Wow I love a fundraiser! Why just last year my very dear friend Jane and I raised money for cancer and ran in a half marathon. The fact that we were given an all-expense paid trip to San Francisco for our trouble was just the icing on the cake. We thought that was the trip of our lives. But that was before Singapore.
We have recently joined a group of runners call the Hash House Harriers. This zany group of misfits is friendly, uninhibited, vulgar and surprisingly grounded. They are kind to one another and the guests who swell their ranks from time to time. They mostly run in the jungle every couple weeks or so, and have a little outing afterward. Once a year, though, they go all out.
The Hash House Harriers was founded in Kuala Lempur, Malaysia in the last 20 years or so by a group of bored accountants. (!!! Yeah, I was surprised too....) These guys pulled together a rag-tag group of expats who were looking for friendship, camaraderie, a little endorphin rush and I suspect a higher concentration of folks who spoke decent English. The idea caught on, and became a world wide thing. (Look it up. I guarantee there is a Hash run in your area.) It became a group of people who fit every description. The Singapore group, in an effort to get back to their roots, so to speak, hosts a Red Dress fundraiser every year. They challenge everyone who is willing to run through the streets of Singapore dressed in red. The money raised goes back to Malaysia - this year it was to a group who takes care of people with leprosy. (Yup. It's still around.) We raised just over $10,000 by dressing in red and running down Orchard Rd., into the train station, through the Red Light District in Little India, and back to Orchard. The men wore dresses, and while some seemed quite at home in them and one guy looked a little too much like Hannibel Lechter for comfort, run we did and we had a terrific time.
So now, I guess I can say I've run in a drag race, eh? Something else to add to the Annals of Singapore....
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