Harris Goes To Africa!

So I Guess That's It Then

2013-04-22T00:30:00.000-07:00

Well it has certainly been a ride. Today is 8 months to the day that I arrived in Nairobi back in August. My last couple weeks here I've been able to put up a basketball hoop, buy art supplies, clothes, and finish painting. I also got to have a lot of fun as well, as seen here:

I've been to Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret, Mombasa, and Naivasha to name some of the bigger cities. I've seen most areas of Southern and Western Kenya as well as parts of the East Coast. I went to Uganda and canoed across Lake Victoria and the Nile. I went to Tanzania and climbed Kilimanjaro to the highest point in all of Africa. I've seen the government buildings. I've been in mansions and affluent beach resorts. I've lived and worked in the slums. I've seen fights and gotten robbed. I've made friends and helped raise money. I speak more Swahili than I did when I first got here, and I taught English. I've traveled by train, bus, car, matatu, plane, boat, raft, motorcycle, and bicycle. I've walked everywhere. I've eaten chicken and goat intestines. I've stayed out all night, and I've also been locked in the flat(supposedly by accident). I've had local beers and local liquors. I've danced with girls from all over Africa and even parts of Europe.

Things I won't miss:

People always asking me for money.
Bribes.
Goat Intestines.
People thinking my name is Morris or Harold.
Those dumb birds that wake me up every morning.
The rat that lives above my ceiling.
Mosquitoes.
Paying for Internet by the Megabyte.
Power outages 2 or 3 times a week.
Macon.(and yes I mean Macon. not Bacon)
Sukuma Wiki.(worst vegetable ever)
Windows with bars.

Things I will miss:

Cheap beer.
Transportation costs and availability.
Hospitality.
Walking across highways with impunity.
People thinking I have money.
Monkeys.
Celebrations.
Cheap beer.
Avocado Trees.
Mango Trees.
Banana Trees.
Did I say cheap beer yet?

Things I am looking forward to:

Getting food after 9pm.
Driving my car.
Speaking English.
ESPN.
Going to the movies.
Making money.
Seeing my friends' children grow up.
Playing basketball with my brother.
Watching football.
Getting a beer with my dad.
Getting a beer with my friends.
Shaking hands and hugging everyone without fear of a horrible disease.

I had difficulty sleeping last night. I'm not sure why. I had literally stayed out all night the previous night and i'd only been able to take a couple hour nap during the day. So when I went to sleep at 11, I thought it would be for the night. 4:30am came around and I woke up wide awake. I lied there for awhile. Finally, I got up and walked outside. I looked up at the sky. It had a few clouds strewn about. But that red glow was there. Doesn't matter the whether. Could be clear or cloudy or rainy or bright with moonlight. There is always a glowing red tint across the whole sky. I'm sure it has something to do with the city lights and the red dirt on the ground. I don't know. But I do know that I won't see that in America. There will be many things that I might never see again. Some I'll probably do just fine without, and others I might always long for. The best I can do is try to appreciate what comes to mind to appreciate. I want to thank everyone who followed me on this journey. At times when it was hard and I felt alone, I'd check my blog account and see that my previous post had over 200 views. After that, I wouldn't feel as weak or alone because I knew that I had a ton of friends and family keeping up with me. Thanks for the money you all donated. I was able to do a lot of good things like I mentioned above, and those were just some of the more tangible examples. Much of the time it just allowed me to spend time with different people in different places, like being able to work at a school in Uganda or the Great Rift Valley. The organization FOCUS uses the term "radical" to explain how much availability their missionaries are supposed to have on college campuses. Between your donations and your prayers, I gain radical strength and was allowed radical availability for the people here in Kenya. I've been able to make connections with onsite organizations here that people from Belmont Abbey will be able to use hopefully for a good long while.

At some points on this trip I had doubts whether I was doing enough or whether my time spent here was actually worth it. If compared to all the experiences and influences of everyone else in world then sure my actions have barely caused a single movement in the great ocean of things. But if I take my efforts and see how they've affected individuals here, I truly believe that I have made differences and even some of the slightest differences I've made I pray and hope can have a good impact on the future. My goal here wasn't to change the world. It was simply to give my time, and hopefully have the talents and skills to help the people here in a good capacity. I can't know for sure if I've done anything great, but I do know that I tried my best. And I'm happy with that.

Thanks again for all of your support. Going on mission was definitely one of the largest learning experiences of my life and absolutely worth it.

Signing off,

Harris Moriarty

And in the End The Love You Take is Equal to the Love You Make

2013-04-02T05:10:00.004-07:00

Ah the classic Beatles song, "The End". Ringo Starr finally rips out the drum solo he'd never been allowed to play, it's followed by the groups philosophy on life. What's interesting about the song "The End" is that it was actually the 2nd to last song on the 2nd to last album. I feel it's appropriate to cite now because I'm going to have at least one, maybe two more blog posts for this "album" if you will. Then I'll go home and figure out what I'm going to do next. It's definitely been a ride. Anyways, here's the update:

I got back into the swing of things. Started really committing time to St. Maurus and seeing what I can do for my last few weeks here on the whole. So far, I've bought two basketball hoops and two balls. I'm hoping to set one up at the Street Kids Project and one at St. Benedict's primary school. My Dad has also collected a bunch of rosaries to be sent over here to give out to different communities.

I was going to do some more painting at St. Maurus this weekend, but unfortunately just a *little bit* of gun violence sprouted up over the appeals of the recent presidential election. I've been in my room watching episodes of "The West Wing" on my computer for about 4 days now. There was also a major power outage that spanned from Easter Sunday into Easter Monday. During the day I started reading a book, but at night time it was really too dark to do anything at all. I just sat and thought about stuff(dangerous, I know).

One thing that flew across my temporal lobe was a question. How is it possible that people can disagree with me on things. Yes, that's broad. And of course I'm not always right, but even still. If you ask me a question, I will answer it with certitude and knowledge. Then I remembered when I was younger, I was so eager to explain my point on something as menial as going up to the front of class to sharpen a pencil that the teachers or other students would cut me off before I'd said a third of what I wanted to. I then also remembered someone once telling me that speeches should be no more than 5 minutes because people lack the attention span to care any longer than that.

So then I thought, well that's kind of a sad state of the public. Sure that doesn't apply to all, but it applies to many. Are you secure enough in your own mind to count yourself out of that many? I can't make the call on myself yet. I do seem to remember a lot though. Anyways.

This triggered another thought process. Well, I can't change the state of the public mind. So how do I go about it? What can I do? I guess the solution would be to try and explain things more simply or at least with fewer words. At this point I had an entire conversation in my head with a friend back home. The argument devolved into: "Dude, you're wrong." and "Dude, I'm not." Unfortunately the "I'm not" is technically shorter than "you're wrong". So I still hadn't found the solution. So I went a different direction. Instead of talking TO the state of mind why not talk ABOUT the state of mind. Anyone know the seven deadly sins off the top of their head? Sloth, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and Pride. Pride being the king. I don't know many people who can name you all the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit, but I guarantee that even if they knew them all they'd have to spend 10 minutes on each one explaining what it means. The deadly sins however are pretty simple. You gotta explain a little bit, but everyone will get it and be on board pretty quickly. No wonder they're everywhere.

How do you fight evil when it grows like a weed and good grows like an oak tree? Well, finally late into the night I had an epiphany. Love. Yea, it sounds silly, I know. But think about it. Love is 4 letters long, and it is its own definition. One word. I realized that reducing my state of mind to the simplicity of that word could be the key. Sadly, I also started to realize that people don't have the same understanding of love. People think "tolerance" or "punishment" or "ignorance" or "emotion", they think these are love. Love is even simpler and less political than all these things.

I can't give you the answer because I don't know it. Well not just anyway. I know this entire blog in fact undermines my whole argument! a 1000 word essay to discuss how the answer is one word? But it's because I don't know the answer yet. I thought maybe it'd be something nice to share out loud though. So people can read about what I'm thinking on this trip and not just what I'm doing.

Ok, well now that's done. Quick clean-up of things. If you're interested in any part of my trip whether you're thinking about coming or donating, please please please let me know. harris.moriarty@gmail.com. My dad is collecting rosaries at my house. 692 Ellsworth Avenue Great Falls, Va 22066. If you want to mail it straight here, send me an email and I'll give you the details. I'll try and post again soon.

-Harris Moriarty

The Last Week Before Next Week Starts

2013-03-19T01:00:00.002-07:00

Ok. I’m trying to get back on track with my weekly blog since the last few have been sort of long and bloated. This past week was about getting back into the groove for the last month of my stay here.

Started off my days by waking up around 7 and getting some breakfast, taking a shower, etc… Trying to rebuild some form of routine. Anyone who knows me would also know that I have virtually no routine. Every day is a new adventure! However, I’ve been doing slightly more adventuring the past few months than normal, and I can feel myself on the brink of burning out(if I haven’t already!). So maybe a little routine would be a good thing.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of last week was Drawing at the Primary School at 11 every morning and traveling into Mathare to hang out with the St. Maurus kids after lunch. Sometimes I went out for a beer in the evening. On Friday, I just went to the primary school in the morning and took the afternoon off.

Saturday was preparation day. Preparation for what you might ask? Well, if you’re asking then you’ve apparently forgotten what day followed this past Saturday. Of course it was a Sunday. I’m not an idiot, but this particular Sunday was special because… it was St. Patrick’s Day! So we went to the market down the road and bought a crate of 25 Guinnesses, a handle of Jameson’s Irish Whiskey, and a bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream. Unfortunately, all of that was NOT for us, rather a good bit of it went to guests that we had invited. I still got a fair portion of it though. We also went to a new bar down the road a friend of ours was just starting. There were like 12 bars on that block alone. Poor spotting, but apparently that’s how it is done here.

Sunday was the big day. We went into town and had a nice breakfast of eggs and toast. Coincidentally, the place where we went also sold Guinness, and they had no problem selling it to us at 10 o’clock in the morning. Then we walked around for a bit and went back to Amani. People started showing up within a couple hours, and everyone just sat outside drinking beer and eating food. It was like I was home except no one here has one ounce of Irish blood in them, and it was pretty much a foreign holiday for them. It was still fun though!

Monday I took it easy. Today, I got Tim to pick up my drawing duty, so I could go into town in the morning, sit here and write my blog, and then go to the sports equipment store and look into getting myself a basketball hoop or two.

Side adventures during those 4 days, we found a local basketball court. I haven’t gotten a chance to play on it yet, but I plan to. The St. John’s boys and I have developed a good relationship with the sisters next door. We've been visiting over there at the dispensary. Tim and Mike have been doing work in the Laboratory and Triage. I've just been chillin’ with the sisters. They’re pretty awesome. I had a good long talk yesterday with a local bar owner at the Choma Inn pub. It’s right around the corner from Amani. He’s a nice guy and surprisingly Americanized. He went to some school run by Baptist women, and on his bucket list he’s got riding a motorcycle from the east coast to the west coast of America. Point being, he’s a cool dude. His bar is nice. Future Missionaries, whoever you are, go check it out when you get here!

Still looking for someone with rosary connections back home or if they want to donate money so I can just buy them and send them.

Hopefully, I’m getting a couple basketballs and hoops today. I’m gonna try to test drive one of the balls today, too. I miss Basketball.

When I get back to the states, I’ll probably have some random trinkets and stuff from Uganda. If anybody wants to buy them from me, the totality of the proceeds go directly to a Women’s Center run by the Benedictine Sisters in Jinja, Uganda. It’s not some big charitable corporation where half the money disappears. I’d be literally putting that money right in the hands of the people who run the center. It’s the advantage of being here and seeing what’s what.

I’m going to be pretty stationary for the next month(or at least that what It looks like), so, if anyone wants to send me emails or anything, I’ll be here ready to answer questions about my trip and about me and whatever else you may think of. I got a month left!

-Harris

Meh. Uganda Wasn't So Bad

2013-03-12T06:20:00.001-07:00

Woke up. Got outta bed. Dragged a comb across my head. Made my way downstairs and drank a cup…

Woah. I accidentally break into song far too often. You should have noticed that something was off when I mentioned a comb. I haven’t combed my hair since 5^th grade.

What were we talking about? Oh right. Uganda. I went there.

On the morning I was leaving(I believe it was a Tuesday), I had to get up at like 5:30 because the bus check-in time was 6:30 and the cook at Amani wanted to make me breakfast. Got up to find out that the cook had slept in, but he was working really hard to cook food quickly and wouldn’t let me go. So I stayed and ate a good a breakfast, but I didn’t leave Amani until 6:15. That meant I had 15 minutes to take a bus into town and then walk across town to the bus station. Believe it or not, I was only a couple minutes late. I’ve been blessed with timeliness. Then I hopped on the bus and began my 12 hour bus ride to Jinja, Uganda. It was pretty uneventful, but twice I had someone decide to sit next to me and become a small serving friend as Tyler Durden would say. One was a Kenyan woman who was 26, married to a minister, and currently enrolled in business school on her way home to the boonies for the election. Then there was a 15 year old Indian kid with his mom. His mother insisted that he sit with me because she wanted the whole bench to take a nap. Cool kid though. Sr. Judette picked me up at the bus stop around 7:30pm and dragged me back to the convent. They set me up with this huge room with a bed that could actually fit me. They also brought me a full dinner for 4 people at 8pm. I was sure throughout my stay that they were fattening me up for some sort of tribal ritual.

Next day I asked what I could do at the school or the dispensary, and they told me that I needed to rest that day after my long journey. I offered to do my own dishes, and they refused. I inquired as to where to do my laundry figuring at some point on this mission I’d finally have to do my own laundry, but no they took it and did it for me. They also cleaned my room every two days. Sr. Judette would later say that I could look at my stay in Uganda as a small reprieve from my Nairobi duties.

On that Thursday, I finally went to the school. Charles(the school religion teacher) took me around and helped me out that day. In the morning I played games with the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd graders. Then in the afternoon, Charles took me into town. It cost 500 Ugandan shilling to take a matatu(they call them taxis in Uganda). 500 Ush is the equivalent to roughly 18 or 19 cents. In other words, dirt cheap. He showed me a couple markets and the Internet café where again it was 500 Ush for 20 minutes or internet. I also bought the first 3 seasons of The West Wing for 2000 shilling(still less than a dollar). Then on the way back from town we stopped at a bar. I tried the Nile beer. Not too bad. It was a little bitter. I still like my Tuskers.

On Friday I played with the nursery classes. Some of those kids are crazy.

On Saturday, I was invited by a local priest of the Missionaries of Africa community to go to a local prison where he would say Mass and we would talk Christian shop with the inmates. I took a matatu into town and he met me with a few others on bikes. I had to ride on the back of a bicycle down to the lake. Then we took the worst looking boat I’ve ever seen. Counting the boat’s owner and his assistant, there were 8 of us and the two paddled us about 3 miles across the lake to a little peninsula where the prison was. On the walk up to the prison, I asked Fr. Hans what sort of prison it was. He said it was for people who stole things and who defiled children. Yea. That one took me a little aback as well. Apparently, it’s not too big a deal in Uganda, but it’s supposedly gaining awareness? I dunno. It was weird. Then we went in and had Mass, and halfway through the Mass the families of the guard(who live right outside the prison!!) came in to celebrate with us. It wasn’t seen as strange, and nothing bad happened at all. It was a very strange occurrence for me though. Anyways, we did our thing and then left. Here’s the cool part: The assistant to the boat owner had left for some reason, so I got to help him paddle across Lake Victoria. That was sweet.

On Sunday, the German girls showed up, and a priest from the Carmelites who had said Mass that morning at the convent elected to show us around. He showed us his home and on the same road were about 30 other religious and missionary communities. They were all surrounded this school called the Philosophy College of Jinja also known as the “PCJ”. I was actually invited to go play basketball there later that week.

I spent most of the next week playing with the kids in the school, watching TV shows on my computer, and listening to a Financial Markets class that I downloaded for free off of iTunes U. On Friday, however, there was a holiday. It was National Women’s Day in Uganda. All the staff of the dispensary and school as well as all the sisters went a few miles down the road to this retreat center for the day. They even asked me to spend a few minutes talking about American women. That was interesting. Not really though, after a while a debate broke out amongst the people there as to whether Islam is respectful enough of women. I sat down for that part.

For the last two days, the sisters let the German girls and myself join them in the cloister for meals. They played a lot of Wagner which I was totally OK with. He’s great. They also made us a cake and talked about how I should be a monk and also how I look like Jesus. Finally, it was time for me to go back to Nairobi. The elections were over, and, as I had explained to everyone I could, there was no outbreak of violence in Kenya. All the sisters said good bye and Sr. Judette and Sr. Philomena(basically my caretaker and good friend during my stay) took me to the bus stop. They waited with me awhile and Sr. Philo told me that she had already cried and wouldn’t burden me with her tears then. The sisters were totally awesome in Uganda. Anyways, my bus finally showed up and coincidentally the only other white person on the bus had been seated next to me. Her name was Kristin and she’s from Canada. She recently made herself a world traveler with trips to Europe, Southeast Asia, and Peru. Pretty much all the places I want to go. We talked for a while about the poor state of our bus and the heart palpitations that occurred whenever we went off road and the bus felt like it was tipping over. It was nice having someone to talk to. By the way, it was a night bus. We left around 8:30pm and I arrived in Nairobi almost exactly 12 hours later. I dragged myself back to the Amani center, got some tea, and then went to teach drawing at the primary school at 11. I actually almost missed it because my iPhone(which I used as a glorified music player and watch) is set for the time at home so I always just do the math in my head. Well, over the weekend Daylight Savings started! Made for a confusing morning, but at least now I’m only 7 hours ahead again. I’ve been gone since before the LAST time change. Talk about an interesting thought.

