If you're asking if Vince Lombardi could still be successful in today's NFL, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez is answering, "Absolutely, no question. Good coaches are flexible. They adjust.''
Vincent Thomas Lombardi was born on June 11, 1913 in Brooklyn, N.Y.
In honor of what would have been Lombardi's 100th birthday on Tuesday -- he passed away in 1970 -- many have reflected on his Hall of Fame coaching career with the Green Bay Packers.
Celebrating his legacy, ESPN named Lombardi as the Greatest Coach in NFL History as part of its series on the top 20 coaches of all-time. TV analysts and sportswriters made up the selection panel.
"When I think of Lombardi, I think of discipline,'' said Alvarez, 66, the former UW head coach, who's a member of multiple halls of fame, including the Rose Bowl and College Football. "I also think of someone who had a great understanding of the game.
"Lombardi was meticulous like Woody Hayes (the former Ohio State coach). The way Lombardi coached football was not real fancy, but it was done right. It was about fundamentals -- that was driven into you -- and you were going to do the same things over and over until you perfected them.
"When I was in high school and college (in the '60s), Green Bay had made the turn and had become the best team in football. Everybody thought of Lombardi the same way; the same way you think of him today. Greatest of all-time? You can't argue against Lombardi.''
But could he survive in today's game?
"I think so because he would have had control of the franchise,'' Alvarez said. "He would have run the team and he would have been as strong as any player on that team. It would be unlike a lot of pro teams where a coach comes in and it's a temporary stop.
"If you don't get along with the $20 million-dollar-a season guy, it's short-lived. If you don't get along with the owner, it's short-lived. That would not have happened to Lombardi. The way Green Bay was structured, and considering how powerful he was, it reminds me of Bill Belichick in New England.''
As far as Lombardi dealing with today's easily-distracted athletes, Alvarez said, "All we ever hear about is how tough he was, but let's not forget about some of the players that he had -- like Paul Hornung and Max McGee. Those guys raised as much hell as anybody.''
One of the time-honored stories in the NFL was McGee breaking curfew and partying into the early morning hours before the first Super Bowl thinking that he wouldn't have to play against the Kansas City Chiefs. But after Boyd Dowler was injured, a hung-over McGee was forced into action.
McGee caught the first touchdown pass and finished with seven catches for 138 yards.
"All of the players respected Lombardi, but they still got away with a little bit, too,'' said Alvarez, chuckling. "Can you imagine today with all the social media coverage if someone went out until the wee hours of the morning before a Super Bowl? But Lombardi could adapt to that stuff.''
Rounding out the top five behind Lombardi on ESPN's list of greatest NFL coaches was Bill Walsh, Don Shula, George Halas and Chuck Noll. Growing up in Burgettstown, Pa., some 25 miles outside of Pittsburgh, Alvarez was well aware of Noll's success in resurrecting the Steelers.
"I looked up to and respected a lot of NFL coaches, but I really liked Noll because that was a bad outfit that he turned into a great outfit,'' Alvarez said. "I liked coaches who did it the right way with fundamentals, toughness, good defense and hard-nosed football. I loved guys who coached that way.''
Nobody should be surprised, since it was also the Alvarez way of coaching.
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| Tasha and I with Dorcas, one of the grandmothers from our homestay |
What a week!
We finished teaching the health promoter women, and one Maasai man, on Wednesday. They were so inspiring to teach and to watch learn!
Isack, the Maasai man, really fascinated me because Maasai is his first language, Swahili his second, and English his third. While we would teach in English, one of the women of the Nikumbuke Project would translate what was said to Swahili, but it was never translated to Maasai. Then, Isack would answer questions or make a statement and he would say it in English! How impressive. I could not believe it, especially that what he was talking about was consistently a rather complicated health topic and he was able to understand and carry a conversation about it!
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| One of the women making Chapati for dinner, which is a a thick flour tortilla |
On Thursday, we gave the health promoters their final exam, which they needed to pass in order to become official health promoters for their villages. Each health promoter passed and even a few received a perfect score! It really reiterated to us as a group that what we were doing was truly making a difference and that our teaching had gone extremely well.
Friday was our last official day working with the health promoters. We designated Friday to a Domestic Violence Workshop and shared knowledge about domestic violence in relation to physical health and mental health. Although we were nervous at first to discuss such a taboo topic in Kenya, we were relieved when the women began to open up about their experiences and even Isack was interested in learning ways to begin to put an end to domestic violence in their villages.
