up a coherent blog post, or I'd finally be able to turn things around and at last will be able to write about having a newfound lease on life. 

I am most fortunate and pleased to say that I'm writing this blog post because I've managed to achieve the latter of that statement.

On January 14th of this year, I visited a functional specialist. It was the first time I had seen a doctor since having my appendix removed after it burst at the beginning of last year. It had become incredibly tiring having a plethora of what many practitioners considered symptoms of potentially debilitating syndromes and diseases only for them to find nothing. I no longer found seeing doctors to be a prudent use of my time and money, and I received no peace of mind from those visits. The change of heart of seeking medical attention while trying something much less conventional proved to have a far more fruitful outcome.

Functional specialists differ from traditional medical practitioners by observing how the body operates as a whole in order to find the potential causes for chronic diseases. After going through my medical history and observing the different reported symptoms I've dealt with, it became immediately clear to him that I had developed a severe form of dysautonomia. Dysautonomia can refer to a variety of different disorders that are related to the nervous system that deal with the autonomic processes within the body. These are the processes that the body can normally regulate on its own, but when there are issues with the central nervous system, the organs connected through it can no longer communicate to the brain.

As you can imagine, everything is connected via your central nervous system, and everything is managed and communicated to/from the brain. Things such as breathing, having to use the restroom, food digestion, temperature control, and much much more. It can be difficult to diagnose by traditional medical practitioners who are fixated and taught to observe structural integrity as opposed to functional integrity.

Since January 14th, after learning about dysautonomia and how to manage it, I've seen my condition improve considerably. While I'm still very far from an ideal stage of recovery, I am absolutely recovering and am far ahead from where I was pre-treatment/lifestyle changes.

I'll be updating again soon if this trend continues. Hope you're all taking care of yourselves and treating your bodies with the respect it deserves!

My last blog post covered some of the very serious digestive system issues that I deal with and how they not only affect my physical health, but also my cognitive and executive function as well. These issues developed over time, and they weren't always this serious. They began as lapses that I started having a decade ago, small things such as withdrawing money from an ATM machine, and then standing there wondering when it would return my debit card. After assuming that my card was swallowed, I resorted to calling the bank to cancel my card and was left wondering how their machinery could malfunction in such a way. It came to my surprise that it wasn't the ATM machine that had malfunctioned, but it was my ability to form new short-term memories. The card was already in my wallet and had been there the entire time.

The reaction I had at that very moment was extremely similar to that of drinking to the point of being black out drunk, it's not the case of being knocked out and forgetting what happened, it's the brain no longer 'recording' what's going on.

While these incidents were seemingly isolated at first, they began to increase in frequency and variety. I made the cardinal sin of believing this to be related to work, or worse yet, believing that it was related to age so I put it off. It couldn't possibly get worse, right?

Just over five years ago, I was walking down a street that I lived on for almost a decade. I know the street intimately, where absolutely anything and everything is. I knew the various stalls, the different vendors, the numerous office workers going up and down the sidewalk, the shoe cobbler sitting alongside the road, the scabby stray dogs and cats, etc. What was meant to be a typical routine stroll ended up becoming a walk down amnesia lane. I was no longer in a place I recognized, but something was still telling me that I should be capable of recognizing it.

Having had a grandmother who had Alzheimer's, I knew well enough to quickly duck into the nearest restaurant, order something to eat, and ask for a pen and paper. I made an extremely pathetic attempt to draw a clock which proved to be wholly unsuccessful.

Why are people that have reduced cognitive ability asked to draw a clock? It's due to the amount of detail and intricacies that are involved on a clock's face. If you were asked to draw a clock that showed the time being half past one then you'd need to first draw the face, place the numerals for the hours, line out the minutes, and correctly draw where the short and long hand point. When cognitive function becomes impacted, something that would seem like a simple task becomes needlessly complicated.

That was when I knew something was seriously wrong, and it was the start of what would become an endless amount of hospital visits where misdiagnoses and incorrect medication made the problem far worse (not to mention my own stubbornness in sticking to the right lifestyle changes, but that's another blog post entirely).