My trip to and from Uganda was incredibly enjoyable. Everything is so green there, and avocados were in season. I lost like 8 lbs. on the Kili trip. I think I gained 15 in Uganda. Food was great, the sisters were awesome, and almost everyone in Uganda speaks English. Things I want you all to think about:

1. The prison needs a bunch of rosaries as well as some other groups. I know that the Legion of Mary led by Natia Meehan a few years back would sometimes make rosaries for different ministries around the world. If anyone is interested in making and/or buying some rosaries that I could send to the sisters there that’d be awesome.

2. The sisters in Jinja are also sending me some trinkets that a women’s home hand made to raise money. The problem is that no one in Uganda or Kenya wants them. So if anyone knows a good venue where I could sell or accept donations for them back home would be great.

3. I was told that an American guy and his girlfriend had stayed at the convent for 6 months or so a few years back. I know this because Sr. Judette told me he raised money for them back home to buy a bus to transport their kids to and from school. I have two points here. The first being that they really like having volunteers for their and if you’re interested let me know. Second, I may have some more fundraising ideas for the convent in Jinja as well as some of my projects in Kenya.

Things I liked about Uganda:

1. So much fruit all the time. Avocados are almost always in season. I even had fresh apples for the first time in years. The bananas were great, and jack fruit is a new favorite. I have no idea how to describe it, but it tasted awesome.

2. Instead of Kenya’s language spectrum of 47 tribal languages, Kiswahili, shang Kiswahili, and English, Uganda has 2 tribal language(Luganda and Busoga) and English. It was awesome.

3. The use of motorcycles as public transportation is rampant in Uganda. I love it. Makes having long hair really worth it.

4. Transportation and food was dirt cheap.

5. I got to play basketball for the first time in almost a year.

Things I want to raise money for in my last month and 10 days in Africa:

1. 3 basketball hoops. I really wanna get this one done. It’s been my plan to do it the entire time I’ve been here. I just haven’t had enough info on it. Now I know that hoops themselves are fairly inexpensive. They go for about 1000 Kshillings a pop. What I haven’t figured out is how much it will cost to build the contraptions to hang them. I know what I want to do is get a few 2x4s and bolts. There’s pretty much nowhere to mount the hoops on a pole, so I’d have to attach them to walls.

2. St. Maurus needs some cement for the slate floors. I don’t know how they got there, but there are some massive holes there. If I can fill them that’d be great.

3. My dad was kind enough to send me some pencils and drawing books to help me with drawing class, but the kids really need drawing books. They use printer paper and sometimes use their school notebooks. I’d really like them to have actual drawing paper for the rest of the term if I can pull it off.

4. I’d also like to get the kids at St. Maurus some developmental games. They love memory, so I got them a pretty nice set of memory cars last fall. But most of the older kids just sit there all day. I want to get them some games and some new educational posters to put on their walls.

Those are my ideas for now! Thanks everyone for supporting me in spirit for the past 6 and a half months! I really can’t believe I only have a little over a month left. I still have so little I want to do, and so much time to do it in! Wait, reverse that!(Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, in case you missed that reference).

Also, Keep Lauren Ellis in your prayers because she’s joining the Catholic Church at St. James Catholic Church in Falls Church on Easter Vigil! That was a lot of “church” references. Good things come in threes I suppose!

I think that’s it for now. Sorry for the lengthy post. It’s been more than 2 weeks!

-Harris Moriarty

To Mail Me Anything:

Benedictine Fathers

Amani Conference Centre

P.O. Box 32101-00600

Nairobi - Kenya

To Donate Anything:

Southern Benedictine Society

100 belmont mount holly road

Belmont, NC 28012

(Write "BVC - Harris" in the memo section of the check)

ALL ALONE! spooky background music

2013-02-24T23:53:00.001-08:00

Oh what a beautiful mooooorning. Oh what a beautiful daaaaaay. I’ve got a wonderful feeeeeling. Everything’s going my way.

Or at least close to it.

Today, I am getting my visa to Uganda! Let’s not start here though.

Let me see, last time I checked in was a day or two after I got back from Tanzania and Kilimanjaro! Ah.. that trip was so cool it’s worth talking about again! But I won’t. For *your* sake.

Anyways, the past two weeks have been and interesting experience to say the least. When I got back to Nairobi, I found out that Tim and Mike(the two other Americans) were leaving for Ethiopia for a couple weeks on the 16^th. This meant that I was going to be all alone! And doing all the work! But it was OK. I didn’t mind. I’d stuck ‘em with the bill when I went to the Rift Valley for 3 weeks and then Tanzania for another. So in total, they covered about a month for me. The least I could do was return the favor a couple weeks!

So I got into a daily grind of teaching at the school in the morning and going into the slums during the afternoon. Oh by the way, I spent just about every dime I had on the Kili trip, so I had like no extra money until like 5 days ago when my stipend rolled in. *whew* So I ate every meal at the Amani Center. Didn’t go out to the clubs(which was probably a good thing). I just did my work thing, and spent a good amount of time watching movies on my computer.

But Then!

I went to Karen to see the girls off! Yes, it’s true. The girls are gone(FREEDOM! Just kidding. But seriously). I was only going to see them into the cab because the cab ride back was gonna be a little expensive for me, but Sr. Serva from the convent worked out some sort of deal with the cab driver and I was able to go to the airport. I didn’t have to pay a thing! I love free stuff. So I waved good bye to the girl, and they went home.

Then I went back to the grind. Now, there is a little bit of added drama here. I’d been planning this trip to Uganda for a couple months now, but Sr. Judette(head nun or whatever at the convent where I’ll be staying) hadn’t been in contact with me in weeks! I couldn’t reach her or anything, so I was beginning to think that maybe it wasn’t going to happen which would have really stunk. Because, if you’ve been paying attention today, you’ll notice that the American guys are gone. Henry left awhile back. And now the girls are gone. I was really looking forward to going on this dang trip if not just to get out of an empty house! Also there are these two really nice German who just *happen* to be visiting the same convent at almost the exact same time give or take a couple days. SO I REALLY WANTED TO GO. But finally, yesterday Sr. Judette calls me, and now I’ve got a bus ticket to Uganda, and I’m sitting in a coffee shop waiting for the Uganda High Commission to get their power back so I can get my visa. I could get it at the border, but I’d feel much better with it already in my passport now just in case something goofy happens at the border. Hence *almost* everything is going my way. But it’s still pretty close and no real complaints!

Now I haven’t just done *nothing* while being alone. I’ve gone to the local pub a couple times, and, being alone, I was actually able to make a few new friends that past couple days. It’s almost a little bittersweet that I’m leaving tomorrow! There was the group of Norwegians staying at the Amani Center this past week, and there was one kid who was half American. I mean, West Coast. But either way he and I hit it off OK, and they’re going to Kisumu for a week and back to Nairobi for a week. Unfortunately, I’ll be in Uganda then.

It’s OK though. I’m super excited about going to Uganda. I’ve been out of the country a couple times since being here(Uganda and Tanzania), but neither time did I get a really good look at the country for more than a few hours. This time I’m gonna go around a bit. If I’m lucky, I’ll find a cheap rafting company to take me white water rafting on the Nile! They got some big ole’ rapids there. When I’m not gallivanting about, I’ll be working in the school doing something with sports. I’m not sure yet. In Africa, you’re never quite sure what you’re doing until you’re doing it. But it makes life a little more fun sometimes that way, too.

Sr. Judette told me that one of the reasons she was having trouble contacting me was because the Internet was very sketchy at best out there. So I’m not going to plan on another blog update until after I get back to Nairobi on around March 10^th or 11^th. And when I get back, I’m looking to set up a couple basketball hoops. I found a store that sells them relatively cheap. I just gotta find a way to mount them now. But I’m a man! I can build them, right? Haha we’ll see!

-Harris

There aren't any pictures here because I still haven't remedied my lack of cameraness. All the pictures from Kili were from the girls' camera. So we'll see! Well, at least I will anyway.

To Mail Me Anything:

Benedictine Fathers

Amani Conference Centre

P.O. Box 32101-00600

Nairobi - Kenya

To Donate Anything:

Southern Benedictine Society

100 belmont mount holly road

Belmont, NC 28012

(Write "BVC - Harris" in the memo section of the check)

Kili or Bust

2013-02-14T13:18:00.003-08:00

The long awaited blog about Mt. Kilimanjaro. How do I even start? This was definitely an interesting achievement. Let’s give some background.

Left to Right: Kate, Caitlin, Me, and Paul(The Guide)

Anyone actually know anything about Kili? Other than that it’s just really freakin’ big? OK, well let’s see. The mountain itself has actually 3 peaks. They say that the “Shira” peak was first. Just a random volcano. Then during one of its eruptions, it created the second peak, “Mawenzi”. Then again later on the mountain erupted and between the two peaks “Kibo” was established. The name “Kibo” is actually Swahili for “I admire”. From a distance it looks like it’s just the top of the mountain, but, when you get up there, it looks so strange. There’s this massive “alpine desert” as they call it and the Kibo peak is just sort of sitting in the middle. The next point to mention is probably that there are 4 sections to the mountain. When you start, you are in the rainforest. Then you move into the moorlands. Then the alpine desert and finally the ice cap. Lastly, because of the snow on top, the people of the area used to go to the mountain to pray for rain or crops and things of that nature, so the mountain does hold some religious effects for the natives. Kibo is the tallest peak. Uhuru meaning "freedom" is name of the summit, and it sits at 5895m or 19 and a half thousand feet. It is the highest point in all of Africa, and it makes Kili the tallest free standing mountain in the world. This is where we were going.

Anyways, let’s break down the days.

Monday, February 4, 2013

The Alpine Desert

I’d gotten my Tanzania visa all set up, and we were leaving early the next morning. So I went to Karen to stay with the girls that night. Caitlin’s birthday was on the 6^th, the first day of our ascent, so we did a little celebrating with cake. Cake is really dense here. Yes, that sounds weird, but I know of no other way to describe it. Kate also put all the monies into little organized envelopes. She likes to be organized. Glad someone does. Anyways, after that I listened to some music on my iPod and went to bed.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

I was forced to wake up at the ungodly hour of 5:45. How terrible. Loaded into the taxi and went to the shuttle stop. Then we sat there for like 2 hours. Hurry up and wait. My favorite. Shuttle finally got there, and we loaded in. We met a few Canadians going to Tanzania as well. It was a father and his two daughters maybe 12 and 14. Apparently, they had raised money for a well or two down there, and their dad has thought it would be fun for them to actually go and see the place where the wells were. Pretty sweet.

Just hanging out on a mountain

Border was about 2-3 hours away. This is the part where I mention that in order to get into Tanzania, you have to have proof of yellow fever vaccination. Well, guess who never had that vaccine let alone proof of it. Well actually, I kind of had proof. I borrowed Tim’s vaccination papers in hopes that they might just scan it and gloss over his name looking for the words “official yellow fever vaccine” stamp. I had this whole plan to distract the teller with my plans for Kili and then pretend to forget the papers and then pull them out of my bag and all this stuff. At the very least I was a little nervous that I’d spent all this money for nothing, but I got to the teller, he took my passport, stamped it, and sent my along my merry way. I was meant to climb this mountain.

Shuttle went around Mt. Meru which was so big I initially thought it was Kilimanjaro itself. It wasn’t big enough. I remember seeing a sign for Moshi being 60km away and then I looked up at the horizon, and I realized that I wasn’t looking at the sky. There was this massive shadow that spread across maybe 80km. Even from 60km away the mountain didn’t fit in any one window I was looking out of no matter how hard I tried. I couldn’t actually just look at the whole thing because it was so big. Gradually we got closer. I wanted to see the top, but it was completely covered in clouds. Wow.

We got the Moshi and went to the Kessy Brothers Agency. We talked itinerary. We talked money. We talked gear, and then we went to the hotel to rest for the night. We met a couple Italians using the same agency. They were going the same route as we were, and they bought me a beer. Instant friendship. I took the last shower I would take for a week and tried to get some sleep.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Hotel offered free breakfast. Finally something done right in Africa. Tour agency picked us up around 8 I think. Maybe 9. Went back to the office and we packed everything up. We loaded our stuff, 9 porters, 2 guides, a cook, and ourselves into the shuttle and set off for Kilimanjaro national park. Once in the park, we had to sign in and Paul, the head guide, had to do some administrative stuff. The porters started going up to the first stop so we would meet them there. Baraka, the assistant guide, started us up the path maybe an hour after we’d gotten there. It was pretty quiet at first. Then we started seeing some people on their way back down. Some were happy and fine. Others looked like they’d been punched in the face repeatedly. There were also a lot of monkeys in the woods.

We reached the first hut in the early afternoon and settled in. I sat out in the sun for a while and listened to some music. At dinner we went to a little dining hall that had been built there. We met all the other groups who were going up with us. There were the Italians, Norwegians, Canadians, Japanese, and even 3 Kazakhstanis. By the end of the trip we would have developed a relationship with each group.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

My good friend, Baraka(Asst. Guide). The
other guides call him "Obama: President of
the Mountain".

We had to go almost 12km on this day. Not too far on a road, but uphill is a little different. Baraka and I, however, took off, and we screamed up the mountain. I don’t know why, but I felt good that day. It was a lot colder at the next hut sight though. Like maybe 40 degrees Fahrenheit. We got to talk to some of the groups more here. We were neighbors with the Norwegians. The whole group centered around one guy whose name was Kurt. This was his second climb, and he had decided to come back and bring his whole family with him. I spoke with him while he was charging his iPhone with a solar charger. More about them later.

We got in pretty well with Canadians. This mother had brought her daughter, her friend, her sister from Holland, and a Kenyan politician. Her daughter was 13, and, by the end of the climb, she would be the youngest Canadian female to ever climb the mountain. Pretty cool. Anyways, this group hella fun. We got along great with them making jokes and stuff. Really good characters.

The Kazakhstanis were a couple doors down. It was an old uncle and his two nieces. This old guy would not be stopped. He seemed maybe in his 50s or 60s. Smoked I don’t know how many packs a day, but he was as tough as nails. One of the nieces had been having a fair amount of trouble, and the other one was stronger but she’d see trouble later.

Friday, February 8, 2013

These were called the "Zebra Rocks"

This was acclimation day. We went up to see some cool rocks and then came back down and relaxed. We needed this day, too. Caitlin’s weakfish stomach was having a little difficulty switching cooks and she spent most of the afternoon into the next morning in bed. Nothing much happened on this day. It just added to the anticipation of the climb the next night. Yes I said night. More later. Anyways, only bad thing that happened to me was I ate something and got the worst heartburn of my entire life. I think I slept for about an hour that night. Miserable. Absolutely miserable.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

We got up early and left for the Kibo huts at the base of the 2000m high peak. It was about 10km away, but it was another 7 or 8 hundred meters up in altitude. It was going to be interesting from here on out. We started on our way. Of course, Caitlin still felt like total crap, and, after about an hour or two, Baraka took on her day pack to try and help her out a bit. He looked pretty funny with one pack on his back and one on his stomach, but he never once said anything. Took it all in stride. We got to lunch and we could see the huts, but they were still an hour or two off. Caitlin wouldn’t even sit at the little makeshift table. She just collapsed onto the ground. About 10 minutes later the Norwegians showed up at the same spot, and Kurt’s daughter was also having a rough time except that her ailment was altitude sickness. Dizziness and headaches and all the sort of thing. No bueno. I felt bad, but we pushed on. I walked next to Caitlin for the rest of the way just to try and push her along a bit. I don’t know if I actually said or did anything that made a difference, but she made it to the huts regardless. Good timing too because it started snowing just as we got there.

They put us in this big group room. There were 12 beds. There were the 5 Canadians, 2 Spaniards, and 2 French Canadians. Just enough room. I slept for maybe an hour that afternoon. Everyone was pretty jazzed up about climbing this mountain. We could see the peak, and it was really high up. Pretty daunting. We ate dinner, and I got heartburn again. It was so confusing to me. I’ve had heartburn maybe 6 or 7 times in my whole life, and two days in a row I get right before I make this crazy climb. What luck! Anyways, it wasn’t as bad as the previous night, but I only got around 2 hours of sleep because we had the wake up at 11pm.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Yes, you read correctly. I’ve alluded to it twice now. Time to explain. The final ascent of the mountain began at midnight. I don’t know whose idea it was, but that is how it is done. We stumbled out of bed and put all of our gear on. The porters had carried the cold weather gear the entire trip simply so we could wear it on this night. We walked away from the hut at 12 and didn’t look back or even forward. Wasn’t worth it. Couldn’t see anything anyway except for the headlights of all the people ahead of and behind us climbing the mountain.

About 30 minutes in, Caitlin, still reeling from the previous two days of being out of order, knelt on the ground and had some minutes of personal questioning time. Paul, who I had not really built a relationship with up until this point, showed why he was the head guide. He told Caitlin to suck it up and keep moving. She did, and I didn’t hear a word out of her for a couple of hours.

The first part of the night’s climb was the hardest. We had to climb straight up to the ridge and then hook a left up the ridge to the summit. It was literally straight up. The angle of this beast must have been close to 60 or 70 degrees. We zig zagged across it watching for loose rocks which were everywhere. About two thirds of the way up, Kate, who had had no real issues up to this point, began to have a few things go wrong. She got a really bad headache and even threw up a couple times. For a moment, I believe she thought she wouldn’t make it, but Paul stepped up once more. He said, “There’s no crying in baseball!” Wait. That was Tom Hanks. Sorry. Um. I think he just said, “No crying.” That was embarrassing. Anyways, she pushed on as well. We finally got to the ridge. It was called “Gilman’s Point”. It’s the first milestone, and, if you make it there, you get a little certificate when you get back to the bottom. Paul hugged the girls, and the group felt rejuvenated.

We pushed onward. The next 30 minutes were relatively easy but super scary. We were literally walking alongside a cliff. Couldn’t see a darn thing, but it was mostly flat. Then it opened up, and in the waning night we could see the peak, and off in the distance I could see the sign. It started getting hilly again, and with every step I felt like my muscles were giving way. My worry here was no longer could I make it all the way up, nothing was stopping me from that, but rather how in God’s name am I going to get back down!