It was an emotional day but also an extremely rewarding day. Because the women were able to tell us their personal experiences regarding such a triggering topic, we were able to feel how deeply we have connected with them over the past couple of weeks and the lifelong relationship that has been created.
Our last full day in the Lunga Lunga village was on Saturday. There was a huge celebration for Health by Motorbike and the Nikumbuke Project, with our group as the guests of honor. Women of Lunga Lunga were up all night preparing food for the celebration. The entire night was spent laughing -- for hours straight -- with no care in the world!
The morning of the celebration the Maasai arrived on a red pickup truck, standing in the bed packed up like little sardines, with the radio blasting as they danced the entire way! Over 300 women attended, with seven villages present and two Maasai tribes. Personally, I think the women of these villages should have been the guests of honor due to their aura, eagerness to learn, continual happiness each day and for what they have taught us.
The celebration lasted five hours, four of which consisted of nonstop dancing and singing, no exaggeration!
Each village performed their own song and dance for us as a welcome and performed another to present us with gifts. For these villages to all present us with gifts was truly heartwarming. Each of these villages in Eastern Kenya suffer from extreme poverty, barely earning enough money to feed their families, and here they were smiling, dancing, yelling and giving us gifts to say thank you. It truly represented how big their hearts were and how thankful they were to have us as guests in their homes over the past two weeks.
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| The Maasai driving into Lunga Lunga for our celebration day on Saturday |
Not only did each village perform, but we performed as a group for them! Although our voices were not as beautiful as theirs, probably more tone deaf than anything, they loved our performance. We did our own dance and song to Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus. (Maybe I will post the video later, but I will give fair warning, you may want to mute the volume to save your ears from our highly untalented voices).
At the end of the celebration, we presented each health promoter with an official UW-Madison diploma to signify their graduation as a health promoter. Needless to say, there were many tears and gratifying feelings. It was such a powerful day, if only I could have captured the happiness, feeling of community and thankfulness to keep it in a jar forever.
We began our long trek back to Nairobi at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning. The bus ride back took nearly 12 hours. We saw a HUGE giraffe in its natural habitat on the side of the road!
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| A few of the women huddled up during their review for the final exam, playing Jeopardy |
For the next couple of days we will be staying at KICOSHEP again. On Monday we will be going to a baby elephant sanctuary, a giraffe sanctuary and then to a women's group in Nairobi that does beading to make jewelry.
Although this journey is coming to an end, what I have learned from the people of Kenya, especially the women I have had the opportunity to work with, will last forever. I can truly say that I have felt so at peace, in my element and so happy during this entire journey.
The only other time I have truly felt this way is while being on the ice and playing the sport I love. To have found something else to bring that kind of passion to has been life-altering and exciting. My sport has allowed me to feel this passion and this journey has allowed me to learn how to put forth that passion to help others and be the change that I wish to see in the world.
This trip has also taught the effect a single smile can have on a person and their heart. Although we did not speak Swahili very well, we were able to learn how much a smile, the simple touch of a loving hand, or the sound of laughter can impact, not only the people of Kenya, but also ourselves.
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| A view from Wasini Island last weekend |
I am forever changed from this journey and only wish that more people get the opportunity to experience what I have. In order to see change, we must do much more than believe; we must put forth our faith, passion and knowledge to make the world a better place for all.
Thank you so much for following me during this journey! I hope I was able to share with you what I have experienced and have inspired you to find your passion and change the world through your passion!
Asante sana and hakuna matata rafikis!
Brittany Ammerman, a junior on the Wisconsin women's hockey team, is taking part in a one-month trip to Kenya, where she will work with a women's health education program called Health by Motorbike. Over the next month, she will send updates to UWBadgers.com about the once-in-a-lifetime experience. Make sure to check back often to follow her progress!
Habari rafikis!
Sorry it has been a few days since my last post! We have been quite busy in Lunga Lunga!
On Tuesday, we took a motorbike ride to the woodcarvers just across the border towards Tanzania. These men have incredible talent! They stay in their straw mud huts 24/7 carving decorations out of wood. They make everything from little wooden zebras and elephants, to 36-inch tall giraffes, to salad bowls and tongs. You can see every single detail within the carving as well. I cannot wait to show everyone what I bought!
