A fast learner

Always wearing his trademark smile, Richard Nyambura runs. And he hopes his running will carry him to a bright future.

The 19-year-old Kenyan spent the past two school years in the Spokane Valley, and the past year as one of the fastest Class 1B distance runners in the state while studying at Valley Christian School, where he graduates today.

“I have made so many great friends here,” he said. “I believe they will be life-long friends.”

Positive attitude isn’t something Richard Nyambura has to work at. It is his nature.

“My wife, Brenda, is a tremendously positive person,” said Steve Day. “But I think she’s learned something from Richard. In the two years or more that I’ve known him, he’s gotten out of bed every day with a laugh and a smile and a positive outlook on life. And it’s contagious – he spreads it around wherever he goes.”

Day met the young man in January 2010 while doing volunteer work at the Nairobi orphanage where Richard and his two sisters lived, and the two became friends. Before Day left the orphanage after three weeks, he asked his young friend if he would like to come to the United States to attend school – an offer Nyambura readily accepted.

Brenda Day worked through the regulations and red tape and arranged for Nyambura to be an exchange student at West Valley High School for the 2010-’11 school year, with the hope that he would be able to stay in the U.S. to attend college.

“It turned out that he really needed two years to be able to get his high school diploma,” Steve Day explained. “He’s been an outstanding student and he’s a member of the National Honor Society, so he’s worked very hard.”

It took a return trip to Kenya to arrange for a student visa, but Nyambura returned and enrolled at Valley Christian School for the 2011-’12 school year.

“I have learned a great deal in this country,” Nyambura said. “I think it would help me to get a very good job in Kenya. My English is much better this year. In my country we speak British English, which is not the same thing. The first year I was here I struggled to understand American idioms.

“At school in Kenya we have just one class called mathematics. In that class they cover all of the different parts of mathematics: algebra, geometry, trigonometry, pre-calculus and calculus. It’s all jumbled up and it’s difficult to understand sometimes. Here, I have been able to take each class separately and I have learned it much better.”

Growing up, Nyambura, like most boys in Kenya, played soccer. At West Valley, he turned out for Bob Barbaro’s cross country team and quickly learned to run. Unable, by rule, to run for the Eagles’ varsity, Nyambura was a standout on the junior varsity.

This year, he turned out for track and field for the first time and found running on an actual track more to his liking.

“I like this much better,” he said. “I like the feel of the track and I think the way I run is more suited to these different events.”

That would be an understatement.

By the time last week’s state Class 1A/2B/1B meet rolled around, Nyambura owned the fastest Class 1B time in both the 1600- and 3200-meter runs – the only runner in the class to run the latter in under 10 minutes, coming in at 9 minutes, 54.05 seconds at the King’s Invitational meet.

Nyambura and sophomore teammate Grant Marchant finished 1-2 in the 1600-meter final Friday, and Nyambura followed Marchant across the finish line in the 800 Saturday. But in the 3200 final, he developed a serious side ache midway through the race and faded to finish fourth.

“I don’t think Richard would ever admit it, but he was hurting pretty bad in that race,” Day said. “And he was disappointed that he didn’t run his best race at state. But he did have a first-place finish, a second and a fourth and he helped his team win the state championship, so I think he had a pretty good meet.”

Nyambura’s times this season have been the best in Class 1B, but they are slower than runners from bigger schools – where there is a great deal more competition, both within the team and within each league.

“I was so glad to have Richard come out for track,” Marchant said. “He’s an incredible teammate to have, and he’s made me a much better runner just by pushing me every day in practice and me pushing him. We’re really the only distance runners on our team, so we’ve had to help each other and push each other.

Now Nyambura hopes a track or cross country coach at a college or university will come calling with a scholarship to offer.

“That is what I hope for,” he explained. “I would like to stay in this country and continue my studies in college. I need a scholarship because it is so expensive for a foreign student. It is two or three times more expensive for a foreign student.”

Day and his wife are optimistic.

“We’ve looked into several things, but the biggest hurdle has been Richard earning his diploma and now he’s done that,” Day said. “The good thing is that there’s still a year remaining on his visa.

“We’re going to keep looking and Richard’s counselors are still helping us find a way.”

And they’re staying positive.

With Richard Nyambura, there is no other way to be.