We got to the sign. There were some germans hogging the sign taking a bunch of inane pictures, and the girls sat down. I said no way. I just wanted to touch the stupid sign. The germans gave me some weird looks. Didn’t care. At 6:20am I smacked that Uhuru sign, and I looked to the east. Almost at that exact moment the sun popped over the low hanging clouds. I could see everything. I looked around and saw the massive glacier just chillin’ on the side of the mountain. I could see a few hundred miles in every direction. Caitlin had mentioned months earlier how cool it would be to have an epic kiss on the summit, so, even though my lips felt like they were falling off, I went up and planted one on her. This random guy said congratulations in my periphery and then I went and sat down and just stared at the sky. I remember posing for some pictures and I’ve even seen them, but pretty much everything from that point to when I got into bed for an hour 4 hours later after descending the peak is a blur.

I knew I had brought my pocket knife the entire way for something.

I got awakened at 11:15 for a late breakfast and then pushed out the door to walk the 10km back down to the huts at a lower altitude. It had been almost -40 degrees at the summit accounting for the wind, and then, even though I’d remember the huts there being cold, they were a lot more tolerable. We saw the other groups make it back to those gradually. Some had gotten there before us, but we had actually done pretty well timewise so most groups were behind us. The Italians, Spaniards, Canadians, French Canadians, all the Norwegians but Kurt’s daughter, the Kazakhstani uncle (we passed the stronger niece curled up in a ball on the ground at one point her altitude sickness was so bad), and the Japanese. Almost all of us had made it. Some of us exchanged information, and then said good bye because when we left in the morning we would never see them again.

Monday, February 11, 2013

It was Kili Time.

And leave we did. Holy crap. We hiked down in 5 hours what we had hiked up in the first two days. Caitlin and I literally ran the last kilometer. We caught hell from Kate for that. Definitely deserved though. I dunno what got into me. We weren’t supposed to reach the bottom until like 4pm. We got there right around 1. We got our certificates. Ate some lunch and were driven back to the Kessy Brothers office. They were really excited for us and for their business. Successful trips are always a good thing. They gave us each a free T-Shirt and then took us out for some beers of the “Kilimanjaro” brand. They also have a “Serengeti” beer that’s pretty good, too. We went back to the hotel. I took a shower. A loooooong shower. Then I took a nap and then went to dinner. We got some celebratory drinks afterwards courtesy of Kate. Thanks Kate.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Once again, I had to wake up at 5:45 to get a dang cab to go to the shuttle back to Nairobi. It was OK though. It was a nice ride. It was a little longer than last previously, and the border took longer than before. We got to Nairobi around 2:15. I said goodbye to the girls and then booked it to the immigration offices because my *Kenya* visa expired THAT day. Got that all fixed and good to go so I could stay for another 3 months. Then I went to the Nairobi Java House and got a milkshake.

Yes I know there were a couple days before and after this epic tale that I didn’t talk about, but those days were mostly filled with me telling people I was going to Kili and then telling them about how I climbed it. Also, this blog is much too long as it is. It was an epic trip, and so much more happened than I can write here. Typing the story just doesn’t do it justice, but I hope I communicated the obstacles and the successes and the experiences well. Kate and Caitlin both have their own blogs with their own perspectives. Maybe reading all three will give you a better idea. All I know is that week is gonna stick with me for a while.

If you’re interested in a Mt. Kili trip or a crazy legit safari or both, we found the Kessy Brothers to be incredible. One of the cheaper agencies, but they give you everything you need and provide a truly great service.

Elections and another trip to Uganda are coming up! More about that later… Haha

-Harris

Us with our certificates and the guides. Good times.

Oh Chesongoch, My Chesongoch

2013-02-01T07:46:00.001-08:00

Oh. Yea. Got my hair braided.

Ok so I have a lot to fill everyone in on. So much freakin’ stuff has happened since the last time I posted!

Week of New Year’s

So our friend Augus invited us to one of his friends’ homes for a little New Year’s party. We got there around 6:30 or 7, I think. Anyways, we chilled for a couple hours and had dinner. It didn’t sit very well unfortunately, so I decided to go back. Vinny, who was also at the party, coincidentally had to leave as well to go pick up his kids from their grandmother’s house, and Henry decided he’d rather go back as well. Tim and Mike were on the coast doing their thing. We had to take a matatu to downtown Nairobi, and then pick up another matatu back to Amani. While we were in town though, there were some activities had, and Henry wound up with a broken leg. We dragged him home, and then after all the stuff had happened I decided to go to the pub around the corner for a drink. They were throwing down of course and one lady came up to me and poured a whole canister of glitter on my head. Took weeks to get it all out!

Over the next couple of days, I tried to convince Henry to get his leg checked out, but he was convinced he had just strained it our something. Long story short we finally had a day where we went to the dispensary next door. They sent him to get x-rayed, and they told him it was a fracture. He ended up having to have minor surgery. He ended up going back to the States earlier this week, in fact. I, however, was in Chesongoch when he left. It was a bummer, but everything happens for a reason!

During this time I also did some more work on the wall. It was a ton of fun, and the kids from the area loved to come and help out. The girls came for a couple days and added some of their own flare as well!

The Great Rift Valley

By January 7, I was in the valley, and boy was it a little different. I’d visited a couple places like this before, but living in place like that is a lot different than visiting. It was a million degrees outside, and there was no water, and more importantly no toilet seats.

I went with the girls, and we got to work in the Pre-Primary school and the dispensary run by the sisters there. There were only four sisters (Jacinta, Bernadette, Angela, and Tekla), but they do all the work! Sr. Angela taught in the school; Sr. Bernadette and Sr. Tekla in the dispensary; and Sr. Jacinta made the whole thing work.

We got to play with the kids on a regular basis and even do some classroom work. Those kids have far too much energy. No matter how much I ran or carried them, they always wanted more. It was hysterical.

At the dispensary, we sorted a lot of pills. They told us later that we actually sorted enough pills to get the dispensary through the next year apparently! We also made cotton balls and folded gauze strips. They also had us painting a lot. We painted the maternity ward, some of the staff quarters, and even the front gate of the convent. I kept pushing to have a good, old-fashioned paint fight, but the girls wouldn’t have any of it. I did manage, however, to turn the shower on while they were painting one of the bathrooms. I prefer to remember their screams of shock as screams of laughter. It’s all about the perspective, right?

*I* know how to strike a pose.

If there’s a specific day to note, though, it would definitely be the day we hiked the mountain. It stands a little over a mile high, but it was not a mile hike. I guess I’m used to paths and stuff. This mountain path, if you can call it that, was this winding trail that went through all the little villages and maize fields on the side of the mountain. There was also this massive escarpment that we had to cross like three times. It was also incredibly steep. Steep as in, I almost fell off the side like 4 times. I attribute that to my shoes as opposed to my talent as a walker.

It was the tallest mountain peak on our side of the valley. The other side bordered the Sudan, and there were some pretty big mountains there. I still felt accomplished.

That is Sr. Tekla. We had fun with this.

Finally, the day came to leave. It was a very interesting experience there. I became pretty good friends with Sr. Tekla, and, despite the fact I’d barely been there three weeks, she cried as we drove away. It’s a different life down there. Back in America and even in Nairobi, people seemed to always get bored. They come home from work, and they don’t know what to do with themselves. The Marakwets(the tribe mostly associated with the area where we stayed) don’t seem to differentiate work from pleasure. Not that they don’t have either, but they seem to have a seamless transition between the two. Living life as whole instead of in parts. Sometimes it was difficult for me to figure out how to work with that, but by the end I could see the benefit of it. It was pretty cool.

Post Chesongoch

Anyways, I came back from the valley a few days ago, and I’m already gearing up to leave again. I got my visa for Tanzania today, and I will begin my ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro on February 6^th. I won’t lie. I’m slightly nervous but totally stoked. Kate got me some Diamox pills to help with altitude sickness, and the company we’re using has all sorts of gear ready to do. 3 porters for each climber, a chef, an assistant guide, and a head guide. It’s a full entourage on a 5 or 6 day hike. We’re supposed have a midnight hike on the morning of the last day, so that we reach the peak at sunrise. I can’t wait.

Side Note:

The application deadline for volunteering in Africa through the BVC program at Belmont Abbey is coming up. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Even if you don’t know if you want to go, just apply. You can always say no when the time comes, but give this a chance. Apply. Find Fr. Chris or Michael Becker. Feel free to ask me or the girls anything(although I think I’m better :D). You’re finishing college. Do you really want to go into the real world and tie yourself down just yet! Go experience something new! Broaden your horizons! Heck, if the experiences don’t do anything for you, learning a new language and spending the better part of year in 3^rd world country never looked bad on ANY resume.

Anyways, thanks for tuning in this time around. I'll send out another update after I climb Mt. Kili!

As always:

To Mail Me Anything:

Benedictine Fathers

Amani Conference Centre

P.O. Box 32101-00600

Nairobi - Kenya

To Donate Anything:

Southern Benedictine Society

100 belmont mount holly road

Belmont, NC 28012

(Write "BVC - Harris" in the memo section of the check)

Here are some bonus pics:

Clearest Rainbow I Have Ever Seen

Merry Christmas!

2012-12-25T04:28:00.002-08:00

Merry Christmas Bedford Falls!
Merry Christmas You Old Building and Loan
Merry Christmas Mr. Potter!
Merry Christmasss!!!!

Ah the classic finale to the greatest Christmas movie of all and also my mother's favorite movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" starring Jimmy Stewart.

I'm 8 hours ahead of the East Coast right now which makes it almost exactly 7am there. Most of you will wake up in the next 2 hours or so I imagine. Just so you know, the world didn't end, christmas is here, and even in Kenya you get Christmas cookies and I've heard the sisters are going all out tonight and cooking turkey and stuffing!

Anyways on with it! Last week we did some more painting! That exterior wall is really coming along now. The whole thing is black with a red stripe going along the top and a green one going a long the bottom. Then we started filling in the wall sections. So far we've got a map of Kenya, the flag of Kenya, a cross, and two Benedictine quotes. I chose the quotes as well as I could. One is the overall motto of the Benedictines, "Ora et Labora". It means prayer and work. I put it there for a number of reasons. One, it's a Benedictine establishment. Two, it's a quote of the founder of the order. And three, I think it reminds us why we do what we do. The paint job isn't just about painting a wall. It's about the activity itself. Painting can be pretty monotonous and boring or it can be therapeutic and healing. Everyday that I painted, kids flocked to me for the chance to hold a brush or just to hang out with the big white kid, the "mzungu". Most of those kids either aren't in school for holidays or the aren't in school all together. I gave them a week with a protected place to play and maybe even sort of learn a trade. It was a big deal.

The second quote I put up was from St. Anselm, another early Benedictine. He is the namesake of my High School and this quote is my school's slogan, "Pax in Sapientia". Literally, it says peace in understanding, but you can also say peace through understanding which I believe to be more accurate. There is a lot of misunderstanding and disagreement in Kenya. From matatu drivers to the intratribalism to even the Catholic Church, understanding is something that is missing. I thought I would post that quote as a hopeful reminder that peace is only totally found when both sides try to understand the other.

This above painting went from Wednesday to Saturday. On Sunday, I went to Karen to spend the remainder of the Christmas Holidays with the girls!

Monday was where some fun started. I got the girls some chocolate ice cream on Sunday and hid it in the refrigerator, so when Christmas Eve came around, everything was closed, and there was no real celebration during the day, I broke out the small pints and distracted them for awhile. It worked pretty well I gotta say. Throughout the course of the day we went to maybe 5 different prayer services. We had vigil mass around 10pm and afterwards there was a little get together in the refectory with cookies and muffins and hot cocoa. Then we went back to the apartment. I exposed my second surprise to be a bottle of white wine! So we popped it open and watched "It's Wonderful Life" as is tradition in Kate and my's families. Caitlin just went along for the ride.

We all passed out and woke up again at 7 to go to 7:30 Lauds and Mass. At a good size Brunch and then I took a 3 hour nap. Glorious. That pretty much takes you up to right now.

I know this post is little early in terms of how often I post, but I figured I give you all some reading material for the lulls in your day if there are any!

I posted that quote at the beginning because I can actually picture myself saying it all if I was back in the states. Don't be surprised in late April if you here of some crazy kid running around Charlotte, North Carolina screaming "Merry Christmas!" at everything.

Also since today is a day of Thanksgiving, I would like to appreciate all the donations that everyone has sent me. I'm not entirely certain of everyone's comfort level with me posting their names, so I won't do it. But you all know who you are and so do I and so does God! You're all amazing. And all of you who haven't been able to send money, don't worry! Your thoughts and prayers have been carried by the wind and skies over to me and they lift me everyday. I feel like I have the energy of a thousand people on some days.

Merry Christmas, America!! Sing an extra carol for me! I miss and love you all!

God Bless and Enjoy You Christmas!!!

Harris

It's a Wonderful Kenyan Life!

2012-12-18T06:53:00.002-08:00

To Mail Me Anything:

Benedictine Fathers

Amani Conference Centre

P.O. Box 32101-00600

Nairobi - Kenya

To Donate Anything:

Southern Benedictine Society

100 belmont mount holly road

Belmont, NC 28012

(Write "BVC - Harris" in the comment section of the check)

Hey everybody!

It’s been forever I think since my last post so it’s about time I do so. In fact, I’ll do you one better and post two! I’ll give the general summary post, and then if you look at the tabs above you’ll see one tabbed “MCF”. Definitely click that after reading that. I got a chance to have a pretty in depth interview with a beautiful woman who lived through the election violence in 2007, and the interview goes into that and what she’s had to deal with since then.

Firstly, let’s get back on track a little bit. I got a good amount of rest after the Mombasa trip. In fact, probably too much. I had wanted to get going on my painting project at St. Maurus, but I was dealing with some banking issues, so I didn’t get started until later in the week. I got back to Nairobi on Wednesday of that week. I had stayed in Karen to help the girls pass out all the gifts to the elderly that they raised so much money for! It was very impressive. I think they got around 5 grand in donations, and now that whole group is going to have a wonderful Christmas.

I got back to Nairobi and started making arrangements for the painting job. I went down and got a decent idea of what we wanted to do. The walls originally were painted yellow with a broad white stripe going across the middle. In the stripe were a bunch of children holding hands all the way around the wall. Good design and good idea. Couple problems though. For one, all the children were white, and, secondly, the paint job was over ten years old and the paint (as well as the wall) was horribly chipped in cracked all over the place. So on Monday, I got the funds I needed and I bought two huge buckets of spackle and 3 4 liter buckets of black paint. I spackled the whole wall that day. Used up every bit I had. On Tuesday, we sanded and washed the wall and popped open the first can of paint. I got about half the wall although I was skipping the pillars. The next day, myself, Henry, and a bunch of random kids who showed up to help finished painting the first coat. We finished all the pillars and the remainder of the paint by the end of the week.

I didn’t originally plan on it, but I’ve decided we gotta put a second coat on. On a couple of the wall segments the little children underneath are poking through. Pesky kids. I went back to the paint place, and they told me they won’t have the base they need for the paint until tomorrow (12/19/2012). So I got a few other things and put the project on hold for a few days. I’m planning on putting a red and green strip across the top and bottom to be in line with Kenyan colors. I also want to put some good quotes from their culture and the Bible up there as well. Maybe across the top. Big additions that I’m planning on is putting a painted version of the Kenyan flag on one of the walls, and then I want to take another wall segment and dedicate to St. Maurus. Then when all the kids come back to school, I’m gonna have them put their hands in white paint and have them put their hand prints on the wall and maybe put their names under them as well. I’ve the creative juices flowing. Any suggestions would be welcome!

On the Saturday, I went to Karen because I hadn’t seen them in 10ish days, and they also wanted to see the elephant orphanage. It was pretty cool. They facility houses about 25 elephants ranging in ages 3 months to 3 years. We only got an hour with them though because the end game is to let the elephants out into the wild at some point again, so they limit the amount of outside contact to one hour a day. Kate kept scaring off the elephants otherwise we’d have gotten some pictures touching one. I did touch one’s butt though. That was cool. After the orphanage trip we went to see The Hobbit! I was definitely a little surprised they even had the movie, and there were only maybe 8 people in the theater total. I greatly enjoyed it though! I know there are haters out there, but I think peter Jackson did a fine job translating a great book into a great movie even if he did take some license in some areas.

I took it easy Sunday, and yesterday and today I’ve been working on the article on the interview I got last week. I’ll save most of the details for the actual article, but it’s an intense story of a 16 year old girl who was just trying to get home the night after the election results in 2007. She unfortunately got a lot more than just a little trouble. It’s a pretty graphic story. Some people may rather not read it, but I’m gonna post it anyway. It won’t be on this main page, but rather another page listed on the tabs above “MCF”. I’ll also post a bit of information on what MCF(Mathare Children’s Fund) does as an organization.

Anyways, it’s been perfectly eventful as well as uneventful depending on the day.

Here are some extraneous thoughts.

1) How can a paint warehouse not have the base paint for black? Or red? They were missing that one, too. Although, I was able to get green. Things are always at 80% here. No one is ever at the top of their game, and it doesn’t really seem like anyone cares to be at least business wise. When it comes to the bar, they go pretty all out. It’s just difficult to get anything done in any sort of a timely manner. Still trying to switch to that mindset. America did a number on me, I guess!