 On Wednesday we took a two-hour motorbike ride out to the Maasai. The Maasai are a very traditional Kenyan tribe who continue to isolate themselves and refuse to integrate into the village life. They wear blue, red and purple robes with big jewelry and ear piercings that they make themselves. The Maasai do not speak Swahili, but speak their own language. We were at the Maasai for almost five hours and could not interact with them by talking, because we did not know the language. However, we were able to communicate with smiles, laughter and games. I bought a soccer ball in Mombasa which I brought with me to the Maasai. We played soccer with the kids for hours, gave them candy and sang songs.
While with the Maasai, Dr. Mwangi and the rest of us were able to see 100 patients, most of which had upper respiratory infections, skin diseases and infections, and UTI’s. Around 4 p.m., the Maasai cooked for us. Our late lunch consisted of goat and rice, which you ate with your hands. It was very interesting, to say the least. The Maasai women then presented us with jewelry that they made by hand for each of us. It was a great deal that the Maasai loved us and welcomed us “mzungus” (westerners), into their home and land.
 On Friday night we stayed at the homes of the women we are teaching. Although we ate dinner at our camp before leaving for our homestays, the women still insisted upon cooking a feast for us. Tasha and I stayed together at grandmother Dorcas’ house just down the road from Lunga Lunga. She cooked us fish, chicken, potatoes, rice, and chipati. It was amazing!
The grandchildren performed a number of songs and dances for us also. Grandma Dorcas then gave us each a conga skirt as a gift and a thank you for visiting Kenya. She asked us to be her Rafiki and to write from America. Grandma Dorcas kept saying to us “Nikumbuke in America”, which means “Remember me in America”. We may go back and stay another night this week because we loved it so much!
Yesterday, we traveled to Diani Beach to swim in the Indian Ocean. We took the 14 women we are teaching with us to the beach. It was their first time in the ocean and at the beach! There were so many smiles and so much laughter the entire day! We stayed in the water for hours and had an absolute blast.
One of the women said to me, “I am so happy. Today is for me. Not for my husband. Not for my children. Not for my family. Today is for me. Thank you so much”. It truly blessed my heart! To be able to participate in this journey has been amazing and to be able to make so many people smile has been such an amazing feeling and experience.
 Yesterday we had a break in the teaching, educating and sharing of knowledge amongst the women. Our group from Wisconsin took a trip to Wasini Island where we were given a tour of the caves in which slaves were kept in before being shipped to Mombasa during the African Slave Trade. We then toured Wasini Island, which is an island off the coast of Kenya that is inhabited by people, but has no running water, electricity, or farming. We were also able to get American food for lunch at a restaurant in one of the beach towns near Wasini Island. That food was much needed after two weeks of rice, beans, and cabbage at every meal!
We began teaching the women on Thursday. It seems to be going well. On Thursday we taught anatomy, on Friday we taught pregnancy and maternal health, and today (Monday) Tracey and I taught nutrition.
It went extremely well- all the women loved how interactive our nutrition lesson was. After the morning session, the women thanked Tracey and I for being such great teachers and told us multiple times how much they learned from us. They seem very excited to bring the information they have learned about nutrition back to their communities and villages. I think they are most enthusiastic about our lesson because it pertains to something they do every single day, multiple times a day -- cooking.
 We are so thrilled that our teaching is going well and we are able to educate these women and also learn from them as we teach!
This last week will be very busy and a bit stressful with all the teaching we must get done, but it is truly amazing to be able to share knowledge with these women and know that we are making a difference. It is hard to write every detail in these posts because so much has happened! But I hope I am able to share a taste of what we are doing here in Kenya and am able to briefly touch on all the activities and experiences we are encountering.
Until next time,
Hakuna Matata Rafikis!
Wisconsin has the fourth-best game day atmosphere behind Alabama, Notre Dame and Florida. Lindy's Sports College Football Preview says so.
Gary Andersen was the third-best coaching hire this past off-season, behind Western Kentucky's Bobby Petrino and South Florida's Willie Taggart. Athlon Sports Big Ten Preview says so.
Andersen was also the new hire that inspired the third-most confidence behind Oregon's Mark Helfrich and the aforementioned Taggart. The Sporting News' College Football Preview says so.