So that was essentially my biggest scare, and the most indicative event that told me something was seriously wrong. I'd taken for granted being healthy all my life, and my hubris and obstinance guaranteed that those issues weren't going away anytime soon. There were other events after this that shot up my health anxiety, such as having a dinner meeting and having no idea where I was and who was around me, seeing shapes, lights, movement, that were never there (I got so used to it at some point that it stopped bothering me), and so on.

Also if you must know, I drew the 1 where the 12 should've been for the clock test that day.

As I've gotten older I've become more and more fascinated by the concept of the soul. In theology, the soul tends to be immaterial, and immortal; an essence of ourselves that represent our individuality and is a piece of our being that extends beyond the body it's housed in. The reason for this fascination has been a culmination of struggle and loss, and what is hopefully not a futile way to come to terms with what's gone.

It's been nearly a decade long battle with my gut issues, admittedly prolonged and worsened by a very steadfast stubbornness against making the right consistent lifestyle changes to combat it.

I've taken a brief hiatus from Global Fast Fit in order to focus on dealing with these issues. I can't represent a global health initiative when I'm teetering on the precipice of ego death and potentially worse.

I've made a few blog posts already on how a broken digestive system can affect your overall well-being, but here's a few personal examples of some of the things I've already dealt with when a flare up occurs:

• Having no working or short-term memory; I'll be told or will see something and have zero idea about it five seconds later (Was I just imagining things?)
• Long-term memory erasure, there end up being these strange gaps in my own personal history, not to mention a deficit in the amount of information I can remember (Who was I? Who am I?)
• Losing the ability to speak, listen, read, write coherently, no longer being able to mentally perform simple mathematics, this one is probably the most common amongst people with digestive issues and is easily the most destructive when it comes to leading any kind of social life (All of you are talking and yet I have no idea what any of you are saying and how to respond to it.)
• Total loss of executive function; everything's connected, but the why's and how's of anything are no longer there (Autopilot is on, I do these things because something is telling me to, but I don't know why.)
• Loss of reaction speed/reflexes, this has unfortunately made it incredibly dangerous to drive, especially when I'm with someone or if I have the radio on; it's also near impossible to multitask 
• Perception and cognizance loss, a good example of this is if I want to do pull-ups and need to jump to grab the bar; I can no longer judge or gauge the distance that I need to jump to reach it
• Disassociation and disinterest, things once enjoyable are now completely mundane; humor begins to fade, sadly, anger and frustration does not (Was I really actually interested in this before?)
  

It's a longer list, but I don't care to continue it. I don't wish to give any more care or power to something that should've been gone years ago.

There have been some extremes and some outright scares throughout the years, but overall it's beginning to improve. The start of 2024 was awful, but there had been some significant progress as it came to a close. Some of my working memory began to return at the end of November, and I've also begun to find entertainment in books again, which is fairly difficult when you can't immerse yourself into the world you're reading about. This is absolutely reversible, but to what extent, I don't know yet.

The blog posts I'll be making moving forward will detail the progress (or regression) I've made in dealing with these issues along with the methodology in that progression/regression.

So here's to 2025, the year I reach the point where I never need to deal with this again. The year I get my soul back.

A study in a Lancet Rheumatology journal revealed that in 2020 over 619 million people suffered from lower back pain and that by 2050 we can expect to see that number increase to 843 million. What's causing so many people around the world to experience it?

There are a lot of varying causes that can lead to lower back pain. Some of the extreme cases for it can come from an issue with an internal organ like a kidney infection, worse yet it could be a tumor, or cancer. Other issues from it may result from a natural irregularity such as scoliosis, or an injury like a herniated or ruptured disk. However, while more than 7.5% of the world's population can't all be suffering only from organ damage, or severe injury. What else is causing so many people to have it? Why is it so prevalent?

Is it psychosomatic? Are people just imagining that they have back pain? While it's possible that there are cases for people to have phantom pain it's likely going to be an outlier toward the extreme minority. The reason for this is due to how easy it is to actually have lower back pain. So let's look at some of the more common causes of it.

We're now living in an era where it's easier to encounter someone who is either overweight/obese, living a sedentary lifestyle, or is constantly in a seated position whether that be due to work or the aforementioned sedentary lifestyle. Many of these factors can lead to lower back pain because of the imbalances that they cause, such as having excess bulk putting too much weight on the spine, inactivity leading to muscle weakness, poor posture causing misalignment, etc.