2) The past two months there have been no fewer than 3 different Norwegian schools come to stay at the Amani Center. The first two just came and saw the slums, walked around a bit, went on a safari, etc. This third one was here for two weeks, and they left this past weekend. They were different. I got a chance to talk to one of the teachers last week for a moment. They had a pretty cool little thing going. Basically, they bring 20 students and each of those students paid for one Kenyan to stay with them. They spent two weeks basically on retreat and studying… music. A couple of the girls kept asking me to come to their concert this past Saturday. As I already noted above, I went to the elephant orphanage. I did, however, get an invite to a parent’s only show. The parents of Kenyans wanted to see what they had been doing the past two weeks. The whole group did maybe 2 or 3 different song acapella. The real trick though was that everyone split off into groups of 4-8. They had written their own music, and the musical talent there was unbelievable. These were highschoolers mind you, but they were switching instruments left and right and the lyrics were fantastic and there were some incredible singers. I saw saxophones, basses, acoustic and electric guitars, pianos, jimbes, bongos, and drums. They did all kinds of music. Beatbox. Rap. Classical. Christmas. Pop. Reggae. All across the board. It was really cool to see the kids mixed together and sharing their talents. It really was awesome.

3) On the Christmas note, if anyone wanted to send me some Christmas music, that’s be awesome because I’m missing the automatic music on 97.1 WashFM for the entire month of December.

4) Hail to the Redskins.

Remember to take a look at the interview article by clicking on the MCF tab at the top of the page.

Thanks for listening! God Bless and I'll post again around Christmas!

-Harris Moriarty

"Untitled" by Artist

2012-12-03T05:54:00.001-08:00

To Mail Me Anything:

Benedictine Fathers

Amani Conference Centre

P.O. Box 32101-00600

Nairobi - Kenya

To Donate Anything:

Southern Benedictine Society

100 belmont mount holly road

Belmont, NC 28012

(Write "BVC - Harris" in the comment section of the check)

I left you slightly over a week ago, and, when I left, I slept for 2 days. I slept and ate and watched videos on my computer and pressed repeat. I was SO tired from weeks of traveling. Of course, I'm not done or anything. I was just taking a break and well deserved one at that!

Monday I started my life again. I woke up early and went into town to send my money to Tanzania for our Mt. Kilimanjaro trip and secure our seats on the bus for Mombasa! I got to town and went down to the Modern Coast Bus Lines booking office. It was kind of in the ghetto, but the buses were really nice looking. Did that and then I walked to the other side of Nairobi to find a western union to transfer the funds. The company we are using for Kili told us the price in dollars. So I went to barclays bank and took out some money from the ATM. First problem. My bank account wouldn't let me take out enough to pay for Kate, Caitlin, and myself. So I went to the western union and changed the shillings I had over into dollars and then I went home and watched entourage.

Next day. Took my time in the morning and went back into town. Took out the rest of the money in shilling at the barclays. Went over to the western union and changed it into dollars. Then I found out that they couldn't transfer USD to Tanzania. I had to changed it all back into Kenyan Shillings and then change it into Tanzanian shillings. Huge hassle. I know I got screwed somewhere in there. THEN they said they were going to charge me an absurd amount just to make the transfer. aaaaand I didn't have enough money on me to cover the extra charge. So I walked out of the western union with far too much money in my pocket and no plan. I went to Barclays to see about opening an account because I could just use the bank to make the transfer but I had to have an account with them first. They made me jump through all sorts of hoops but the last one was I had to have a friend with a Barclays account fill out a form for me. Couldn't find one. So I talked to the girls and we put the extra money together.

Wednesday. Went to town ONE MORE TIME to figure out the mess. Went up to the lady at the counter, and she recalculated everything. Turns out the lady the previous day was going to charge me 10k extra shilling than she should have. Ugh. Whatever. I sent the money, and then I went and sat in a coffee shop for four hours while I waited for the girls to show up in downtown from Karen. We got there and then took a taxi back to Amani and chilled/ate dinner. Then we met the German girls from next door. They had ordered a cab, and so we jumped in there cab and left for the bus station around 8pm. We got to the bus station kind of early, so we stood around and waited for a bit while people walked by giving us creepy looks. People will stare at me, but no one really wants to mess with me. I have no idea why. Hah. We got on the bus and went forward to Mombasa!

Thursday

We arrived in Mombasa in the early morning. Not really sure what time. Got a taxi to take us to the hostel. We booked the hostel online and we weren't really sure what to expect. We drove into a little town just outside Mombasa called Mtwapa. It didn't look good for us. Pretty low class. Lots of matatus and motor bikes and people just sitting on the sides of the roads being loud and obnoxious. I sat back in my seat and put my hand on my forehead. We took a right and I knew that was the direction of the beach so I became at the least hopeful that we'd be close to the beach. We drove down a broken, sandy road path for at least 7 or 8 minutes. Then we came to the top of a small hill and drove down into a little parking lot where the road dead ended. We got out. We were there. I walked in the front gate, and right there was the beach! We were actually right on the beach! Also, it was really quiet. I immediately fell in love. We checked in and I went into my room for a small nap. Then I came out and ordered breakfast because the hostel has its own bar and restaurant and everything was reasonably priced. I ate my food and begged the girls to take it easy in the morning. Of course, when you're one guy with 4 girls, you will NEVER win a conversation. So we went to the public beach which meant leaving the hostel. ugh. Anyways, we got to the public beach, and that was pretty awesome. The ocean was at low tide and the beach stretch out for what seemed like miles, and even when we finally got up to the water, I could have walked another half mile into the water and only be around waist deep. Had to watch for sea urchins though. Those things were freakin' everywhere, but they're cool to look at. We drank beers and ate lunch on the beach. Went back to the hostel. I think Caitlin and I had a drink but the others just wanted water. My plan was to live it up and I stuck to it! Got dinner and hung out for a bit before finally hittin' the sack.

Friday

Best day ever. Haha I sent the 4 girls to go off snorkeling in the morning. I didn't go for two reasons. 1) I didn't want to pay and 2) I wanted to take it really easy. Vacation, right? I woke up around ten. Got a late breakfast, and went back to bed a for a little bit. Then I went and I sat looking out onto the beach drinking a beer. I met some of the other people staying there. A lot of germans. There were a few there after taking a medical elective, couple more just in from Germany on a vacation, and then there were two on a trip from Tanzania. Germans are all over East Africa. Two moved in right next to me(I had my own room with a double bed for a single price, hell ya). Their names were Tim and Benny, and they were awesome. They were both 29 and on a bro trip for the first time in 10 years. They'd been friends for most of their lives, but they hadn't gone out together for a sweet awesome trip since they'd gone to Spain when they were 17. Anways, everyone chilled the rest of Friday. What an awesomely chill day. I felt great. I even got to go on a late night walk right on the beach! Paradise was at my finger tips!

Saturday

Slept in a small amount. Got a late breakfast and then went back to the public beach. I sat in the restaurant/beach hut with all the girls stuff while they went into the water. I drank some beers and I think I got a plate of fries. It was just really beautiful. The girls got back and I took some pics of Caitlin and Kate on a camel. Yes. A camel. Kate was bracing for death the whole ride while Caitlin I think tried to do a backflip off. Interesting experience. Check Kate's fb pics for the details. Spent the day and most of the evening there. Then they kicked us out because they were hosting a bikini party. They begged us to stay actually, but the girls weren't having any of it. *sigh* Like I said, I never won on this trip. Well not quite never ;). I'm tricky. Anyways, we got back to the hostel and as it was our last night we all sat on the edge of the hostel overlooking the beach and got a few drinks. A little while later, Tim and Benny showed up and bought a round. Then our Tanzanian-German friends showed up, too. Basically, we had a big bash on our last night and we made some good friends. Hopefully, they'll find us on facebook or something. They were fun.

Sunday

Put ourselves together after the previous evening's festivities. Got in the cab and went back to the bus stop in Mombasa. At 1:30 we pulled out. We were making great time until we were roughly 50km outside of Nairobi and we were stopped on the highway. massive traffic jam. So bad that people just straight up got out of their cars and trucks and buses and walked around for bit. I must have seen 3 separate multi-car pile-ups. We arrived in Nairobi around 10:45pm. Immediately got a taxi to Karen. I took a short shower and passed the heck out.

Monday

Woke up at 9:30. checked my emails. Found out that the matatus are all on strike. So I have no plans to get back to Amani as of right now. A couple of the sisters might be driving that way tomorrow. So we'll see! I'm certainly not dropping 4k shilling to go back. I can tell you that right now. So I'm chillin' in Karen! All is well! Always looking for letters from friends and family. Just refer to the address above!

Fun Fact:

The power of the internet is ridiculous. I've had roughly 2500 blog views from these countries:

United States

Kenya

Russia

Germany

Canada

France

Nigeria

Spain

United Kingdom

Poland

Argentina

Switzerland

China

Ireland

Venezuela

Kinda weird, yea? If you're from one of these random countries, let me know who you are! Catch ya later!

U(really)ganda Leave?

2012-11-23T03:09:00.000-08:00

As always:

To Mail Me Anything:

Benedictine Fathers
Amani Conference Centre
P.O. Box 32101-00600
Nairobi - Kenya

To Donate Anything:

Southern Benedictine Society
100 belmont mount holly road
Belmont, NC 28012

Greetings ‘Merca!

Yes, I realize it has been far too long since my last post, and I am eternally sorrowful for it. I’ve come to pay recompense to the masses by posting a blog today though! So let’s get on with it.

It’s been what, 2 and halfish weeks since I last posted? The week after the funeral was pretty low key. I kept my head down and did some good works and whatnot. I’m planning on organizing a paint job for St. Maurus. I need to buy paint though. Also they want me to fix some of their floors which means I need to pay for cement, too. Man, my bills are racking up! Anyways, schools in Kenya let out last week which meant it was graduation time for the classes at St. Benedict’s primary school! What was weird though was that none of the classes 1-8 had a graduation ceremony. Only the Pre-primary class had one, but all the classes performed different acts during the graduation. Apparently, no one cares if you graduate 8^th grade, but, if you graduate preschool, you’re on top of the world.

Soon after the school shenanigans, I began another little adventure. The prioress at the convent where the girls stay in Karen invited me to go with her, the girls, and her sister who is also a nun on a trip to Uganda! This is gonna need a day by day I think.

Last Wednesday

I met Sr. Serva in downtown Nairobi at 9:30am. We were meeting so that she could help me get my Ugandan visa. We went in, and the lady told us to come back at 4pm. Super lame. Up side though was definitely that Sr. Serva ended up buying me lunch at the Java House. It was really good, and I got a pineapple milkshake. I went with her on a couple errands as well. We stopped by the Cathedral book store, a linen shop, the bank, and we made it to prayer service in the Cathedral as well. We got our Ugandan visas and went back to Karen. It took forever traffic was awful, and it was also the scariest drive of my life. Her name does not imply it, but Sr. Serva is 50-60some Korean woman who loves to talk on the phone while driving. I think I cheated death about 11 times on the way back. We got to Karen and found out that instead of leaving on Thursday, we wouldn’t actually be leaving until Friday. So I had a free day in Karen!

Last Thursday

I slept in. Until noon? Somewhere around there. It was awesome. Then I went into town with the girls to this little coffee shop they discovered and we enjoyed the coffee and WIFI. I downloaded a rental of “O Brother Where Art Thou” from iTunes because Caitlin, scandalously, had never seen it. Then we walked back to the convent in 17 minutes which was a new record for the girls (I’ve done it in 12 nbd). Enjoyed a relaxing evening and packed for our journey.

Last Friday

4:30am came around much MUCH too soon. Sr. Michael Marie, the prioress, had insisted on getting a really early start. We got in the car, and I got to meet our driver, Evans. Yes, his name has an “s” on the end, it’s not a typo. Evans and I would be spending a fair amount of time together being the only two guys on a convent to convent trip. We started off towards our first destination in Kerio valley. It was a little village called Chesongoch. The last 40 km was on a miserable piece of dirt road. We finally arrived though and let me tell you it was friggin’ hot. It has been a loooooong time since I’ve been in an environment so sweltering. Of course, Chesongoch is the convent I’ll be staying at during the month of January. Oh boy. We got there at lunchtime and then I took a nap. I sweat myself to sleep. Then the girls and I got around 3 and Evans drove us to Endo which was about an hour away. It was another little convent in the valley. We came back. Did some vespers and then the girls and I watched Cool Runnings on my computer before we went to sleep.

Saturday

We got up and took some cold showers because they don’t have hot water, but I didn’t mind because of the heat. We went to Mass and then we got a tour of the dispensary the sisters run there. It was a really good looking facility. They’d done a lot of building and money raising the past couple years, and they’re even set up to facilitate surgery. The only problem they have now is a lack of people! They need surgeons and other workers and what not. Then we went back to the convent for lunch and headed out again.

We drove up a mountain for 15 km. That was interesting. The sites were incredible though. We got an awesome look at the valley. I can’t wait to live there for a month and get some good hiking in. About 4 hours later we arrived at Kimumu which is another convent and we sat around and had tea. Then they gave us a tour of the school. It’s a small building but they have about 500 kids in their primary school there. We had dinner in Kimumu, and I did my best to entertain all the sisters. I don’t know why but these religious women just seem to love me. Then, because there wasn’t enough room in Kimumu to house Evans, the girls, and myself, we went to another convent in a town called Eldoret about 20 minutes away. It’s a beautiful convent. Small, but very pretty. They had hot water. I took advantage. Since we’d gone up in elevation the temperature had dropped significantly. I took my hot shower and passed out.

Sunday

Went to Mass at the Cathedral of the Eldoret Diocese. Sr. Michael Marie needed more time with the sister at Kimumu so we stayed in Eldoret another day. We came back to the convent and took naps. It was glorious. Then we went out for lunch and ate to our hearts’ desires for about 10 bucks total. Then we went to Kimumu because we were supposed to be there by 4. We got there around 2:30 and hung out. Then we were told to go with this random lady back to her home with Evans as the driver. So we went and we hung out at this family’s house for a couple hours. They gave us tea, cookies, and mandazi. Then we all sat around and discussed different things. I learned something about American History that day, too. Please tell me if this was in your history books.

The Explanation Behind the Name America as told by a Kenyan

When the settlers of the New World began to expand their lands, the Indians became agitated. One man had an idea to marry a pilgrim woman with an Indian man. The Indians were pleased. The night after the ceremony one of the settlers had hidden in a wedding present. He broke out and unlocked the gates to the Indian village. The settlers came in, over took, and killed the Indians of the village. The phrase “A Marriage Gun” was coined. Over time this phrase turned into America hence the name of the country.

I had never heard that one before, but man is it a riveting story. There were a couple other myths that I had to dispel, but it was fun nevertheless.

Monday

We left for Uganda. Jinja specifically. The nickname of Uganda is the “Jewel of Africa”, so I went into Uganda with this thought in mind. It is indeed a pretty country. The whole country is covered in green and there are rolling hills everywhere. Very pretty landscape, and there’s a ton of food. The convent in Jinja was more like a massive compound. Everything was gated and all the windows were barred and there was this little courtyard inside. Despite that, it might be the prettiest compound I’ve ever seen. From the view in the girls bedroom, you could see lake Victoria which actually touched a piece of the sisters’ property.

Within about an hour of getting there, they had us back out again to go see the source of the Nile River. Man, that was cool. They put us in a little boat and motored around tiptoeing back and forth over the line separating the Nile and Lake Victoria. I’m not really sure how to describe it.

We went back to the convent for dinner and vespers. Then afterwards, another nun who was visiting showed a slide show of her travels around the world specifically in Brazil and Rio de Janeiro. I want to go there something fierce now. That place looks awesome!

Tuesday

We got up around 5:30 to see the sunrise over the lake. That was cool. Later in the morning we got a full tour of what the convent does at their hospital and there 900 kid primary school. I have no idea where all these kids come from. In the school we went from class to class, and by the time we were done it was recess or something so I started playing with the kids. Here’s a snippet:

After that we scarfed down some food and hit the road back to Eldoret. We stayed there for the night.

Wednesday

Back to Karen! We arrived mid-afternoon exhausted and hungry. So we took some tea and took a nap. Then we went into town to buy a few things. We came back and we cooked an apple crisp for the sisters to enjoy on our Thanksgiving Holiday. I wasn’t there the next day to enjoy, but I was told we did a good job!

Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving! I got driven to Nairobi and I went with the girls and Sr. Serva to go deal with some immigration issues (ironic). The girls had to renew their visas. Then we went out for lunch to celebrate Thanksgiving and St. Cecilia’s feast day who is Kate’s patron saint. Then I went to Amani think I’d have a few hours to chill. Wrong. I got back to find a note saying I was getting picked up at 4:30 which was about 10 minutes from when I saw it. We were having a big celebration at Dan the Pirate’s House. Tim and Mike cooked all evening making deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, and lamb. We also had a bunch of beer. We listened to loud music and danced around. Almost forgot, when I got picked up, I was asked to drive to Dan’s house. I DROVE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE AUGUST. It was awesome and driving around Nairobi isn’t so bad! Pedals are still in the right places so it wasn’t too difficult. We got back from the party around 2:30am. I was exhausted.

Today (Friday)

I slept in until 9:30 today and then got tea. I’m planning on doing nothing for the next couple days. It’s been a really exciting past couple of weeks though.

There are always more things that I could talk about, but I’m trying to keep these posts shorter and to the points I’m supposed to hit if I can (I know I typically fail at the short part).

Some Final Things:

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and is doing well back in the States. I’m still looking for some donations for some various projects at St. Maurus, and I still want to buy a couple basketball hoops for a couple different places.

Also, if anyone has any interest in seeing pictures of me on Mt. Kilimanjaro, I’m also accepting personal donations J .

God continues to bless my mission with everything that I've needed to do to be successful here. I've made great friends, and I am becoming better friends with some that I was already friends with. My family has never felt so large as it does right now. I miss you all. Only 5 more months!

-Harris

Pole Pole Sana, Bwana. (Very Slowly, Man)

2012-11-05T04:25:00.002-08:00

This past week was slow and fast and boring and super interesting. I'll do my best to put it all in words for you!