Wisconsin's Jacob Pedersen is the second-best tight end in the country. Lindy's says so.
Wisconsin's Dave Aranda is one of the top new coordinators. Athlon says so.
Wisconsin-Ohio State is one of the Games of the Week, if not the Year. TSN says so.
You get the idea. Everybody has a say in the 2013 preseason college football magazines.
But the beat writers who cover the teams and players have less of a say than you think.
Jeff Potrykus and Tom Mulhern cover the Badgers for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Wisconsin State Journal, respectively. Both are respected, experienced reporters; among the best.
Potrykus wrote the Wisconsin preview and an accompanying feature on Andersen for Athlon Sports. Mulhern wrote the UW preview for Lindy's. Last year, he also filed a Montee Ball feature.
But neither has any input on the preseason Top 25, All-America and all-conference teams, player ratings, position rankings and league predictions that appear in each of these magazines.
It's standard operating procedure. As a whole, the contributing writers, like Potrykus and Mulhern, don't have a voice beyond their team preview and any sidebar or feature.
Among other things, they are responsible for a team's depth chart, which can be problematic because of deadlines. Potrykus had an April 1 deadline. The UW had only six spring practices by then.
"I joked about this with Mulhern,'' said Potrykus, who has been covering the Badgers since the mid-'90s for the Journal Sentinel. "The worst part was the depth chart they wanted, especially with a new staff at Wisconsin. I might as well have pulled names out of a hat. I'm not joking.
"All kidding aside, that's literally how difficult it was to try and put together a depth chart. It's mostly guesswork, which is frustrating because you can't give their readers -- who buy that publication -- nearly as accurate of a picture as you would like.''
Mulhern had a little more flexibility with his late April deadline.
"I was helped by the fact that I could wait until the end of spring practice,'' said Mulhern, who has covered UW football since the late '90s for the State Journal. "But even with that, they had no official depth chart put out by Wisconsin. This year it made it more difficult with the coaching change and a little more stuff up in the air.
"It really is guesswork. You're trying to project things -- four or five months down the road -- and there are really not a lot of concrete answers that time of the year (March-April). I appreciated having the entire spring, but it didn't make it that much easier.''
All of the preseason magazines have regional covers. Wisconsin linebacker Chris Borland and wide receiver Jared Abbrederis are on the cover of the Athlon Sports Big Ten Preview.
Borland shares The Sporting News cover with Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez. UW tailback James White and Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner are on the Lindy's cover.
In Lindy's player ratings, Gardner is listed as the No. 17 quarterback. Ohio State's Braxton Miller is No. 2 -- behind Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel -- while Martinez is No. 13. No other Big Ten QB is rated.
White was curiously not rated among Lindy's top 25 running backs. Melvin Gordon is No. 20 and comes with this disclaimer, "Gordon or tag-teamer James White? Gordon will be the breakout star.''
Ohio State's Carlos Hyde (No. 7), Nebraska's Ameer Abdullah (No. 10) and Northwestern's Venric Mark (No. 11) were all rated above Gordon. But what about White's omission?
"Just based on returning numbers (2,571 career rushing yards), he's got to be in the Top 25,'' Potrykus said. "I honestly think he's going to have his best year because I think they're going to throw to him whether he's lining up as a receiver or coming out of the backfield.''
On the Top 25 snub, Mulhern cited how White has often languished in the shadows of others and noted, "That kind of plays into the way his career has gone, going back to high school when he was kind of the overlooked guy with Giovani Bernard (at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)."
Bernard was the 2012 ACC Offensive Player of the Year at North Carolina and a second-round draft choice of the Cincinnati Bengals. Mulhern suggested that White has thrived when he has not been viewed as the quote-unquote featured back. "I think he kind of likes that role,'' he added.
Lindy's has Pedersen listed as a second-team All-American behind Washington tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins. Athlon and TSN have Borland tabbed as a third-team All-American.
Wisconsin is No. 19 in Athlon's preseason Top 25; No. 24 in TSN; and No. 26 in Lindy's. Potrykus and Mulhern have Ohio State atop the Big Ten overall, followed by Michigan and the Badgers.
The Sept. 28 Leaders Division showdown between the Badgers and the Buckeyes in Columbus in prime time should be special, but it will share the day with LSU at Georgia.
Which is fitting since Wisconsin and LSU may be sharing the field in the near future.