Another issue is the lack of awareness of how these habits lead to lower back pain. For instance, someone who is living a sedentary lifestyle may not have the understanding that their underutilized muscles is causing their back pain. Worse yet, they may not have access to someone who is capable of diagnosing and dealing with these problems. Issues from all over the body can lead to lower back pain, hence the title of this post. Maybe the hip flexors are weak, maybe their range of motion is poor, perhaps the groin is tight? Even if you fix these issues, it isn't guaranteed that the problems end with them because the issues don't even need to be near your back for there to be pain. Maybe ankle mobility is poor leading to muscular compensation and imbalances that end up leading to lower back pain, or maybe it's somewhere in the upper body such as the scapula no longer being utilized, also causing imbalances that again end up leading to lower back pain.

Just by these examples you can see how there'd be a snowball effect of how problems can worsen over time making it harder and harder to deal with lower back pain. But why do these problems lead to that one specific area? The musculoskeletal system is all interconnected, with muscle groups working together in harmony to support or alleviate the workload of other parts of the body. When something has become unused, strained, weak, misaligned, etc., then it forces other groups to pick up the slack and work harder to compensate. Using the example that was given about the lack of ankle mobility, poor ankle flexion could lead to the calves becoming tight, which moves upward into the hamstrings, up through the glutes, and into the lower back. Someone who becomes aware of the tightness in the areas leading to the lower back may try to release tightness by stretching the muscles near it, but may fail to find the actual source of the problem, which in this case would be poor ankle mobility. The same applies to the upper body.

What about people that are performing physical labor for a living? There are still plenty of people around the world that aren't working desk jobs, why do they have back pain? The answer is also imbalances caused by the repetitive movements, along with the weighted loads that they have to move or carry. Being able to lift heavy doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to avoid these problems, especially if lifting heavily reinforces a poor posture.

So if you're someone that's dealing with lower back pain that's coming from one of the more severe potential causes like a kidney infection, then of course seek medical assistance. If it's from an injury then again, seek medical assistance. However, if it's from one of the more common causes such as weight management, a sedentary lifestyle, poor posture, too much sitting, etc., then there are plenty of other ways to address the issue. Lifestyle changes are always the best start; it's also incredibly helpful to find a physio or trainer who specializes in mobility to help with stretching and strengthening weak and underused muscles. If that isn't available then all of this falls on you to do your homework, to read, watch, and listen to as much as you can, and start going through what the potential problems are. There's plenty of material available online for research, but never immediately believe what you find, and always test out what works for you. If it eases the pain in your lower back then you're moving in the right direction, but just remember that there are a million and one reasons why it's there and it's on you to go through each one to solve it.

Finally, there's one last solution and that's to just move. Global Fast Fit is an excellent avenue towards this. There's a misconception that Global Fast Fit is only some interval training routine but in reality it's meant to be much more than that. It's a full-body workout that can be done at your own pace without any equipment. By own pace that means that if you can't complete the full routine then it isn't necessary to do so. As mentioned in my previous blog posts, I only just realized that certain exercises like pushups weren't accomplishable by everyone and that's ok. There are ways of building yourself up so that you can correct weaknesses and imbalances before getting to a point of being pain-free. Take a look at this particular case study to see how Global Fast Fit can help people get the functional strength that they need: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvZAMziGCns

So I'd just recently written a post about the importance of gut health (which you can read here: https://www.globalfastfit.com/post/the-importance-of-gut-health-1 ) and wanted to follow up on some things you can do to keep your gut healthy as you age. 

If you're expecting me to give dietary advice on what exactly you should and shouldn't be eating then look elsewhere for it. I don't believe in giving out that kind of advice, nor do I believe in giving advice on how to lose weight, build muscle, etc. Everyone's tolerances, and everyone's issues are all very individual. We're all also very different in how our body processes and metabolizes food. I've had people try to convince me to go vegan to deal with my gut problems and I already know that won't lead to anything but even more issues. That's not to say that being vegan is bad, but it is to say that being vegan isn't for everyone. That leads me to my first point:

1. Know yourself. Your body is incredibly vocal on what it likes and what it doesn't like. If you're consuming something and you're getting bloated, constipated, gassy afterward then you're probably doing your gut a disservice. It has to work extra hard because it's being forced to digest something that isn't normally easy for it to do so. Going back to the vegan point, if it works for you great, but I already know it doesn't work for me. My body naturally digests meat easily, but that won't be the case for everyone. Go with what's easy on your gut so it won't get overworked and keep working optimally well into old age.