To Mail Me Anything:

Benedictine Fathers
Amani Conference Centre
P.O. Box 32101-00600
Nairobi - Kenya

To Donate Anything:

Southern Benedictine Society
100 belmont mount holly road
Belmont, NC 28012

I left you all about 9 days ago on a Thursday. From Friday to Monday, I took it easy. I went to Karen to see the girls. Kate didn't feel super great, so Caitlin and I watched episodes of House all day Sunday. It was good, lazy fun.

Monday morning I left the girls in time to make it back to Drawing at 11am. I started working on different animals. I'm not really much for actually drawing them, but it was fun trying to get the kids to think of different animals and to teach them some animals that they'd never heard of before! I was going to go to St. Maurus that afternoon, but I got called to a staff meeting at Street Children to discuss some future issues and projects. It was long and boring, but it was actually pretty insightful. As of right now, the policy is that new kids have to stay in the center for one year for rehab purposes before the center can pay for them to go to school. We are now, however, looking into the possibility of taking the necessity of a year of rehab on a case by case basis. Some kids do not need to get weened off of sniffing glue because they never had a problem in the first place. There are also some issues with dealing with kids who are sponsored. Some of the sponsors have been sending their kids money for cell phones and other totally unnecessary things, and many of the kids get distracted from school or get in trouble simply because in most schools phones aren't allowed. Anyways, we got through a lot of information.

Tuesday and Wednesday, I went to St. Benedict's for Drawing and then followed up with St. Maurus in the afternoon.

Thursday is where the fun begins. From this point forward in this blog post, you will hear detailed descriptions of experiences and some possibly heavy insights into certain aspects of life here in Kenya.

Firstly, I'll begin by saying. DUDE, KENYANS SUCK AT TRAVELING ANYWHERE IN ANY CONCEIVABLE MANNER OF TIME. Ok. Glad I got that out. So here's the deal. Augus' uncle who had adopted him and his other siblings when he was younger was hit by a car and couple weeks ago on Heroes Day(a Kenyan Holiday). James Ogutu passed away on the scene. Augus invited the four guys here at the Amani Center to go to the funeral in town called Bodi on the Nyabondo Plateau. Only Mike and I were able to go. On Thursday night after dinner, Augus came over and led us back into the slums after nightfall. We hopped on a couple motorcycles and sped away through the slums. We stopped in an area of Mathare that had apparently alluded me, Baraka. It wasn't the worst that I'd seen since my arrival, but it was pretty darn close. The reason we went there that night was because we supposedly going to take a bus the next morning around 4 or 5. Well, Augus got some friends together as well as a couple bottles of Konyagi, and we all sat around drinking until most passed out. I had brought my computer, and I sat on that for awhile.

8am Friday morning comes around. During the night, Augus had apparently procured for us a car being driven by his cousin, Jack. Jack as I came to learn was an incredibly nice man, and also a bit simple. He lives the Kenyan phrase Pole Pole. We got in his car at 8:30. Then we drove to his house where we sat for another hour drinking tea and watching music videos for christian music on the television. Then we left his house and piled into his car. The seats were really cushiony but there was really only room for 1.8 people in his backseat. Jack was driving. His wife was in the front passenger seat, and Mike, Augus, and myself stuffed ourselves in the back. It was tight. We left his house, and we made at least two more stops on the way out of Nairobi. Then we finally began the *7* hour journey. I put the 7 in asterisks because that's how long it was SUPPOSED to take. All in all, it took about 11. We were moving nicely, and then we stopped for food where we met up with a bus that had been rented by Augus' Uncle's church. We saw all of them and chitchatted for awhile. Then we got back in the car, and roughly and hour later we went over a bump and heard a loud crack. Yay. Soon, we pulled over into a local mechanic. They removed the front left tire to find the actual frame of the car had cracked, so the man welded it as well as doing a few other things and we got back on the road. We came to where we were supposed to turn, however, and the road was closed. No one was entirely certain which direction to go. So we stopped about 4 times to get proper directions. We traversed the same 30km stretch of road 4 times, and somewhere in there it started pouring rain. Finally, we found the correct road. After driving for another long stretch of time, we got to the bottom of the plateau. It was night time, but even still it was obvious we were getting pretty deep into the Bush. The last bit of the journey was to get to the top of said plateau. We took one "road", but the rain and mud had caused massive rifts and gulleys. We struggled through the road for sometime, and finally were forced to turn back. On the second road, we found more luck, the problems arose when the road became too steep, and the car kept trying to slide off the side of the mountain. We pulled into the driveway of a local "house" and asked if we could leave the car over night. Then we collected our things and hiked through the rain and mud for probably a mile. We met up with a few of Augus' friends who had come down to assist on our hike up because we didn't know the exact way. Only problem was that in the dark, they apparently didn't know the way either. We went up and down the mountain for another hour before we finally found where the funeral party was located. We set up our tent, and then I went out to meet some of the family members. I got brought to the matriarchal house and met a lot of old ladies who only spoke Luo with very poor Swahili. There was very little conversation, but they enjoyed looking at me and laughing. Then I went to bed. Fun Fact: in each family area I guess you would say, the home of the "First Wife" or the Head wife faces directly toward the valley. All other houses face hers. It's important when traveling around to know which house to pay homage to first.

Funeral Saturday came along. I woke up and crawled out of my tent to see a few cups of tea awaiting me. I stood up and stopped. The view. was. incredible. I wish that I had had my camera with me. In the rush of Thursday night heading over to the slums, I'd left it sitting on my bed. Even so, my camera could not have done this view justice. Directly in front of me was the rift valley. Must have been 300 km across. Running right through the middle was the Nyando River. To the left was Lake Victoria, but only a piece of it. And on the far side extending across the whole horizon were the Bondo Mountains. I got to see it all just as the sun rose behind me out from the facade of the plateau. So beautiful. I sat and watched for a good amount of time just appreciating it.

Then I heard the microphones. In front of one of the little houses there, a few tents with chairs had been set up. The ceremony was beginning. The ceremony here was different than ours in so far as it was a Seventh Day Adventist service and the whole things last about 8 hours. They do welcoming announcements and tributes from all sorts of people and requiems and choir singing. The people who simply attend, however, do not sit for 8 hours. They mill about having different conversations and preparing food and whatnot. I was asked to go with a number of other guys to go get water from a local stream. I couldn't believe that people were gonna drink this water. The rains had churned everything up so the water was almost totally brown, but I filled my 20 liter jerrycan like I was told and brought it back. It was a long walk, and 20 liters of water is pretty darn heavy by the way. After awhile though, I drifted over to the tents. I sat and listened to a few of the tributes. I didn't understand a word anyone said, but even still. There was a man who went up to the microphone, and he began talking. I tried to be as attentive as possible. I was trying to read his face and his body language. I could here in his voice that he was losing control. Gradually, I began to hear his voice crack and his voice get louder until finally he was at the point of breaking down. At the time, all I remember is feeling for him. I had no idea what he was saying, and yet despite the language barrier *I* was getting teary eyed. Even just thinking back the moment now brings some swelling to my eye lids. After this man who I later found out was the deceased brother, another man came around passing out programs to those who didn't have one. I grabbed one and flipped through it. Oddly enough, the whole thing was written in English. Jame Ogutu was a family man with 3 sons and 2 daughters. Not accredited were his brother's children whom James had adopted. He finished secondary school and taught in the school systems as well as drove a bus for the rest of his life. And he never missed a day of Church. On the back was a small note written by Augus' eldest brother:

"It is with sorrow and grief that I honour God your Kind and Keeper for your demise. It has been tough to accept it Dad but you said it before your departure. The love and understanding that has been between us was great and still needed it. You lived a humble life but you made our entire family and me in particular what I am. We were wished extreme poor and hard life but dear Dad you taught us to: Love the Lord whole heartedly, Pray and Fast, be Humble always, Give to the Lord and others, Work with people with no grange, be appreciative even in the little things, be people of integrity, be full of compassion as Jesus is, Love and take care of our families. Dad the list is long. I cannot mention it all. you have left us in the hands of which you loved and trusted most, the Almighty God. You have fought a good fight. You have kept pure the faith of the saints. You have gone to your Father King and faithful friend you loved most. We will for life miss you. You molded us to what we are by the power of your God. Receive your crown and enjoy the life in that eternal house."

I think I died a little inside when I read that. Here's the thing. Kenyan people are pretty resilient. They are surrounded by poverty, failure, corruption, and death. Dan the pirate says that Kenyan men are bred to be super serious and never show emotion. In the villages, when they are 14, they have to be circumcised in front of the family, and they're not allowed to flinch. That's what a Kenyan man is supposed to be like. I think what threw me the most was that these big, kenyan men were breaking down over the death of this one man. At the burial, there was even a man who used my sleeve to sob. I could tell he was trying to hold it back, but he was experiencing true sorrow. My first thought was: I'm not allowed to cry because frankly I don't have the right to! Not only did I not know this man, but the men who are cracking around me are giving up years and years of personality formation and throwing it to the wolves to grieve for this man at this moment. The second thought was: I wish I had met this man. They buried him behind his house and the entire yard was full. I started considering the reach of this one man, and I realized that even I was there. This man had been so influential that two Americans who had no business being there had been sucked into his vortex. What a guy he must have been. He was 54. In 50 years of living his simple life in the slums and going to Church everyday, he had managed to reach me about 12000 miles away. If one guy can do so much and have so much effect who is to say that someone like me can't and isn't. He did nothing spectacular. He just lived a good life. Maybe if I just try to live a good life, the rest will take care of itself, too.

Anyways, a break from that. One thing about the funeral that really irritated the heck out of me were the preachers. They had about 6 preachers, and they went up in twos so that one could preach in english and the other would translate to swahili. So this part I got to hear and understand. THEY DON'T SAY ANYTHING. They talk in circles and they repeat themselves and they yell really loud but nothing actually gets said. Nothing is explained and no information is given. There's no learning. Actually sorry, I lied. They try to teach some things. Like, how all Catholics are misinformed. That's what they teach to their "flocks". How to pass judgment on someone based on their title. What gives? Their whole argument was that in the Bible it doesn't say anything about one church. What makes theirs so great then? And they also say that the Bible specifically says Jesus came with only three things and nothing else: Divine Power, Blood, and Stripes. The preacher explained the first two and then just sort of forgot about the third and went off on a praise tangent. What the heck are the stripes? WHAT THE HECK ARE THESE GUYS EVEN TALKING ABOUT!? I dunno. I was confused, but a good portion of the crowd seemed happy. So I just left and went somewhere else for awhile. Also, all the preachers here call themselves Bishops. It's ridiculous.

After the burial, everyone broke up for awhile. Some went to get food or set up for the evening festivities. I went to go alone into the town to see if I could charge my computer somewhere as it was pretty much dead. I was about halfway there when one of the guys I'd met at the funeral came and dragged me away to somebody's house. He wanted to bring me to the "Men's Club" as he called it. It was someone's backyard that wasn't kept very well. A bunch of guys were just sitting on some rocks and they were passing around some sort of local liquor. Basically moonshine. Oh and did I mention the marijuana? Did anyone else know that Kenya is full of that stuff? Literally grows everywhere. I spent about 20 minutes there and was able to get away and get to Bodi. I paid some lady like 30 shilling to charge my computer for awhile. Sat around a bit and saw some other people from the funeral that I actually recognized from Nairobi. We went into a local pub and watched Manchester United beat Arsenal 2-1. I was bummed. I went to get my computer and then started back toward's the tent which was about a 30-40 minuted walk. Of course, on my way there it started pouring so I had to sprint. I got to my tent and got dry. Turned on my computer and I'll be darned if the thing hadn't charged at all. In fact, it had probably lost charge. So that was sad. It died about 10 minutes later. So I left the tent and ran over to the little house. There were maybe 150 people stuffed in there. I walked around and chatted with everyone for a bit and then Augus found me, brought me back to the tent, and gave me so freshly cooked fish and rice. It was so good, I couldn't even believe it. Easily the best fish I've ever had in my life. By this time, it was close to 10pm. One of Augus' brothers came in with a bottle of some kind of liquor and we passed it around for a bit. Then everyone left for awhile, and I went to sleep. By the way, lightning storms on top of plateaus are pretty scary but it's a little exciting, too!

Woke up Sunday morning around 6. Jack had told me he wanted to leave by 9:30. I got some of my stuff ready and took breakfast and tea. After mulling around for a bit, I found Jack and he was talking with his father and brothers about something. So finally, around 10 he said it was time to go. We walked back down the mountain to his car and would you believe it? It didn't start! Not only that but the driveway was downhil to where the car was which meant we had to PUSH it up the driveway. We found 5 or 6 people walking down the mountain to come help. The real problem was the ground was so incredibly muddy, we couldn't find good traction. It took about an hour to get it up. I'm pretty sure I almost died twice by that beast of a car falling back over top of me. Augus and Mike stayed in Bodi, but I needed to get back to Nairobi to deal with a couple things regarding my work visa, so Jack, his wife, and now his two sisters who needed a ride down to the bottom got in the car. The two sisters both had newborns with them as well. Jack put the car in neutral and we rode the mountain with all it's slipping and sliding mud and huge bumps all the way into a small town. The two sisters got out and walked to the local matatu station and we pushed the car into a mechanic. Mechanic worked on the car for about 2 hours. Then we just *had* to get the car washed. Pressure washer wasn't working so it was done by hand by one man. Then we finally got into the car and went on our way, and we were making such great time! A minor rain shower here and there had shown up but nothing serious. We were about 50 km outside of Nairobi when on the left we see the big bus stuck on the side of the highway that looked an awful lot like the bus transporting all the people from the funeral. Of course we stopped. Turned out the bus had run out of fuel. The fuel light had been on for over 100km. Driver thought he could make it to the next petrol station. Idiot. Some four wheel drive car came along and tried tow the bus but the hooks kept snapping. That's when I remembered I had two carabiners in my backpack. I always keep a couple just in case! They each hold a few thousand pounds. Figured two should do the trick. So we hooked them up, and they got about 150m down the road. This time the ropes had snapped. At this point the driver of the car who had just been a passerby decided it was time for him to go home. It was late. It was pretty dark. Storm was coming in, and the wind had brought the temperature down a lot. it was probably close to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. We needed a new plan! Jack and I hopped in the car and found the next local town. Wow was this town a piece of crap. Literally drunkards and prostitutes everywhere. I had no idea where we were, but I definitely didn't like it. We walked around asking for some help and we got directed to a mechanic. The issue with the bus apparently was that it was a diesel so even if we just got fuel we'd have to do something called bleeding to make sure the pipes that were only supposed to have fuel in them didn't have air too. So we loaded up the bucket of fuel and the mechanic into the car and got back to the bus. Bus got fixed. Then we went about going over the last mountain. Of course, in the time we'd been figuring out the whole issue, a bunch of storm clouds had rolled through. The entire descent from the mountain was done almost completely blind. The fog was terrible. We passed a lot of cars that had fallen off the side of the road., but we made it back. I got dropped off at the Amani Center, and I collapsed into my bed.

It was definitely a big weekend. A lot to take in. I hope that this story wasn't too overwhelming for y'all but man I had to tell somebody! I learned a lot this weekend. I learned that some emotions are not bound by language. Kenyans are not resilient to sorrow. Traveling takes forever here. And one man can truly make a difference. Not necessarily a physical one, but the kind that matters, "You lived a humble life but you made our entire family and me in particular what I am." Regardless of what you or anyone else might think, everyone has the potential. It's just a matter of what we do with it. Do we live for ourselves or do we live for others or some mixture of the two. I think it's the last, and I think I'm zoning in on the balance. Keep us all in your prayers and stay tuned! I'll be here for 5 and a half more months!

-Harris

Spaghetti in Dagoretti

2012-10-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

Before I disseminate my life, here's important information:

To Mail Me Anything:

Benedictine Fathers
Amani Conference Centre
P.O. Box 32101-00600
Nairobi - Kenya

To Donate Anything To My Mission:

Write a check out to: The Southern Benedictine Society. Then write "BVC - Harris" in the comment section. Then mail it to:

Southern Benedictine Society
100 belmont mount holly road
Belmont, NC 28012

OK. That was important. Now, what did I do this past week?!?!

Last Thursday and Friday, I just went into the daily grind teaching at St. Benedict's. St. Maurus was closed on Thursday afternoon through Friday for Hero's Day. I didn't know Kenya had heroes nor do I know who any of them are!

Saturday is where my fun started! I got invited by one the member's of the parish here to come and hangout with the high school youth on Saturday. We played a soccer tournament, sack races, volleyball, relays, etc. It was epic, and I got fried. As in sunburn. It was my first African sunburn! My team finished second. we had two draws in the soccer tournament that were killer. Then I went back to the crib for some refreshment, and, while I was there, the girls called and said the convent next door had some sisters driving to Karen and they were just about to leave. Now, I had planned on going to Karen on Sunday, but I couldn't pass up a free ride. So in about 3 minutes flat, I got my stuff together. Ran out to meet the van just in time. I'll tell you what. those sisters are so funny. I had a great time on the ride over to Karen. I learned 11 names that day! I can't quite put them to faces but I know the names!

On Sunday, I finally conceded and went to the giraffe center with the girls. It turned out to be a really small facility, but it was still pretty fun. We fed a few of the giraffes. They have wicked* long tongues, and they're really slobbery. They attendants also said that we had to be careful because sometimes the giraffes head butt people. That would have been pretty darn funny.

Monday, I went to Dagoretti with the girls. They spend their Mondays and Thursdays there. It was a really good time. Most of the morning was spent with the babies in the nursery. I've never really been known to be all about babies or anything, but man I had a good time with the little ones. We picked them up and just hung out and then later we fed them. Really cool experience. We spent the afternoon with the abandoned and orphaned children at the center. They were fun, but a couple of the kids were really annoying. I guess no parents isn't fun. Then we got taken to a multi-sensory room. Pretty cool. I basically got a massage from one of the workers there by way of one of those big exercise balls. That was different.