Brittany Ammerman, a junior on the Wisconsin women's hockey team, is taking part in a one-month trip to Kenya, where she will work with a women's health education program called Health by Motorbike. Over the next month, she will send updates to UWBadgers.com about the once-in-a-lifetime experience. Make sure to check back often to follow her progress!
Habari!!!
We have been in the Lunga Lunga community for 3 days now...let the motorbike riding, teaching and working in the health clinic begin!
Our trip from Nairobi to Mombasa to Lunga Lunga took a total of 24 hours. We were on the train from Nairobi to Mombasa overnight from Friday to Saturday for a total of 16 hours! When we awoke on the train Saturday morning, we looked outside the window and the scenery was exactly what one would imagine Africa to look like - absolutely stunning.
In the morning, the train would make a few stops in villages. When the train would begin to slow down, kids from the villages would run to the tracks and ask for food, candy and money. Some of the children were happy to see us and would enthusiastically wave as we passed through. Once again, they were smiling without a care in the world and with faith shining through their eyes. When we arrived in Mombasa, we were greeted by Bendetta, the woman from Lunga Lunga who has partnered with Professor Araceli to keep Health by Motorbike running. She is an amazing woman - so powerful, loving and inspiring.
We loaded onto a Matatu (AKA a bus) and took a three-hour ride out to Lunga Lunga. The scenery during the ride was breathtaking. We would drive for miles through green landscaping and then would drive through very small villages. Majority of the ride was on a dirt road.
Once in Lunga Lunga, we were able to tour the Nikumbuke Project facilities and see where we would be living for the next two weeks. Here in Lunga Lunga, there is no running water and limited electricity. We shower by pouring a bucket of water on ourselves and go to the bathroom in "squatty potties" which are glorified holes in the ground. It is a very sobering experience, but we are all loving it here and the people we are interacting with.
Yesterday we took our first motorbike ride! It was a 35-minute ride to the village of Goto. The roads we traveled on were barely wide enough for two people to walk on. The women of Goto were so excited to see us that many of them cried.
Goto is a farming community and is located in a small desert. The women there do the farming while their husbands are three hours away in the city of Mombasa working or with other wives. But the women are so very passionate and eager to learn from us. Because they are such hard workers, they rarely have time to sing and dance. However, when they saw us we had a celebration with soda, bread, and dancing! They pulled me up to dance with them and sang my name. They are a really special group of women and I cannot wait to work with a couple of them this week.
Today we had a lecture on maternal health from a local doctor, Dr. Mwangi. We then toured the medical clinic here. Beginning on Thursday, we will be working in the medical clinic to aid in weighing babies, admitting patients, working in the pharmacy, and observing deliveries! We will also begin our teaching of women's health on Thursday as well.
This year, there are seven villages involved and two women have been selected from each village to come learn from us and become "health promoters". But before that, we will be visiting the Massai medical camp, which is a motorbike ride that will take two-hours! The Massai are a very traditional tribe in Kenya and can be related to the Amish of the United State. They do not want to change their ways, but are they willing and eager to learn from us.
We are so very excited to touch more hearts and lives, and also make a difference. The women here are teaching us just as much as we are teaching them, through their willingness to learn, their passion, their perseverance and their love.
Hakuna matata rafikis!
Brittany Ammerman, a junior on the Wisconsin women's hockey team, is taking part in a one-month trip to Kenya, where she will work with a women's health education program called Health by Motorbike. Over the next month, she will send updates to UWBadgers.com about the once-in-a-lifetime experience. Make sure to check back often to follow her progress!
Habari!
We arrived in Nairobi late Tuesday night. Then around midnight Nairobi time, we arrived at the Kibera Community Self Help Program (KICOSHEP). This is where we have been staying for the past few days. We are just outside the slum of Kibera, which is the second largest slum in all of Africa, inhabiting over one million people.
At KICOSHEP we have been helping communities cope with HIV/AIDS in prevention and care. Today, a group of women community sex workers came to the KICOSHEP clinic to learn from us and allow us to share our knowledge with them. These women have mostly resorted to sex work to make money to support their families. Luckily, they were very open with us about their hobby and asked many questions while also sharing their own stories. I believe they were so open with us because we were very welcoming towards them and non-judgmental. We were able to teach them about maternal, sexual, and reproductive health, as well as the signs and symptoms of HIV, how HIV is transmitted, and how to most effectively protect themselves from infection of HIV.
