TAEKWONDO!

It all began with our joining BMS in December. BMS is a gym, spa, and training center for all sorts of sports, etc. They have a small but full gym with experienced trainer, a spa with Thai women who offer every service imagineable, a small outdoor pool, a sauna, a Yoga (and other sport) hut and a very high quality restaurant.

The picture on the very bottom is Grandmaster Emmanuel E. Ikpeme, Black Belt 8th Dan, just one step away from becoming a Great Grandmaster. Grandmaster offers Taekwondo, Yoga (his two main arts), Palates, Taebo and Kickboxing. He teaches at BMS 6 days a week, has morning Taekwondo classes at Lekke Phase I three mornings a week, has Yoga classes at a new place here on Ikoyi Island three afternoons a week, has Yoga classes for a bank's officers three afternoon a week, and then has has Taekwondo classes at his own club at the National Stadium on mainland Lagos three nights a week.

I started Yoga with him in January and after a couple of months began to have an interest in Taekwondo. I knew I needed to put in some mean time in Yoga getting stretched and strengthened before I could even think of that. After three months, we mutually agreed that I was ready and I began Taekwondo on April 1. In April, when we were in China, I bought the uniform and then the fun and hard work began, and it is hard work.

I didn't have any lofty ambitions, but Grandmaster has us on a schedule and said we would have grading and trails for yellow belt at the end of March, and so we did. Now he says in two months, we will have grading for advancing to 7th keup. Immediately after that we will start working toward the blue belt. He says I will be a black belt in two years. Who knows? Miracles do happen.

I feel very fortunate to have found such a high level professional to train with. Taekwondo came to Nigeria in 1975 and that is when GM started his training. He attained black belt in 1977 and has continued to work his way to the top. He started doing Yoga when he was 13 years old and is the founder of the Nigeria Yoga Heritage Foundation and the Coordinator for the Nigeia Taekwondo Foundation.

I do continue my Yoga and hope to continue it for the rest of my life. Both Yoga and Taekwondo are great disciplines, a great deal of fun and a lot of hard work. My present schedule is M-W-F from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., six hours a week. What it has done for me is help me get my body back in shape and fired up my metabolism like nothing I have ever tried. Amazing! I think I will keep doing it.
I was also inspired by my son, David's devotion to Kung Fu when he was in Jr. High, and always thought I would like to try it sometime.

And here we are and that's that! BTW, you can see all the pics and many more at http://picasaweb.google.com/donniedayp.

Chris and I are most happy that Mom and Kevin are coming for a visit in August. Also, we will be in the US from September 19th - October 17th and hope to see a lot of you during that time. We have a schedule of where we will be when so would love to have any of you join us at one of our stops. Please get in touch if you are interested. We always like to hear from friends and family.

Love,

Donnie