Tuesday, I brought the girls back with me to Nairobi in time to make it to Drawing at 11. I think the girls liked it. Then we spent a little time at P.E. where the kids jumped all over everybody and experimented with everyone's hair. It was pretty great. Then I took them on the long walk to the Mogra Rescue Center so that Miss Anne Trufant would kill Kate for not going to see it. We had a good time touring around it, and they gave us tea which was great. That night we watched Good Will Hunting. Kate hadn't see it in awhile and Caitlin had NEVER seen it. So of course we had to watch it.

Wednesday was a big day. I took the girls into Mathare. We went by St. Maurus school for the handicapped. The girls were a big hit with one of the Down syndrome kids named Joseph. He was hugging everyone like crazy. Then I took them to the Mogra Star Academy. They were so thrilled to have us that they gave us a full school tour. We stepped into like half the classes and the kids would sing us a song and then we'd introduce ourselves. It was pretty epic. Finally, I took the girls into The Street Children Project. Mike was working on the garden with Vinny and a couple of the boys. Then with the Mathare tour finished, I took the girls into downtown Nairobi to catch the matatu home, but not before we stopped at a burger joint where there was a buy one burger get one free deal going on. The girls split the deal. I had two burgers. Glorious! Then I went back to Amani and I passed oooouuuttt. Man that was a busy couple of days.

Today, we took it easy. Just a normal day at the office: Drawing and St. Maurus. Tomorrow I'm considering a similar schedule with possibly a quick trip next door to the convent at some point.

Extraneous thoughts:

Sister Lois at the convent is a very cool person. She lingers and she talks a lot, but she's so loving and if you give her words a chance they just might bring forward a sense of wisdom you were looking for. On Sunday night, she came into the guest house at the convent and sang us a song in Kiswahili. Then she explained the song to us, and it was a simple song about how one day we will find a place where no evil things can come. The song states that we may even look for those things, but they won't be there. It's a safe place surrounded in good. Most people like to think of heaven as up in the clouds with singing or a big friends and family gathering. I think it's possible to over think that stuff though. You start wondering about whether all your friends and family will be there or whether you'll actually enjoy sitting on your butt singing and playing the lute. In simple terms though, I'd like to think that heaven is just a simply good place. Not easy to over think. Just a good place. It's a calming thought.

Sorry for the lack of pictures this time around, my internet situation has changed. I'm working on a data plan now, so uploading pictures will take up too much data at the moment. I'm looking at strategies for later though. Don't worry! Remember donation details and mailing address are at the top! Stay Tuned!!!!

-Harris Moriarty

*denotes spending way too much time with Caitlin O'Malley

2012-10-17T13:16:00.002-07:00

Last episode Harris was found dancing around a campfire in the middle of an African jungle. When things didn't seem crazy enough, a lioness was stealthily stalking Harris as he made the dance of the gods. All of a sudden, Harris' friends showed up on a Tuk-Tuk in time to throw Harris a spear to thrust into the side of the mighty beast. He was then taken to a mental institution for throwing a fire poker into his daughter's cat.

Now back to where we left off!

On the Monday after Bondo, St. Benedict's was having an off week for midterms and mid-semester break. So I slept in the morning, and I went to St. Maurus. It was a good half day of work, and it was about this time I began thinking that the week would be the first routine week since I'd gotten to Nairobi. At dinner, however, I met a nice Australian guy name Nimal. He's going into the seminary, but he decided that he wanted to do a little mission work first. He bought a plane ticket to Kenya and somehow found the Amani Center. He had told me about at place somewhere around Mathare that he wanted to go, and I told him I would take him in the morning since I know Mathare pretty well by now. He also asked if I could charge his iPhone.

Tuesday morning hits pretty hard at 6am. Anyways, I met up with Nimal and we set off. Turns out, we were going to the Mother Theresa Center. I'd heard about it, but I hadn't gotten a chance to go yet. They invited us in, and we went to Mass. After Mass is where some new experiences showed up. They put me to work with the handicapped kids. I had to wash them. Rub down their whole bodies with vasoline. Clothe them. Feed them. And then finally clip their toenails. It was different than anything else I've done. I went to see the nursery which had 8 little babies. 3 of them had AIDS. Then I went to the Women's center. There's about 30 women who live there. They're either sick, elderly, or pregnant. All in all, it was a really cool and changing experience.

Wednesday and Thursday I went to St. Maurus and did my thing there.

Friday. I went to Karen. I was there until Monday morning. On Saturday we got to go to this big party held my the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya. Lots of cool speakers. It started raining though and I got soaked which was sad because I'd only brought the one pair of jeans. Made life a little interesting. The sisters at the convent are really great. They treat me super well, and they think I'm funny!

I came back on Monday in time to get a little Drawing action done at St. Benedict's and then I went to St. Maurus directly afterward. Eleanor, a lady staying at Amani, had given me a hand painted Memory game set for the St. Maurus kids. They love that game and they were thrilled. I was feeling charged up, and ready to go! The next day, I did a similar routine except that evening I went to FIFA game kenya vs. South Africa! Super epic. Kenya lost 2-1 on an own goal. It was depressing, but I have the one goal we scored on video here:

It was crazy exciting.

Today I went a little easier. I did St. Benedict's in the morning, and chilled in the afternoon. Gonna hit the ground running tomorrow.

Ok. Before I go though, everyone should know that if you are looking to donate this is what to do. Write a check to Belmont Abbey and write BVC - Harris(or someone else) - Name of center you're donating for(optional) in the comment part. Here's the Abbey's address:

Southern Benedictine Society
100 belmont mount holly road
Belmont, NC 28012

I hope everyone is doing well! Send me letters or something! I haven't gotten a single one yet!

Benedictine Fathers
Amani Conference Centre
P.O. Box 32101-00600
Nairobi - Kenya

-Harris Moriarty

Bingo in Bondo with Bongos!

2012-10-08T07:43:00.005-07:00

GoodNESS! It’s been two weeks since my last post! I’m sorry for the delay. Things have been moving and hustling over in these parts.

Points of Interest:

1) The teacher’s strike is over. All the kids at Street Children finally went back to school! Out of the 118 kids there, only 15 didn’t make it to school this year. That’s OK, though! Some still need to be rehabilitated and take a few tutoring sessions.

2) The nurses have started their strike! Yay! This was apparently a big year for union deals with the government. They want a raise, and they want fewer hours. Who doesn’t?

3) It’s starting to get hot. Average temperature is up, up, and away. Gets down to the 50s and 60s at night, but spikes around 90 at midday.

4) I got my first fungal infection ever, and it’s one that I didn’t even need to go to Africa for! I could have just wrestled in high school. Anyways, I got ringworm, and I’m basically putting straight acid on it. They call it Whitfield’s ointment. Supposedly, it’s the best.

Anyways, let’s give a quick summary of events.

Week of 9/24

We sent the kids to school on a variety of busses and matatus as far as 400 kilometers away that week. Sad to see them go, but happy that they’re gone gettin’ edumacated. I picked up a little more time at St. Maurus. I’m hoping to start seeing them more and more. This upcoming week, I don’t have work at St. Benedict’s, so I’ll get to go a few times. Street Children is working on a shamba or a garden. They have sikumawiki(lettuce), passion fruits, and all sorts of other stuff growing there.

The end of the week was the best, though. On Saturday, the girls came to visit from Karen, and we went out to the club! We had a group of 12 people go. It was ridiculous. Too many people to keep track of, but they all got back home in the end. And that’s what matters! It was good to hang out with my American friends even if one got food poisoning. They went back on Sunday, and I went back to the flat. I think I took a nap. Maybe watched a movie or something.

Week of 10/1

What a good week! Continued to get good hours at St. Maurus, and I taught my drawing class a bunch of national flags. I must have repeated the American flag a hundred times. They couldn’t get enough of it! On Thursday, Henry and I went to St. Maurus early in the morning. We got to be present for a few physical therapy sessions for the physically handicapped at the center. It was a real sight to see. I’ve had to do some physical therapy in the past, and I’ve help a few others do it as well. The stuff they have here, though, is so rudimentary. For a lot of the kids, they strap them down to a table that stands up to help them strengthen their leg muscles. It’s possible that it could work eventually, but they only do it once, maybe twice a week. Most of these kids need daily attention. Everything they do there is simply maintenance. I can’t fix the world, however, so I just do what I can to help. Sometimes that’s helping hold the kids down, or just playing football(soccer) out in street. I don’t know if anyone has played soccer with these kids in years.

On Friday, I went to St. Benedict’s in the morning, but I took the afternoon off because I knew I was going to have a long weekend. At 9pm Friday night, Tim, Mike, Henry, Dan(not the pirate), Vinny, Augus, and myself boarded a bus. It was a small bus, and one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. They seated three to the right, and two to the left. We pulled out of the station around 10:15, and began the 8 hour journey to Bondo, home of Dan the Pirate, Elder of the Luo. I wish we could have been traveling in the day so I could have seen what was around me better. The moon was fairly bright, and I could see mountains off in the distance. We arrived in “downtown” Bondo around 6:30am after which we took a cab the last 20 minutes, away from civilization and into the rolling hills of the “bush”. Dan the Pirate was there waiting for us as we approached.

The occasion was the reburial of his mother. I’m not quite sure if it was his blood mother though. From what I gathered they don’t put a whole lot of stock in direct lineage. If you’re part of the tribe then you are a son/daughter to everyone in the generation above you and a father/mother to everyone below. Dan explained to me that they have no words for Aunt and Uncle in the tribal tongue of Luo. Luo is the third largest of 47 tribes in Kenya. They can be classified into three different kinds. One of the kinds is Bantu, based in Sudan they have an Arabic background. The other two I can’t remember the names of, but one comes out of central Africa and the other from Germanic tribes from which arose the Luo. Dan is between the ages of 35 and 39. No one can confirm his birth date, and he has heard many different possibilities. He is the youngest of 17, and the youngest of 5 of his blood mother. His older brother runs the farm. They have goats, cattle, and a slew of different crops. He is an Elder of the tribe because, although his young, he is from a specific generation that allows him special privileges. For instance, he never has to prepare his own food. People just bring it to him. It’s pretty cool.

The ceremony itself was very short. This guy played a funny instrument, and everyone sat around. I think in the past they actually dug up the body, and then they would put it back in. Apparently, western influence knows no bounds. Regardless, the party afterwards is what is ridiculous. It is hours and hours and hours aaaaand hours. We started at noon and went until 3am. Tons of alcohol. Almost all of it was home brewed. They had millet based beer and local vodka that seemed a relative of the moonshine from the Dukes of Hazzard. I thought I might go blind. The only thing that compared to that was the slaughtering of the goats. Let me say this clearly, none of the goat is wasted. Not one bit. I was all but forced to try this dish called ajuri. It is basically the stomach cut up into little pieces, and then they were mixed in with a “green sauce” from the… lower intestine, and then it was further mixed with about a liter of its blood. I tried it. Tasted good. Don’t think I’ll go back.

They turned on the speakers at 9 and they were on until three. I spent most of my time hanging out by the campfire. There is nothing like sitting by a fire and looking up in the night and seeing millions of stars. Not to mention a beer in my right hand. Lots of time to think out in the wilderness.

We got up on Sunday morning and had a late breakfast. We took two motorcycles, one tuk-tuk, and a matatu and went to Kisumu. It’s the third largest city in Kenya under Mombasa and Nairobi. It’s right on Lake Victoria. It’s a beautiful city, and the parts not next to the water are surrounded by large hills with massive boulders on top. Pretty cool. We ate some fish and chicken outside the bus station. Then we boarded the night bus back to Nairobi. This bus was more comfortable in nature. Only two to the right and left. We dropped into Nairobi at 4:30 in the morning, and I was in bed by 5:30.

Kenya is very interesting. Sitting by the fire in the middle of nowhere under endless stars is a pretty good place to ponder that thought. My first thought was of my friend Danny back home. Getting married in November. Wish I could go. Started thinking about other friends and family. Thought about skyping my Mom the other day, and I realized I had a ridiculous trash ‘stache going when I did that haha! I’ve never been homesick, so I don’t know what it feels like. I thought maybe I was getting homesick! I’ve seen homesickness before though, and I don’t think I have the symptoms. I think it’s just a realization that I’ve spent a lot time garnering investment in myself from a lot of other people. Well I suppose it goes both ways! It seems I’ve invested myself in so many people that I just have a lot of thoughts about how everyone’s doing! I got friends raising kids, getting married, graduating college/high school, and so much more. In Kenya, those basic activities all happen but under such duress. There are so many generations of people that have grown up in Mathare that they don’t even know what to do with themselves! Most of the teenagers sit around in alleys drinking illegal booze, smoking cigarettes, and when they go home they have sex with everyone they can. They live in squalor and disease, and there isn’t much to change them. Everyone here is bound by two masters: Catholicism and their tribal culture. It’s almost impossible to appease both. So most give up and forsake them both. There’s corruption everywhere, and even the people who say they want to help just take the rug out. St. Benedict’s primary school was given enough money to build a 3 story and a 4 stream school. It is now a one story school with 1 stream. Now the school struggles to hire enough good teachers and field enough students.

I’m not sure what to make of it all. I know that all seems a little negative, but it’s just a learning thing. I’m still trying to fit in here. I’m different from Henry, Tim , and Mike as of course all people are, but somehow I’m missing some sort of connecting membrane with them. We play cribbage and go get beers in the evening, and we talk about movies and past experiences at meal times. I’m just not quite sure that I am on the same page as they are. Something is off. So, I’m left here with my thoughts, my movies, and my fantasy football team. Still just trying to make sense of it all. I’m left with the song by David Cook called “Come Back to Me”. In the song there is a line that goes, “When you find you, come back to me.” For some reason that line and that song have always plucked at the strings of my soul. Is it because subliminally someone is calling me back? Do I want someone to call me back? Is there a friend? Or a girl? Or maybe God? I don’t know. There’s a realm of questioning around my brain. I want the answer, but how can I find the answer without a question? I could so easily say the answer is 42 or blue! I don’t know! What do I even look for? Where do I begin?

I figured out how to put some books on my computer, so I’m staying educated! I’m following the presidential debates even though they don’t hold a candle to Lincoln-Douglas. Where are all the good speakers who also have great ideas? Seems we only get one or the other. Leaders with no direction. Thinkers with no guts. And then I go to St. Maurus to see kids who can barely talk or even move sometimes, and they just want to come up next to me. They put their faces on my arm and close their eyes while forming a smile with their lips. They’ll sit like that for an hour if I let them. Doc Holliday said, “Apparently, my hyposcrisy knows no bounds.” It’s a great line. A man haunted by evil motives always found solace in his friend and as he stuck by his friend he gets lucky enough to find reconciliation in the end. All my mental, spiritual, and physical failings haunt my waking day, but even so I still get to be a part of making one person’s life better or if even not that maybe just… maintainable.

I guess this is just a dumping ground for thoughts. I’ve figured out that blogs are pretty good for that. All I know is that my actions are being directed by a higher power. I’m doing my best to continue allowing that to occur. Maybe down the road it’ll pay off for myself or someone else. I’ll leave you with a quote from Venerable Solanus Casey. He was a simplex priest of the Capuchin Order. Friggin’ great guy:

“God condescends to use our powers if we don’t spoil His plans by ours.”

Think about it!

I Got Interviewed at the Rugby Match and My Picture was in the Paper!

2012-09-24T08:25:00.002-07:00

Hey guys!

Man, did I have a busy week!

So last time I left you was Saturday night last week when I was visiting the girls in Karen just outside Nairobi.

On Sunday, Sister Michael Marie celebrated her namesake's feast day! So of course we had a party. We ate tons of cake, drank tea, and played boggle. Also, groups of sisters got together and performed different songs with voices and instruments. They even got me to sing a song haha

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were crazy busy. Tim and Mike went to Kisumo with Dan the Pirate to do some different things on those days which meant the Henry and I had to cover for both of them. On Monday I taught Drawing and PE at the primary school, and then I went to St. Maurus school for kids with special needs all afternoon. Tuesday, I taught 3 sections of Computer studies, 1 Drawing, and 2 PE at the primary school in the morning. Then in the afternoon I went to Street Children and tutored Life Science and Biology for the middle school and high school boys in a classroom setting. Wednesday I taught Drawing and PE at the primary school again, and in the afternoon I taught high school English. Not the English class that we have back home but rather the language itself.

Thursday I taught Drawing in the morning and then I went to St. Maurus in the afternoon.

Left to Right: Katharina and Stefi

On Friday I taught drawing at the primary school, and I took the afternoon off! I got a nice nap in. Then in the evening I hung out with two German girls I met in Karen. We went to the pub, and then we chilled outside on some chairs back at my flat. They're nice girls! They graduated high school last year and just picked up and went to Kenya. They'll be hopping around now from one place to another. At the moment, they're working at a local private primary school called St. Scholastica's.

Saturday was when the fun started pouring down. I picked up the Germans around 10 and we went downtown to help them figure out their internet situation. We went to Steers which is an African fast food place. Good Burgers. Then I came back to the flat and Tim and Mike wanted to go see Augustine and Robert over in the slums. So we hiked over there. They're about 30 min away. We hung out there for a bit just making some conversation and hanging out when Tim says, "Hey, let's go to a club!" So we walked back to our place with Augus and Robert. We had dinner, and then we hit the town. We went to a couple different places when we finally landed at Scratch which was bumpin'. We had a couple beers and danced all over the place. People couldn't believe the sight of a bunch of white guys hittin' the dance floor. It was fun. At the end of the night we met a couple girls named Nancy and Rosie, and they asked if we were interested in going to see a Rugby game on Sunday. We said of course!