The women were so happy to learn from us and interact with us. One of the women, Stella, came up to me and said, "I am just so happy that you are here! I will not sleep tonight because of my happiness from you". It is so unbelievably touching to here such remarks from these women as we work with them and attempt to better their lives. I was also wearing a Wisconsin hockey hat and about six of them asked if they could keep my hat as a way to remember me.
Later in the day we traveled to Kibera to see the slums and see one of the health clinics, as well as KICOSHEP's school within the slum. The walk through was very difficult. There was trash, feces, sewage, and more right outside the small shack-like houses of the people who live there. It is very unsanitary and hard to believe that over one million people live like this every day.
But what was so surprising was the level of happiness of the people who we interacted with in the slum. The children are so very happy and excited to see "white" people. I think they loved interacting with us especially because we did not take photos of them. They are not zoo animals, but rather human beings just like us. My only explanation for them being so happy is because they do not know life outside the slum, they do not recognize the rights they have as humans to lead better lives, and they do not realize how much better it can be in terms of health and quality of life.
The kids were so cute; whenever they saw us, they would wave and yell "How are youuu??" in a little Swahili accent. Many of them loved to fist bump with me and play with a volleyball. They also loved to read in their school and loved to lie on the floor of the tiny classroom to read and do work. It was nice to see that the KICOSHEP school was clean on the inside and offered a sanctuary of sorts for the children.
It's helpful to know that they are receiving an education and there is hope for their future. It is just a matter of self-will for those children in terms of who goes out of the Kibera slum to pursue their dream of becoming a doctor, accountant, or whatever.
We are all still digesting what we witnessed today in the Kibera slum and are mostly speechless. It is hard to put into words everything we witnessed and felt today. It was definitely a sobering experience and allows us all to realize just how privileged and lucky we are to lead the lives we lead. But that is not the reason we went to tour the slum. We went there to provoke thoughts of how to make a healthier life for these people.
It is important to understand, I believe, that just giving money to these communities will not work. We must invest money, but also develop a community approach and educate the people so they can change their ways of life. I hope in the near future that the slum of Kibera begins to shrink and becomes a healthier place to live
I will try to write again in the next couple days, but the Internet is very stubborn here. We are in Kibera and Nairobi until tomorrow night, when we take an 11-hour long train ride east to the Lunga Lunga community to educate women for two weeks. Until next time....Hakuna Matata!
 You may not have heard, but Badgers' coach Gary Andersen met his wife, Stacey, while working at a burger joint as a teenager in Utah. Yesterday he went back in time a little bit, stopping by the Culver's near East Towne Mall in Madison to help out during their "Day of Giving." Ten percent of all proceeds from all Culver's sales at every location in Wisconsin on May 21 went towards the Badger Honor Flight.
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| Brittany Ammerman |
Brittany Ammerman, a junior on the Wisconsin women's hockey team, is taking part in a one-month trip to Kenya, where she will work with a women's health education program called Health by Motorbike. Over the next month, she will send updates to UWBadgers.com about the once-in-a-lifetime experience. Make sure to check back often to follow her progress! Below is her first update as she prepares to leave the United States.