2. Variety is the spice of life. Even if my gut digests meat easily that doesn't mean that's the only thing I consume. I try to keep everything as balanced as possible with what's available around me. I won't get into specifics as I don't want this to get too long, but when it comes to my own personal diet, I don't consume much fruit as I've never had a taste for it, but I do take in a lot of vegetables. One of the easiest ways that I know I'm getting the right kind of variety is that I don't eat vegetables of just one particular family. For instance if all I ever had was broccoli and cauliflower, then I'd only be consuming crucifers which would likely lead to deficiencies. I always eat from as many different families as I can, and then to make sure I get the right amount of vitamins and nutrients I'll try to eat vegetables of different color. Nature has been kind enough to color code our meals, so if all you're having is green, then you're probably not getting enough of what you need.

3. Moderation is key. I'd highly caution an excess of anything, especially if it's in the form of a vice. I'm not referring to just alcohol. When I stopped drinking I needed something to replace it so I turned to coffee. Even if coffee isn't as destructive as an overindulgence of alcohol can be, it'll lead to its own issues such as antagonizing stomach acids. So some people might find their answers at the end of a bottle, others from a bowl of ice cream, either way have anything and everything within reason to keep your gut from overworking itself to death.

4. Food quality matters. This is a tougher one because of accessibility, and it isn't just a matter of discipline. Still, if you're cooking yourself, or if you're eating out, then make sure however your food is sourced that it's properly stored, not covered in preservatives/pesticides, not expired, etc. Again, your body will tell you if something you've consumed isn't up to par in the quality department, so if you're sick, or if you're tired after eating something then you need to switch sources. 

So just to recap, that's understanding what individually you can and can't handle, keeping your diet varied so you don't have any deficiencies, not consuming anything to excess whether it be caffeine, alcohol, sugar, etc., and make sure what you're eating is of the right quality. All of these things keep your gut from overworking and lead to an easier transmission of food to energy. There are still plenty of other things to cover, but these alone are enough to avoid a lot of some of the bigger gut related problems. 

Anyone who's been acquainted with me for the past 6+ years is very familiar with my struggles with my gut health and how it's affected me in some incredibly debilitating ways. I wrote a blog earlier about returning to consuming steamed food as a way to avoid aggravating the gut further which you can read here: https://www.globalfastfit.com/post/hello-old-friend-i-never-thought-i-d-miss-you

I do have a backlog of things I need to post, including more of my thoughts on Thai society, Kenya vs. Uganda, etc., but I've always wanted to return to this topic on why it's incredibly important to maintain a healthy gut, and some of the very dire consequences of what happens when you don't.

When I use the term gut I refer to the digestive system as a whole, and all of its working parts which include and is not limited to your stomach, small and large intestine, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, and so on. I also refer to all of its working parts such as the bile produced by the liver, the acids produced by the stomach, the bacteria that reside in the stomach and intestines and so forth. All parts are equally important in their own way, and dysfunction to any of these lead to some severe problems to not just the gut itself but other parts of the body that may not even immediately come to mind.

I would strongly advocate care for your gut due to a plethora of reasons but here are three that should help sway you into doing so: 

First, when any of the working parts of the digestive system begin to break down, your ability to process and synthesize what you eat is reduced and your body has a tougher time finding what it needs to work optimally. If you're someone who values their youth (or at least someone who values how they felt when they were young), then this is more than enough reason to keep things in order. It's amazing how quickly you age when your body doesn't get what it needs on a daily basis because you have a bile issue, acid reflux, or intestinal erosion. If you're inclined to look and feel old, then look no further than letting your body not get any of the nutrients it needs just because your body can't process them anymore. 