Left to Right: Rosi, Tim, Nancy, and Mike

Sunday we started off by going to see Augus and Viny's soccer team play another team in Mathare. It finished in a draw, but it was still a good game. Then Robert took us downtown. We met the girls, hopped another matatu, and went to the stadium. For 500 shilling we got in and watched a grand total of 7 rugby games. It was 4 day event, and we went on the last day. Apparently, there was an overall tournament and then a few smaller ones as well. When we got there, we saw the finals for three of the lesser tournaments, and then we saw the semifinals, consolation, and championship for the big tournament. South Africa beat Kenya in the finals 14-10 I believe. It was close. The only disappointing part about the games was that the team that scored first never lost the lead and always won except for the championship where Kenya was up 10-7 at one point. But we still had a great day! Everyone was a really good sport, too. After each game, the rugby teams that had just played would come down by the stands, take pictures, and drink beer. Each team had their own dance routine as well.

Today I only taught PE at the primary school, and then I went into St. Maurus. I had been so busy the past week that I hadn't had time to write my blog! So that's what I've been up to. And also watching movies. Mike brought a 1 terabyte external hard drive with almost 400 movies on it. So I don't get bored.

Stay tuned! I'm going to go back to the exposés on the places where I work this week! St. Maurus needs a paint job, and I need the paint! Haha See you all soon. I'm one eighth done!

-Harris Moriarty

Scrumming it up:

Hand Grenades, Handicuffs, and Stay to the Left

2012-09-15T14:07:00.003-07:00

This week had some up and downs. I’d like to say mostly ups. So I’ll leave the general description at that and go into my weekly summary!

Tuesday

Tuesday was a normal day. Went to St. Benedict’s primary school in the morning. Taught them how to draw. I don’t know anything about drawing. So I started teaching them shapes. These are all the shapes they know now!

Wednesday

Our friend Eleanor from the Amani Center came to Street Children with us. She’s a real artist, and she was a huge hit. She’s a wonderful old woman from Australia whose husband passed away a few years ago, and she’s been traveling around the world doing mission work ever since. She’s really great.

Thursday

Thursday began as a typical day, but the problem is that no day is typical in Africa! I was leaving the Street Children around 3:30pm, and I decided to stop by the Mogra Star Academy which is financially supported by the Trufant family who I’ve worked for a couple times as camp counselor in Brevard, NC. I walked in and identified myself, and they got so excited! They immediately brought me around, and then they decided to drive me about 40min away to the Rescue Center. Many of the kids at this center walk over an hour every day to the school and then back in the afternoon. The center is really great. They house around 115 kids at a given time. They also have a nursery and a farm. It’s pretty awesome. Also, the school has around 800 students. It’s a solid place. Oh and I forgot to say I had to walk back from the center. It was a long walk.

Friday

I made another friend at Amani from Australia. He’s an evangelical pastor, and his name is Conrad. He was invited by a church here in Mathare to speak at a conference. He’s a truly great guy. Anyways, he invited me to go listen to him preach at this conference. The specific talk was about small groups and spiritual multiplication. I had literally heard the same stuff when I was working FOCUS. The people there were very devout and incredibly nice, but I could tell they were a little perturbed by my being Catholic. Maybe one day we’ll have unification, but that day wasn’t Friday. I had to walk back from there to Mathare. It was a long walk, so I decided to take my first motorcycle ride. They call them boda bodas or pickipickis. I feared for my life, but it was a ton of fun. Then I got to Street Children, and for whatever reason God thought it necessary to throw me into a fairly large debate with the people who run the center. It’s apparently a pretty big controversy between Africans and Catholics as to everyone’s position on polygamy. Anyways, they all want multiple wives, and I didn’t necessarily get support in certain areas which I would have liked. We all left still friends, but I don’t think I accomplished much other than maybe to push people to think about something other than their own personal beliefs. I’m getting a little tired of “personal” beliefs. For me to justify anything I do, I gotta imagine there is something bigger than myself with which to compare my actions. If I can’t do that, then I don’t have anything really.

Saturday

I went to visit the girls, and, during this act of going to Karen, Kenya threw a wrench at me. I was walking down a fairly large avenue in downtown Nairobi, when two guys came up to me. They claimed to be policemen, and then told me they were taking me to jail. I was a little perturbed by the situation to say the least. They then led me to an intersection and pulled me aside. They said they could help me if I could help them. They forced me to take out my wallet and give them all I had. Unfortunately for me, Mike had just paid me for internet. So I had more in my wallet than usual. They took 6100 shillinsg from me! That’s like 75 bucks! I kept my head up though because they hadn’t found the couple hundred shilling I had in my back pocket. So I continued on my way to see the girls. They bought me pizza and wine to make me feel better, and the sisters here have been very nice to me. It’s not the end of the world!

Lessons I've learned:

1) All in all, I'm well. I've heard that when people pray for patience or humility, instead of being granted those virtues they're actually given occasions and opportunities to be humble and patient. Well, I prayed for support for my faith in tough circumstances, and instead of getting exactly what I want I think I've been given a situation for me to learn to just rely on God for my needs and stop looking for exterior reasons to follow him. I'm in a state of learning. As always.

2) Even though I didn't pray for it, God is teaching me humility. I went to High School in Northeast DC. I've been in inner city areas. I've been taking to the worst parts of slums. I've seen the wrong end of guns. I've been in wrong crowds before, but I've always left those situations completely unscathed. I've never been robbed. Today was humiliating for me. It helped me to realize that I'm still at the mercy of the elements of my circumstances. It's a little daunting and scary to say the least, but I still have confidence that I am where I'm supposed to be. I can't always rely on myself for EVERYTHING. haha and that's OK! Still in good spirits.

3) On a lighter note. Multiple people have told me that a special and particular way with children. This has affirmed that with kids is where I'm supposed to be. I'm looking forward to delving a little more into my abilities in this regard so that when I come home I can utilize my talents appropriately and well.

Keep me in your prayers!

-Harris

Here's a group of children singing. I got brought to an evangelical mission school in probably the worst slums that I've seen since I've been here. 40 kids. 2 rooms. Still great work. Enjoy!

Quick Blog 3 - Exposé 1 - Street Children

2012-09-12T10:33:00.001-07:00

Hey All!

People have been contacting me about giving donations to my mission work, and I’m not totally certain that I have the authority to receive charity on behalf on any of the organizations where I work. In fact, I’m pretty positive that I’m not. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with giving me gifts with the implication that I put them to use in my work. I can, however, describe the different ministries that I am involved in and give you the information necessary to donate directly to those organizations. So over the next week or two I’m am going to post exposés on each of the places where I work, and then, when I’m done explaining each center and their work to you, I will post the ways in which one might go about giving to them.

Today, I am going to talk about Street Children also known on the streets of Mathare as Mododo. There are three good men that work there. Here they are:

AUUUGGGUUUSSS!!!!

Augustine actually grew up in Mathare and went through the program there. He excelled in grade school and achieved a qualifying score to attend a provincial high school. He did well enough there to then go on to college. He spent a couple years there before taking time off due to monetary insufficiencies. He now volunteers at Street Children full time. He receives a stipend large enough for him to cover an apartment just outside Mathare in a place called Huruma which is a small step up from the slums. He does incredible work doing anything and everything at the center. He knows what the kids need, and he’s very driven to accomplish it. He’s 23 years old, and he’s been volunteering there for about 8 months now. After to speaking with Dan about him, they are looking to hopefully hire him as an employee within the next year or two if they can keep him around.

Vini

Vincent is the on-site manager of the center. He lives on the 4^th and the highest floor of the building with his wife and two children (a girl and a boy 4 and 2 respectively). He is pretty much the Dad to all of the kids of the center. He is the one who organizes them for prayer, meals, study sessions, and upkeep of the center. There are between 10 and 15 boys who actually stay at the center full time, and Vincent is the primary caretaker of these boys. He’s 33, and he’s worked there for 5 years. He always has a smile with a true caring authority behind it, and, with that smile, he runs a tight ship.

Somalians, beware! Pirate Dan's on a Tear!

Dan. Oh Dan. He’s one of the most interesting men that I have met in my time here in Kenya. In the picture he has a patch on his eye because he has a severely infected eye that he has had a couple of treatments on, but he cannot seem to quite shake it. Despite this, he is one of the most passionate people at the center, and it is his work over the past 12 years that has kept the center open and running. He has more worldly knowledge than most because, for a good portion of those 12 years, he has been going back and forth between Germany and Kenya raising money. He’s actually dating a nice German girl who spends about 6 months of the year working at St. Maurus school for the mentally and physically challenged which I will talk about in a later post. Dan is pretty much the end all be all for that center. Without him things just wouldn’t run. He is incredibly important there, and he’s there at all purely because he cares about his boys there.

The center itself is sort of like a YMCA. It’s a place that boys can go when they are not in school, so they do not get into trouble (girls, drugs, AIDS). Between the start of school and its end they recruit boys to go there from off the streets directly. Over the vacation periods they don’t recruit because of the massive number of boys there. They offer lunch time meals as well as a pretty endless pot of tea. They bring in the Catholic culture to many of the boys and train the boys to do the same for others. Right now, during the teacher strike that is going on across the entirety of Kenya, they are offering lessons based on what the boys need in order that they might do well on their exams when school finally begins.

On a given day, this center might have as many as 115 boys go through it. There is only room for about 10 boys to board there, and they board almost 15. The boys would rather squeeze in tight here at this center than be out on the streets simply because of the security it offers. There is a lot of good work being done here. Even if you only mention their meager garden which over the past couple years has actually encouraged other members of the community to start growing crops. It is a highly influential center that is wildly under-staffed and even more so under-funded. The needs and prayers of the boys, staff, and monastery have really reached out to God and kept it going.

Needs that I have seen:

1) The staff just got paid, and it was three weeks late.

2) A Basketball Rim. There’s a spot on their patio where I could fashion a rigging for it.

3) Good work books for geography, English, math, chemistry, biology, and physics for grade school and high school levels.

4) Good literature consisting of all levels of reading ability.

5) School utensils like pencils, erasers, sharpeners, paper, and calculators.

Just email me with any questions of that sort Haha

Again, I’ll post the donation process for this center in about a week.

In the next couple days, I will post about St. Benedict’s primary school. As it stands, the list of ministries I’m involved goes as such:

1) Street Children

2) St. Benedict’s Primary School

3) St. Maurus School for the Handicapped

4) St. Benedict’s Parish Youth Organization

5) Mogra Star Academy and Rescue Center

The first four are affiliated with the Benedictine Monastics with whom I am living, and the last one is supported by David and Anne Trufant who also run Summer Camps Kahdalea and Chosatong in Brevard, North Carolina. These are by no means the only 5 ministries that are here in Mathare let alone Nairobi, but they are the ones that I am directly involved with and with which I am more than fairly knowledgeable.

Stay tuned for more from East Africa!

- Harris

Here are some cute babies:

This baby's name is David. Apparently after Dave Trufant. No Joke. That's what they told me,

This baby's name is Angel. She legit waved back at me when I said Good Bye or rather Kwa Heri!

Sorry for the Delay!

2012-09-10T07:15:00.002-07:00

What a week! Geeeeeezzz looouuiiissse!

I tell you what everybody, Africa is simply a swell place. I cannot get over what a great experience this is already becoming for me. I guess I’ll start from last weekend!

The girls came and stayed in our guest house on Saturday night, and it was really awesome to hang out with some friends from back home. I have gotten some good friends here of course, but familiar faces were very nice to see.

On Sunday, we went to an all Kiswahili Mass. Boy, that was different. For the most part, I can follow the Mass parts, but the sermon. What a sermon is was. For 45 minutes I listened to a deep-lunged priest in a language that I didn’t have even the slightest chance to understand. There were no breaths, and, from what I could tell, all the words ran together. It was… an experience to say the least. Haha

On Monday, I finally relented to my ever building cough/cold and I took the day off. I got some antibiotics and I slept. Virtually, all day. I watched Heavyweights that day too. It was good.

Tuesday, we met with Sister Mary who is the headmistress of the private primary school of St. Benedict’s across the street. We talk about what she might need, and she expressed deep gratitude for our offer. We have since been installed into the teaching positions for Computer Studies, Physical Education, and Art.

This is Dan. He's a pirate.

Wednesday was awesome for one reason that I will state momentarily. First on that day we went into Mathare to Street Children and were just sitting down for tea when Dan walks in and says, “I’m going to Tigoni, and I want Tim and Harris to come!” So we went. I finally met Fr. Lawrence who had sent the initial invitation to us to come and volunteer here. He is the Prior in the monastic community at Tigoni. Then after milling about for quite awhile we left and went to the Village Market and ate pizza. It was the pizza that was cause for much rejoicing. I was craving pizza that week, and on that day I delivered for my taste buds.

Thursday, we went to soccer with kids in the morning, and then in the afternoon at Street Children we monitored a study session. TIME FOR A DIGRESSION! There is a teachers’ strike going on in Kenya. Apparently 15 years ago the teacher’s union and the government had agreed on a pay increase that was recorded in contract. This year was the time for the pay raise, and the government reneged. So, none of the public schools are in session. Let me restate. None of the teachers are in the schools. The headmasters and many children are actually occupying the school buildings, but nothing is being taught. Street Children decided to not send their kids to school(which the organization pays for) because of the possible chaotic dangers that would arise. The Kenyan schools offer exams the second week of school and those exams determine how the children advance for the next year. The first week is for studying for those exams. Unfortunately, because of the lost time, when school goes back in session the exams will start immediately. If the children are not prepared, it could be devastating for most academic aspirations of the kids. BACK TO MY POST. Thursday afternoon and all Friday, we helped the kids study.

Friday, when we returned from Street Children we celebrated Member’s Day as Kenyans refer to every Friday evening. So we had some friends over and played cards and drank beer.

Saturday, the girls invited me to the convent to watch two sisters take their first vows to the community. It was a huge affair full with a 2 hour Mass, massive feast, and dancing for entertainment. Then the girls came back with me to the Amani Center, and we invited some friends over and everybody was best friends by the end of the evening.

[I have a video of part of the above mentioned ceremony that I wanted to put here, but Google is being lame.]

Sunday, we decided to go to the English Mass which actually still has a fair amount of Kiswahili in it, but the homily is in English. That was a good thing. Then I took the girls into downtown Nairobi, and as they had a hankering for Italian we found a nice little restaurant and ate well. I spoke with another American gentleman there who happened to be a Redskins fan, and he told some good places to look on the internet for the game. I dropped the girls off at the railways station and sent them on their merry way. I went back to Amani and read all evening.

Today was my first day teaching at the primary school. Wow. I walked in and I was immediately swarmed by roughly 75 little kids. They all wanted to shake my hand, give me a high five, or fist pound me, and I had to respond to every single one. The only thing going through my head was if all of these kids turned on me, how many would I be able to take out before the mountain of 9 and 10 year olds simply overtook me by a swarm. Finally the bell rang and they ran to their classrooms. I was tasked this morning of teaching kids how to draw. I, personally, am an awful artist, but to teach a trade may yet be different than doing the trade itself. I found that I might actually be able to direct their talents in a number of different ways. By the end of the class, I had begun thinking about numerous possibilities. Then I had a half hour break, and I went then to P.E. Henry had some trouble with his 25 or so 3rd graders, but with the help of another teacher, I and my 65 6^th and 7^th graders got along quite well. We did some calisthenics and then I taught them how to play red light/green light. All in all it was a good experience, and it seemed as though I was gaining respect from some of the other teachers as well.

-Harris

General notes:

I’ve currently fallen in love with the Barsoom Collection which is an 11 book series written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I’ve finished three entire books in the last four days.

Yesterday was Henry’s birthday and he’s now 51 years old.

Our last team member from St. John’s showed up on Friday. His name is Mike McCarty, and I think Kate and Caitlin have taken to him quite well. ;)

My address is posted below on a previous blog post. I have discovered that some companies will not deliver boxes to a P.O. box. I have learned, however, that there is a FedEx store somewhere in town. I will find the address for that place soon enough, but keep in mind that anything you send to me there I will have to carry back with me from downtown Nairobi on a small matatu! Be reasonable!

Here's a picture of our pet stray cat that was similarly adopted by the volunteers that came last year as well!

Fried Chickenfish and Ugali

2012-09-01T02:45:00.001-07:00

I'm going to put pictures up later. Check out the slideshow!

Some administrative business:

1) Expectancy of blogs – Here’s my plan as of the moment. I think I’m going to give summary updates of my stay on weekends. Posts during the week will be at random and on specifics topics I feel inclined to write about.

2) Public to the world – This blog is for anyone and everyone who wants look at it, so feel free to tell people about it. Some asked if that was Ok. It’s definitely Ok.

3) Follow the blog using the tool on the right that keeps track of followers. It lets me know who’s following, and it makes me feel good. Haha

4) I have and address now!

Benedictine Fathers

Amani Conference Centre
P.O. Box 32101-00600

Nairobi - Kenya

Anyways!

This week was pretty…. African. Let’s start at the beginning!

Monday

We went to Street Children for this first time. My new friend Augustine went through the system there growing up in the slum. He then went to high school and provincial college. He’s 23, a ton of fun, and he’s really giving back to his town. He’s basically volunteering at the center because they don’t have any money. They give him a small monthly stipend, and he keeps an apt in the slum to save money. He’s pretty awesome. He walked us from the Amani Centre, down the highway, into the slum of Mathare all the way into Mathare 3(there are four sections going deeper in). For the first couple of times in, we have to walk with someone who works there so that we have a connection. We got to the centre, and the slum name for it is “Mododo”. There were kids everywhere, and they all personally gave us tours of the whole place. It is four stories tall with a patio and a garden. The whole plot is about the size of both volleyball courts next to each other in the Belmont Abbey Quad. We got to know the kids, and we ate lunch with them. Then Augustine walked us back to the edge of the slum, and we went the rest of the way thinking our day was done. Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrong. I had gone to take a nap, and around 4:30 there’s a banging at my door. I open it to see Augustine dressed for soccer and insistent that we all go play.