Habari! It is time for me to step out of the ice rink and gym for the next month and take a break from the student-athlete life. On Monday, May 20th, I am traveling to Kenya with a group called Health by Motorbike. Being an aspiring surgeon, and pursuing a double major in biology and women's studies and a minor in global health, I have always had dreams of helping people in developing nations and seeing the world. But I never thought I would have the opportunity to take part in something like this month-long journey I am about to embark on! Health by Motorbike is an organization created by professor Araceli Alonso, a registered nurse and professor of women's studies at Wisconsin. A few years ago, Araceli and her daughter traveled to Kenya to meet a couple of women who they were exchanging letters with via a pen pal program. While in rural Kenya, women of the communities Araceli was visiting expressed their interest and need to learn more about maternal health, childbirth and women's health in general - While there were women in the communities who had delivered babies for years, they still did not know when to cut the umbilical cord! It was evident that health services and education were out of reach to the women and girls of rural Kenya. With very few health clinics, a lack of health information and limited access to transportation, many preventable diseases were creating enormous health burdens in these communities. Araceli decided to take the initiative to change this. Being that the nearest health clinic to many of these communities was too far away, Araceli created a permanent health post in the Lunga Lunga community, along with a mobile clinic that delivers supplies and medical services via motorbikes. After her first trip to Kenya, Araceli wanted to bring college students to Kenya to train local village health workers and create a sustainable health project in Health by Motorbike. On May 20th, 12 of us, all students at UW who had to apply for a very competitive position as a Health by Motorbike volunteer, will fly to Kenya. For the first four days we will work in the slums of Kibera and learn. We will then take a long train ride to the Lunga Lunga community and begin to work with the women. The women we will be working with are "health promoters" from many different communities. We will share knowledge with them about anatomy, reproduction, maternal health, nutrition, communicable and non-communicable diseases and much more. At the end of our trip, the women will "graduate" and receive a diploma from UW-Madison that officially deems them a "health promoter." They will then go back to their respective communities and teach the women there. What is so great about Health by Motorbike is that we are not simply going to Kenya to "fix" anything and put a Band-Aid on the flaws in the health care, or lack thereof, received there. Instead, we simply teach a few women, who can then teach more women, and eventually we will have touched and educated thousands of women! While in Kenya, I will be blogging about my experiences with Health by Motorbike. I cannot wait to share this life-changing journey with you, while also making more people aware of the change and help that is needed in Kenya. Hakuna Matata!
 The 2012-13 season was monumental for the University of
Wisconsin swimming and diving program.
Not only did more than a dozen Badgers earn all-american
honors, but the men's squad crowned its first individual NCAA champion (Drew
teDuits) in over five decades and the women's team saw Ivy Martin set a Big Ten
record in the 50-yard freestyle en route to her Big Ten championship.
It was fitting that the Badgers capped off the 2013 academic
year with another memorable moment: a visit from Workaholics star, Anders Holm.
Holm, a 2003 graduate of UW and former member of the swim squad,
stopped by the team's facilities on Friday afternoon to visit with the coaches
and student-athletes. The Comedy Central comic
was in town to deliver the 2013 commencement address at all four ceremonies over
the weekend, but found time to reconnect with his former team and many of the
student-athletes who were in his shoes just 10 years ago.
@BadgerSwimDive chronicled the visit, while many of the
student-athletes quickly turned to Twitter to show their gratitude for Holm.
Here is an archived account of the afternoon's events, including a video of the
comedian hitting the pool for a relay race with members of the coaching staff:
 Although next year's slate is far from complete, the Badgers have many of the pieces in place for the 2013-14 season. That schedule will feature one of the toughest home slates in school history. According to ESPN.com's preseason Top-25, Wisconsin will host seven of the top-25 teams in the nation.
No. 3 Michigan State, No. 7 Florida, No. 8 Ohio State, No. 10 Michigan, No. 16 Marquette, No. 20 Indiana and No. 25 Iowa are all scheduled to visit the Kohl Center next winter.
Wisconsin opens the season with a pair of big-time showdowns against St. John's and Florida. The season tips off in Sioux Falls, S.D., with a neutral-site game against the Red Storm on Nov. 8. The contest will be the first-ever Division I college basketball game played in the new Sanford Pentagon, a $19 million complex which is scheduled to open this fall.
The Badgers then open the Kohl Center with a Nov. 12 appointment with the Gators.
The league schedule is also beginning to take shape as the Big Ten announced which conference rivals will face off only one time next season. Among Wisconsin's single-plays in 2013-14 will be trips to Penn State and Nebraska, as well as home dates with Michigan State and Ohio State.
As a result, UW will play twice against Purdue, Indiana, Michigan and Northwestern, its four single-plays from last season.
The Badgers and Buckeyes split their series last season, with the host team protecting home court on both occasions. The Badgers will not have to visit Michigan State in 2013-14, a site where they have not won since 2003-04.
The Badgers swept both Nebraska and Penn State last year.
Tentative non-conference schedule:
Nov. 8: St. John's (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Nov. 12: Florida (Kohl Center) Nov. 26: vs. St. Louis (Cancun) Nov. 27: vs. West Virginia/Old Dominion (Cancun) Dec. 4: at Virginia (Charlottesville, Va.)
*BOLD indicates home game (Nov. 8 neutral site showdown vs. St. John's will serve as home game for Badgers)
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