Day 2

The Dam sights

We awoke to the sounds of baboons playing outside our room, not your typical rooster morning. We prepared for the day and headed to the same eating area, where the zebras and water buffalo were getting their fill of H2O for the day. Ate a wonderful breakfast buffet including lime juice!

Today we split up in to two groups. Ron, Benson, and Ryan continued to visit schools and communities while Jason, Shawn, Brad, Justin, and I visited Dam sights. The main reason we are here in Africa this trip is to put in to play the program that Shawn, Ron and I came up with called “Give a Dam”. Shawn and Ron obviously were the brains of the idea as they met often. What a great first idea by these two guys. It has been a privilege to help innovate the project and plan it all out. The reason for the original idea cam from Ron and Shawn talking about the needs of the people in Africa. Ron mentioned that the Vice President of Kenya explained to him that the two most pressing needs for a lot of people in Kenya was water and food. So obviously, if you have water, it is much easier to produce food! So we started at the core problem. WATER. Such a simple thing in America. You turn on the faucet and its there. Even during a drought. Here, if you have a drought, it adds miles and hours of time it takes you to get to water, and it may not be a good or clean source at that. As I said earlier we enlisted the help of Jason Draper the water engineer(who is volunteering his time and paying his way).

As we arrived at the first potential dam sight, not yet prepared for what we would encounter. We drove to the sight with the local water engineer. As we approached the dry desolate parcel of land, you could tell that in a wetter season this water plain would rushing with strong river. However, you could also tell it had been a while since the water had graced this land with its presence. You could tell, with a little planning, this place could flourish with water. All we needed to was capture the water when it came. This is exactly what we were there to do! I finally was feeling a small light of hope. I was confident, in talking to Jason, that we could make this place green again. My emotions welled up inside me. I was ready to make this happen.

While we were there talking with the water engineer we attracted the locals. Now, part of our trip was to bring awareness to the people of America, about what is happing here. And how easy it can be to help. So we decided to visit a small village adjacent to the reservoir site. The following are pictures of that very village. As you can see. Due to the lack of water, the livestock is dying. This goat will dye in the next day or so because its mother has stopped producing milk, thanks to the lack of water. This cow also has nothing to eat and is therefore quite emaciated. Wow, how difficult to see. I cant even explain the feelings of emotion. A few tears made it out, but I was able to hold the tear dam shut.

We relived this scene again and again for another 5 dam sights, for a total of 6 six sites! We were on fire! Our schedule only accounted for visiting 3 sights but we just couldn’t stop! Some of the sites even had natural springs, so all we need to do is dam the water and watch it grow! On the natural spring sights we don’t even need to wait for rain!

Another one of the sights we stopped at is actually working as a natural water retention, but it has slowly filled up with silt over time. This particular site used to be 30 feet deep! So now it has almost all filled in. Therefore, it only holds water for about 2 months after the rainy season and then its dry the rest of the year.

visiting the 6th dam sight, we all gathered back together as a group. We met at a community area where another water project was constructed, but it too requires rain to work.

As we drove up to the site, once again we were greeted with dancing and singing. I could not believe it! How in the world are these people so happy! Why are they so excited for us to be here?! My mind can not contain it the thoughts! This is footage of the ladies singing and dancing us all the way to where we were to be seated and thanked! What! They were treating us like royalty! I didn’t even know how to act!

They sat us down, danced for us, and then presented us gifts that they hand made for our wives. What a complete honor. They are completely aware of the sacrifice our families at home made, so that we could come to their community to help them. After the presentation of thanks. We climbed to the top of the sandstone hill behind us where someone had constructed a water retention device. What a great idea! The have built a wall around the top of the hill and have directed it to the bottom where it drains down in to some huge silos. It was just recently built, now they are just waiting for rain.

As I stood at the top of the hill looking out over the valley, I couldn’t help but reflect and notice the beauty that our Heavenly Father has created. Thats when I lost it. I couldn’t hold it in anymore. There were too many emotions and senses going off at once. I was tired, dirty, sunburned, hungry, thirsty, and emotionally drained. And yet my heart was so full. Looking out across the land and smelling the air and hearing the sounds of locals singing, all but required me to realized how blessed my life it. I have such a beautiful wife and wonderful kids. I have running water, a house made of brick, with an actual roof on it. Not to mention, I don’t remember the last time I had to wait, or walk 6-8 hours round trip to get running water or food. How slothful and ungrateful I have been. I have nothing to complain about. I was raised with love in a clean home and taught how to work,love, and respect. And yet, I still found something to complain about. THERE IS NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT. I’ve found that if you feel like you have something to complain about, you haven’t seen the good in the trial you experiencing, or the good it can do for you.

That night at the Hotel, we were more dirty, tired, and hungry than we had been so far, and yet, we could have gone to bed hungry and been completely content. What a great day.

The Road to Kibweze

After meeting Benson, we also realized we had been traveling with Jason Draper. Jason is a Water Engineer from St. George, Utah. He came down with us to help engineer the dams we are going to be making for the people. For those of you who are reading this who ‘ know, Shawn and I started a program called “Give a Dam”. Pun intended! Our desire and plan is to build as many dams as possible(starting with the first 3) for the people who are not near water. Some people have to travel 3-6 hours one way to get water and bring it back to where they live in these water jugs. Some carry them on their heads, some carry them on donkeys, some carry them on bicycles, others just haul the thing by hand the old fashioned way. Quite an eye opener for one living in the states. I was overwhelmed at the site of people literally spending the entire day getting water!