I haven’t played soccer for more than about 10 minutes in roughly 13 years when I was ten playing in a U12 league because I hadn’t signed up on time and I broke my foot and never really looked back.

I attempted to explain this, but I was dragged outside regardless. There’s a big field about 3 minutes away and everyone uses it for everything. That night though we were playing soccer on it. I felt pretty out of place, but in the end it worked out. Tim and I were strikers and we were up 1-0. I fought for the ball at one point and made a pass to Tim in front of the goal and he scored! We looked like idiots jumping up and down so excited about the goal. Everyone else just kind of looked at us and laughed, but it turned into a really fun evening.

Tuesday

We went to meet the Street Children kids at the same field at 9:30, but they never showed! So then we went back to Amani, and sat around all day. Africa time. Ugh.

Wednesday

We met someone that morning named Br. Augustine who is a monk here. The monks here are surprisingly secretive and we don’t see them very often. There is one other monk here that has still evaded my view. Regardless, Br. Augustine was talking about all the different ministries going on with Amani that we had no idea about! Then Augustine(yes there are two Augustines and also three Vincents) came and picked us up. We went to Street Children and told them about the other ministries and they were very confused. So then we were confused. Anyways, I took my confusion and put it aside while I worked on the garden. It’s actually a very nice and well-built garden, but no one tills or tends it! We had to go through and open up the trenches so that there was no more standing water. Then what comes next is really crazy.

We walked back through Mathare on our own and nobody died. Whoa. Augustine says we are already Kenyans haha

We came back and chilled for a bit. I finally got to Skype with Fr. Chris and hear his wonderful words of wisdom. Then we went to dinner and met with Br. Augustine and Dan from Street Children and worked everything out! So in celebration and jubilee, Brother Felix took Tim, Henry, and me to a local pub and we had beers. I like beer, and I had missed it. Also it is crazy cheap over here. I bought a 16oz Guinness for 140 Kenyan Shillings. 81 shillings to the dollar. You do that math.

Thursday

Thursday was awesome. Kids came to play soccer that day. We played around with the kids for about an hour before Dan came and asked if Henry and I wanted to go to Tugoni. We said yes. Tugoni is sort of the father monastery to Amani. They pretty much fund everything. It’s up in the mountain range and about 20 degrees colder. So we drove there. Gosh driving is crazy here! But as crazy as it is, I can honestly say and recognize that people here are better drivers. Everyone has a much better sense of how big their cars are and where they can go. Very cool to watch. Anyways I only met one monk while we were there, Br. Caleb Wenceslas, because the Germans were there. O_o

So we left there and went back a different way to stop by a mall. This mall was a little piece of America. Minus the security guards that scan you before you walk in Haha I got a big fat juicy American burger. It was the best. Then we drove by the embassies so that we had an idea as to where they were. Then I came back and found that Amani was putting us in a little flat behind the monastery, out of the individual dorm rooms we had been staying in. I’ll give you all a tour later.

Friday

We went to Street Children. Spent all morning tilling the garden, and then we spent all afternoon playing games with the kids. On our way back, Vincent took us by a store where liquor was very cheap. So we got some and went back to flat with Vincent and Augustine and celebrated “Member’s Day”. Basically, you just have a chill hang out sesh at the end of the week drinking and playing cards. They have no concept of Poker here by the way. They asked if we wanted to play poker and we all said heck yea! Then they started explaining the game and we all realized it was UNO with playing cards hahaha It was a nice night.

Saturday(Today)

I woke up with a stopped up nose, but it’s all good. I’m gonna go to downtown Nairobi and then find a matatu to the girls and hang with them for the afternoon. It’s going to be an adventure!

Conclusion

All in all, it’s been a full week. Ups and downs, rights and lefts. It’s going very well though. I’m excited about the next two weeks. One more volunteer from St. John’s is coming, Mike something. And the week after that a German is coming, I think. But also schools open on Monday and that is going to bring a lot of good volunteer business to us. It’s gonna be awesome!

-Harris

Quick Blog - Africa Time

2012-08-28T11:17:00.000-07:00

Oh. Africa. What you do to me.

Today was a slow day. Poli Poli as they say here in Kiswahili. Africa does not do things on a "schedule". They just do. Brother Felix is a great monk here at the Center. He is constantly doing things and yet nothing seems to get done, but the difference is that he is not bothered by it. Most people I know would throw a fit if they were working themselves into the ground and nothing was getting done.

It's not the activity but the outlook that is just so different here. I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but I'll try nonetheless.

I think I need to establish some points of comparison. First I'll take my experience of Mayan Mexico. They're lazy. You know the saying if it isn't broken don't fix it? Well, they take that to a whole new level. If it won't kill you, leave it alone. That's how they go through life. At a lazy pace, doing things when it's convenient. The thing about the Mayans that was so frustrating to myself and the other volunteers was that they were just floating in life, and they didn't seem to want anything but to live relatively purposeless.
That's the first point.

The second will be the Western Man. We will not stop until we have found the most efficient, convenient, and cost effective method for any activity or system or activity systems. We have an internal need to progress and do better in a purely physical sense as opposed the ancients want for transcendental things. We are so driven to complete tasks and are totally confused by those who linger.

Africans. They're sort of in the center. They want to move forward but can't seem to care enough. They want to want to move forward. Very similar to my academic experience. I wanted to want to study for my exams. Hah. On the other hand, however, living state does not seem to be of much concern for them at all! The city of Nairobi, after going downtown once, I'm convinced was an absolutely beautiful city. It might have had some electrical and water infrastructure issues, but in an architectural way it must have been very pretty. The evidence is there today but they've reused each building and road down to every brick and block of asphalt 100 times over. I won't even compare the slums, but here's the real kicker: everyone has really really clean clothes! EVEN IN THE SLUMS. All clothes look brand new. Sometimes I'll see someone wearing a shirt with a permanent stain, but oh my goodness their clothes are cleaner than mine at college using ultra bleach and dryer towelettes.

So when it comes to it. All of this affects even time itself. They always make their meals and tea times(used to be a British Province), and they are always running around looking busy. Everyone will stop what they are doing and talk to you. Tomorrow is always a better day to accomplish something.

One thing that is essentially different from both the Mayans and the Westerners is the commitment to education of the kids. Maybe the children aren't educated that well, but boy does everyone give everything they have to give it their best shot. People with college degrees are living in the slums, and they are happily sharing their knowledge with the children.

I haven't figured out the value system here. But it's certainly interesting to say the least.

-Harris Moriarty

PS
There is now an option to follow my blog above the slideshow on the right, or you may type in your email address above to just get email notification of a blog update!

PPS
Here's a giant slug.

Quick Blog - Mass

2012-08-26T08:36:00.001-07:00

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God." Col 3:16

So I mentioned in my first blog that I might have things pop up that I really want to talk about before the week is out. Today the topic I got really excited about was Mass.

African Mass is awesome. The daily Masses aren’t a whole lot different than the US save for a few Swahili responses, but Sundays are just amazing. First off, the whole church was packed and everyone scooched in really tightly to make sure everyone could sit(remember the whole thing about them squishing people?). Secondly, the music is really good. I’ll get back to that. Thirdly, everyone in there cares. In the fourth, it is a celebration.

Somehow, and I haven’t the faintest clue as to how, but somehow there is room for everyone to sit. At first, it seems like there’s no room for anyone else, and then, all of a sudden, people come streaming down the aisles and disappear into the pews. Makes no sense. Also, every single person under the age of 7 was staring directly into my soul, and then I would look over and give them a surprise, quick smile and they’d start giggling and turn their faces into their parent’s bodies. It was fun.

Now to the music. My lord, it was so cool. I can’t help but compare some aspects of my trip here to my trip to Mexico a few years ago. People in Mexico can’t sing. It’s a statement of fact. In Kenya, it’s an entirely different story. People have incredible voices here. I seriously thought I was listening to Ladysmith Black Mombazo today at Mass. Also. Everyone claps here, and not the annoying clap that people do solitarily because they’re in their own little world. No, everyone here claps in time with the music. Even the people who are too cool to sing and wear jeans to Mass(yes they exist even here) clap. It’s not a gesture of extravagant emotion in Mass, but rather their participation in the musical side of the celebration. Everyone has a part.

To that last point of everyone having a part, one thing I found interesting was the behavior during the Our Father. In the states we have such a hard time about what we do during that time. Some people fold their arms and pray in their head, others hold the arms out, some hold hands. Over here, they extend their arms towards the priest who is lifting their prayers to heaven, and they all sing in unison. Basically, as a community they pray the same words out loud but underneath those words are their own individual souls being lifted. Anyways, I thought that was cool.

Lastly, it’s a celebration. I really liked the language they used in Mass. They didn’t limit themselves to just English, but also added Swahili and Latin. And they chanted every response. Even to the point where they sing Kyrie Eleison in response to the General Intercessions. They go all out every time. When they process the wine and water up with the gifts, the entire choir gets up and surrounds the gifts(water, wine, donations both monetary and not). Then they dance/sing with jubilee as the escort the gifts to the priest. It is truly gorgeous.

Now I definitely won’t blog until Saturday, but this just had to be spoken about!

-Harris Moriarty

Fun Fact: They process up for the collection. A few people hold collection boxes at the end of each aisle. More people go up for this than for communion. Food for thought.

Also, here are a big matatu and a little matatu:

Harris Gets The Internet!

2012-08-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

Hey All!

Guess what. I'm in Africa. Pretty redonkulous. Let me tell you about what's happened so far:

So last time we spoke, I was telling you about the retreat at the Belmont Abbey Monastery. Well it finished up great. After Vespers on Wednesday, they held a little party for us, also known as a haustus in monk voocabulary, and then after Lauds on Thursday morning the said a special prayer and gave each of us a hug. Caitlin O'Malley did a great expose on each of the monks on her blog site: hakunamatatabvc.blogspot.com. The best part was on Wednesday night when Br. Edward took us out to SweetFrog for one last indulgence in extravagance. What a great guy he is.

We left Belmont on Thursday after a wonderful retreat having seen and said goodbye to a lot of friends and made some solid memories before we flew 10 thousand miles away.

Our trip began., and here's the team!

Me(Harris Moriarty)

Henry Wilson

Kate Drinkwater

Caitlin O'Malley

We arrived at the Charlotte airport around 11:30 in the morning and Kate and checked in 2 bags while the other two each checked 1. Sat in the airport for a little while, and finally got off on our journey by way of JFK. We got off the plane, and we might as well have been in Kenya because that place is crazy looking. Luckily there was a girl on our plane who was also going the Nairobi. Her name was Hannah, and she was a native of Love Valley, NC and some of the surrounding towns. Nice girl. Helped us navigate through JFK a bit. After a 3.5 hour layover and a quick trip to Panda Express for our last American meal(ha!) we jumped on the plane to Zurich(Swiss Air baby!).

Leaving the States

Then we sat on a plane for 8 hours. I watched a few movies. I'd never seen All the President's Men with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman before, but I gotta say it was rather enjoyable. The other movies were sort of tasteless so I didn't pay a whole lot attention to them when they were on. Landed in Zurich, and I gotta say that Switzerland was fun. First off, flying over their towns was evidence that they haven't left the 1800s. Secondly, they just have a million little things everywhere that are just so convenient! Ex. In the bathroom stalls, they not only have the toilet seat covers but also a little dispenser for antibacterial fluid to actually wipe on the seat. They're doors are different, too. I can't really explain it, but I like them. They don't have door jams. I dunno. It's strange and cool. Oh I almost forgot the cool pictures of the sunset and sunrise we took on the flight to Zurich:

Sunset

Sunrise

Anyways, after that, we went to Nairobi(yay!). Another 8 hours and a bunch more movies I couldn't care less about, but holy heck when I would randomly look outside my window I saw the best stuff. Vast deserts. Huge mountain ranges. Massive craters. It was pretty unique to say the least.

Mountains

Giant Cracks in the Ground

Landed in Nairobi. Had no problems. Walked out without anyone checking my bags and my new friend, Tim(from St. John's College in Minnesota), and Brother Felix were waiting for Henry and me. Jumped in the car and drove off. I'm gonna tell you right now. I feared for my life that night. And for my computer. The trunk didn't have enough room for all of our luggage so I kept my hiking pack with me in the very tiny car(they like squishing people here). I left my computer/backpack in the trunk. I thought Prince George's Country, Maryland was bad. I thought mexico was bad. Nairobi has the craziest mother fathering drivers I have ever seen. Even crazier than Michael Wagner for crying out loud! They have five lane highways that do not have distinct lanes. People not only honk, but also flash their high beams continually. On top of this there is a constant Brownian Motion of people moving across these highways. Absolutely unreal. and I love it!

We went to downtown Nairobi today so that I could get the things I needed to acquire internet here and we took a matatu there. These "cars" are about the length of a smaller minivan, have the height of a Mercedes Turbodiesel, and seat around 15-20 people. These guys account for roughly half the honking and high beam flashing on the roads. When we got downtown though, being able to move the streets and cars without restraint was very freeing. I think Henry got tired of telling me to look out, but I was doing alright for myself!

Traveling aside, as of right now I don't have any particular direction in terms of where I'm going to be volunteering, but I'm headed to St. Maurus school for the mentally and physically handicapped on Monday morning to see if they can use my services. The school is right in the slum. I don't think I'm going to bring my camera for one, because I don't want to seem like a tourist and two, because I don't want to offend anyone and three, because I don't want my brand new camera stolen... Either way I'll have an update for you just maybe not as many pictures. I hope everyone continues to do awesomely back home and I'm praying for y'all just as I assume y'all are doing the same for me. I'll be back in around a week or so for my next update!

-Harris Moriarty

Here's a Monkey:

Random Monkey in my Backyard.

Just the Beginning

2012-08-19T16:25:00.001-07:00

Well hello everyone! Welcome to my little blog about my mission trip to Africa. This will be a place where anyone can come and sort of keep tabs on the trip from America. My hope is to update this page roughly once a week. I can't promise I'll get to it every week, and there might be stories I just have to post so you'll just have to live with the inconsistency.

Anyways, an introduction to my trip for starters!

I'm going to go ahead and designate August 17th as the beginning of my trip. It's not the day I left for Africa, but it is the day that I began to fully invest in my mental preparation for it. On Aug 17th, I flew into Charlotte after a bomb.com couple of days in the Southern Florida/Naples/Miami area for my birthday and Danny McGiffin's bachelor party. Got a ride from the airport to Belmont Abbey, and, from there, my pre-Africa retreat began.

Basically the retreat has consisted of: waking up early to pray with the monks at vigil, small nap, lauds, breakfast, nap, midday prayer, mass, lunch, nap, vespers, dinner, nap, troll the quad, sleep.

Now that's not completely it of course. Brother Elias has been gracious enough to give us about an hour of his time a day just imparting his wisdom on the Benedictine Tradition. He is a relatively new monk, and he'll be going back to seminary at the end of August. Additionally, we've gotten the opportunity to do some random work around the grounds Brother Tobia. He's a man of few words, but he's definitely got some funny things to say if you commit to spending time with him.

Also running concurrent with our retreat at the monastery, freshman orientation is going on down in the dorms. I've had the chance to go wander around and meet the new freshman. I'll have you all know, this is the sixth orientation that I've been to in a row. Some people might say that I shouldn't spread that around, maybe they're right. Nonetheless, I really enjoy meeting new people, and hanging out with old friends while school is still out of session. Nothing like it.

Next, where am I going and what am I doing. Quick answer. Just outside Nairobi, Kenya and working in a school/center for disable children. Do you want more? Thought so.

Ok so here's the deal. I'm taking Swiss Air Economy Class from JFK to Zurich to Nairobi. Getting picked up there and being taken out of the city limits into what is known as "The Little Vatican". There's a ton of different religious orders and communities there. Why would they choose that space of all places to settle? Because they happen to be snuggled up right next to Mathare which happens to be the third largest slum in all of Africa. Some 250,000 people in hundreds of high rise buildings with no electricity or running water. In this area, I'm specifically going to a place called the Amani Center. It's funded and hosted by a Benedictine Monastery not too far away. It's a retreat center that has between 4 and 6 monks present at any given time. I will be living there. From there, I will walk 30 minutes into the Slum and work in a school for the mentally challenged and the physically handicapped. There's no real understanding of how to deal with people with disabilities over there. They either get abandoned or locked in a back room. About 25 years ago, one woman decided to take the whole slum by storm and basically build a home for these under privileged people. That's where I'll be going. On a side note, I'll be working with children of a local orphanage and surrounding schools teaching them sports. Most likely basketball since my other sport, swimming, doesn't seem to be very attainable when the only water source, a local river, happens to also be a local sewage dump...

More than that, I don't know because I haven't been there yet! But when I get there on Friday afternoon after 22 combined flying hours, I'll be sure to update y'all on what I see and hopefully with some pictures!

I hope to be joining the monks there in prayer for everyone back home, and I hope you'll do the same for me. Swimmancer signing off for the evening...

-Harris Moriarty

Harris Goes To Africa!

So I Guess That's It Then

And in the End The Love You Take is Equal to the Love You Make

The Last Week Before Next Week Starts

Meh. Uganda Wasn't So Bad

ALL ALONE! *spooky background music*

Kili or Bust

Oh Chesongoch, My Chesongoch

Merry Christmas!

It's a Wonderful Kenyan Life!

"Untitled" by Artist

U(really)ganda Leave?

Pole Pole Sana, Bwana. (Very Slowly, Man)

Spaghetti in Dagoretti

Bingo in Bondo with Bongos!

I Got Interviewed at the Rugby Match and My Picture was in the Paper!

Hand Grenades, Handicuffs, and Stay to the Left

Quick Blog 3 - Exposé 1 - Street Children

Sorry for the Delay!

Fried Chickenfish and Ugali

Quick Blog - Africa Time

Quick Blog - Mass

Harris Gets The Internet!

Just the Beginning

ALL ALONE! spooky background music