Second, if you've seen and read the post I've referenced in the first paragraph then you'll really understand this. Do you enjoy being able to eat whatever you want? If you're a foodie and you live to eat then I promise you that gut issues are the last thing you want to have. Our guts (for the most part) are extremely durable, with some more than others depending on genetics. It's easy to overlook any problems because they generally start small. There are a few telltale signs that something is wrong early on to look for. If your stomach sounds like a Category 1 hurricane on a consistent basis, then you're probably going down a bad path. It usually starts with gas (on both ends), so if there's a good amount of it then you need to start taking better care of what you eat and drink. What does it lead to if you don't? All sorts of fun and nasty stuff; you might discover that you're becoming sensitive to certain foods you never were before; the selection of things you can eat and drink without getting sick becomes smaller and smaller. Can't live without coffee? You're going to have to when it gets the stomach acids going. What about the occasional drink here and there? Also gone. Blueberry cheesecake? Too rich, too tasty, and unfortunately too difficult for the stomach to process; gone. The list continues.

The third reason is probably the one reason I'd go back and change my diet and lifestyle habits. How much do you value your ability to observe/comprehend/reason/remember the world around you? When there's enough dysfunction in the digestive system, the central nervous system is directly impacted. The reason that this happens can vary, whether it be stomach acids irritating the vagus nerve, malabsorption of digested foods not allowing for the nervous system to get the right sustenance, gut bacteria not being able to communicate with your brain, the liver not being able to cleanse impurities, etc. One or two of these can make it hard for you to remember what you had for dinner yesterday, several of them can make you forget who your parents are. If there's any reason to take care of your gut, it's this one that gives you the sense of self, and to lose oneself is truly not a reality worth living.

There are many more reasons, but I think the three above should suffice. I may blog about my own personal experiences with these issues in the future if there's any interest in me doing so. The human digestive system is complex, but caring for it doesn't have to be. Just not aggravating the gut and keeping watch for signs that it's getting into poor shape should already give it plenty of longevity. If something you're eating or drinking is causing you to get sick then avoid it; if you need to have a vice like sugar or alcohol then consume it moderately if you can't live without it.

I must admit, I'm beginning to grow fond of the nicknames that I'm seeing arise from some of our competitors.

I'm currently living in a country where absolutely everyone has a nickname. Most Thai first names can be up to four syllables long, so a nickname simplifies matters a great deal. There are a variety of reasons why a Thai person has their nickname. Some of are given based on how someone has looked as an infant, like lek (small), ouan (fat). There are nicknames based on animal sounds like oud (the sound pigs make) or miew (the sound of a cat). Then you get the really silly ones based off of what the current fad is, or what the parent really enjoys. I've met two siblings named Aston, and Benz, so you can assume the mother or father is really into cars. Some get even more silly like when the ASEAN Games were held in Thailand so some kid was unfortunately given the nickname of ASEAN Games. Then there's the totally random ones like Mafia or God.

I'm very pleased with the nicknames of two of the more prominent members of the Global Fast Fit community. That would be Sutinee "Nee" Rasp, and Simon Njuguna Mucheru.

While Sutinee already has a shortened version of her first name (Nee), she has been affectionately, and correctly dubbed, "The Mountain Goat" by her husband Greg. It's incredibly fitting, considering how well she tackles the steep elevations of the ultratrails that would typically cause the untimely end of the uninitiated, unfit, and unqualified.

I'm only just learning of Simon's nickname, "The Pope". Hearing it immediately makes you wonder where he got it from, but judging by Simon's recent GFF Lite score for the #KenyavsUganda Fitness Faceoff, you can see that His Holiness has the authority to win this entire series on his own.

I was very much inspired by Kelvin's rabbit post that I needed to do a food post of my own, just for a very different reason.

Up until recently, I've dealt with crippling gut issues (among many other health problems, but we'll get to those). These were problems that affected my ability to intake and digest food, which led to an ulcer in my esophagus (from GERD), severe erosion in my intestines (also from GERD), prediabetes, diverticulosis, an enlarged liver, and CKD Stage 2 among many other issues.

For several years I was forced to live a very spartan lifestyle in what I ate. As you can see from the title picture, the food that I was forced to have was as bland as you could possibly imagine.

In order to avoid the endless amount of problems that came with severe gut issues, anything I ate had to be steamed, and the only seasoning I could add was salt. This awful diet has been on and off for almost half a decade.

It certainly hasn't been easy, especially when living in a culture where the local food is a source of pride and at such a high emphasis for socialization. When you're a foreigner and you tell Thais that you can't have something because of whatever issue you might have, then it's fine, they'll accept it. When you look like one of them, they take it as pure blasphemy, they call you weak and tell you that your parents didn't raise you correctly, so on and so forth.

To make this short, I've recently managed to begin healing from a lot of the aforementioned issues. All of the problems that I used to deal with are slowly beginning to fade after finally getting the correct treatment. Recently I've splurged on a lot of foods that I've missed out on over the past four or five years. Being able to eat out again has been a luxury, but strangely one that has gotten very old very quickly.

Is all of this really necessary?

As awful as that bland food is, it's pretty much the best thing you could be putting into your body. Vegetables of different colors so you know you're getting the right variety of nutrients, chicken breast for protein, and kabocha squash to add a small amount of carbs for energy. Everything is steamed so all of it is easy for the gut to process and digest.

It's been an epiphany of sorts. As nice as all of the tom yum, butter chicken, borscht, hummus, tom saap, chicken rice, tom kha gai, blueberry cheesecake have been, I find myself back to just steaming my food, and eating bland.

This isn't a holier than thou post, this is one of acceptance. Even with the right treatment, I'm very much aware that these issues can come back if I'm not careful. If you've never had these problems, and can eat and drink whatever you want, then don't take it for granted. I consider myself blessed that I wasn't born with something out of my control like Type I Diabetes. But the weak gut is something well within my control and I no longer choose to make myself sick, as tempting as it is, 

When not toiling on my usual duties with Global Fast Fit, I do enjoy frequenting the occasional art gallery.

I was invited to attend an exhibition opening called, "Who's Cutting Onions?" by famed Thai cartoonist Tum Ulit. I wasn't exactly familiar with his work at the time, and my initial thought was, "An exhibition by a cartoonist? It's probably not for me. I probably won't bother going."

I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have changed my mind. The experience was nothing short of phenomenal. It was also the most packed I've ever seen an art gallery.

Tum Ulit's exhibition is nothing short of a masterclass in an appeal to the raw human psyche. He has perfected the ability to reach deep into your very being and illicit some form of emotional response, usually sorrow or remorse based on his subject matter (hence the name of the exhibit).

What does this have to do with Global Fast Fit?

The way we've been making social media posts over Global Fast Fit has changed for one month now. Global Fast Fit is being performed and utilized in several different countries around the world, there is no shortage of activity going on in each of those countries. Letting everyone immediately know about what's going on in each nation realtime just isn't realistic. It doesn't allow us to convey any form of coherent message, and it doesn't give us any real identity.

I came up in film production and storytelling by proxy, and this has been someting I've wanted to engage in for quite some time now. There are a plethora of interesting stories that need to be told on Global Fast Fit's end. It's one of the reasons why I pushed hard for the revival of Kenya vs. Uganda.

For those that haven't been following, Kenya vs. Uganda had already happened once in May. A single Ugandan challenger named Julius Sekitoleko was capable of capturing the Global Fast Fit Men's World Record Championship from neighboring Kenya, and was more than capable of defending his title. This led to an outpour of effort from the Kenyan side, both in Global Fast Fit contenders, and also in their media production, In recent posts I've named Julius as arguably one of the greatest champions we've ever had simply because of how unrelenting he was in defending his title and being outspoken about it. This all came to an end when Kenyan Clinton Kavai tied him for first. An internal decision led to us leaving things as they were and the rivalry fizzled out from there. 

For months now, I knew this rivalry absolutely needed to be brought back. But why? What makes this rivalry so special? The rivalry is special because it carries with it that familiar appeal to the raw human psyche. This isn't the same solicitation of remorse and sorrow as Tum Ulit's "Who's Cutting Onions" exhibition (not yet, anyway), but an appeal to pride.

Pride in one's self, pride in one's nation has always been effective in garnering not only participants, but also an audience. It's one of the reasons why people are so invested in the Olympics. They aren't there competing, but they're living through their country's competitiors. It doesn't hurt that Kenyans and Ugandans have a bit of history going back and forth with each other.

Everything being done by Global Fast Fit, whether it be supporting schools, empowering women, building communities has meaning. But if you're here for the sheer competitional aspect of Global Fast Fit, then this will be a story to follow. Especially when so much pride is on the line.

This is the first in a series of blog posts about the Kenya vs Uganda rivalry.