Through building these dams, we will provide not only water, but a completely different way of life for some of these people. We have interviewed and asked many people here, how accessible water would affect their lives. Most people say things like “ if I had water, I would make bricks and build a house of bricks instead of mud”. Wow. How can you not hear that and be affected. Even as I write this now, I have to hold back tears.

Jason will bring Western Engineering to this country. Which is huge! Many people try to build dams and dig wells, but if not done properly, will make the situation worse. Thanks Jason!

Benson took us (Shawn, Jason,Kye) to our hotel for the night. Traveling to the hotel was surreal to say the least! PEOPLE EVERYWHERE! I cant even explain what it looks like, so I will add pictures later. As a matter of fact, I will have to add a lot of pictures and video when the trip is over. The internet is very slow here, so adding even one photo to the blog takes about 20 minutes, and we dont have a lot of down time.

So this is our hotel, the Serena Nairobi. What a nice place. I have stayed in some seriously nice hotels in America, and this was just about as nice as the best ones in America. They left us house slippers, bottled water(very important),etc.

After settling in to our rooms, we cleaned up and headed downstairs for our first dinner and meeting with Ron and the film crew. What a stellar bunch of guys! They have made this trip so fun! Ill expound later on each one of them and their personalities and contributions.

The next morning we jumped in our custom safari land cruiser(9 seater!)

We headed down the highway towards an area called Kibweze(Keebwayzee). Kibweze is where we will be doing not only the first, but most of the dam work. On the way down the highway I soon realized that there is not much of a building code or even a time frame on construction here! As we were driving the highway would just end and it would be just a patch of dirt road for like 100 yards, and then the highway would start back up again! Also, in the middle of no where, on the highway, they will just add a huge speed bump here and there! It was so weird! Needless to say, the sights on the way to Kibweze were a shock. I cant even explain what I was seeing, so Ill just post some travel pics.

The first stop along the way was a place called “The Hunters Lodge” This is a place were Benson spent some time growing up. He Dad worked here. The Hunters Lodge is a social gathering joint and eatery built next to a small dam that we are trying to emulate.

We had lunch here and I ordered a club sandwich with fry’s. Wow, it was not normal! The club sandwich was turkey and egg, in a sandwich maker pressed bread envelope! The fries were good, however the ketchup was like red sugar water! Not good! And not ketchup! While we were eating(it took a long time for the food to be served) Benson kept getting phone calls from someone and he kept telling them “we are almost there!”. So we jumped back on the hit and miss freeway, and headed to a small town in the Kibweze territory where we made a courtesy call to the local DC(District Commissioner) and the area MP(Member of Parliament). When we arrived at the government offices there, we were greeted like Kings! We had a small meeting with a local board of people if you will. The DC spoke and so did the MP(Professor Kiloke). Then they asked us to tell them who we were and what our role was in this project. It was strange and surreal, cuz at this time Im still in kind of a daze! We took some photos and headed out to the first school were were were going to deliver the first complete Ton of food. This is where it starts to get deep! We got back in the Land Cruiser with our driver and we were escorted by local military and police!(This was provided for basically the rest of the trip) What! It was crazy! These guys were serious too!

We pulled up on the scene of the first school and.....WOW. The whole entire village was there ready to great us and the MP. Ill see if this video will upload but the pics will help. They were chanting and yelling and making weird noises of praise. Awe inspiring! We all followed the MP over to a row of the villages best chairs, set out for us to sit on, as if we were royalty. After sitting down, Professor(MP) was handed a microphone attached to a truck that came with us, which had large P.A. speakers on it.

He then proceeded to talk to them and they all chanted back in unison. I couldn't believe my eyes. Then they danced for us and sang praises, what a cool experience!

That concluded the ceremonial part and then we broke out a bunch of 50 pound bags of dried corn and distributed it to all of the people. Cool experience, on I will never forget! It was difficult to keep my emotions in. Trying not to cry was a constant task.

We repeated this same event at 4 more schools/communities through out the rest of the day. The experience was so unexplainable. I wish you all could have been there to feel the emotions and hear the sounds.

On the last school stop, the local counsel that had traveled with us and our small entourage, asked all of us as a crew(even the film crew) to come up one by one. They proceeded to present us with gifts that they had all hand made for us. I have never felt such gratitude from a stranger. You could see in their eyes how thankful they were. Next they provided all of the married men with gifts for our wives. They told us how honored and thankful they were that our wives sent us here to help them. They understood the sacrifice our families at home have made to have us here.

What an extraordinary moment. I felt so unworthy. Granted our wifes and kids are the ones making the real sacrifice here, and they deserve all of the praise they can get. But on a personal level I dont feel like Ive done anything heroic. Ive never pulled anyone from a burning building, Ive never performed CPR, and Ive never thwarted a terrorist. And yet these humble people act as if we had. So far all we have really done is delivered some food. Now in retrospect, some of these people have not eaten for days. There have even been a few people who have died while we were here because we were unable to get them food and water soon enough. Ill be forever changed knowing that.

At a few of the schools I was able to give out some soccer balls I brought over from the states. That was super cool to see! It is proper to present the ball to the “Head Boy” or team captain basically. Next time I plan on bringing many more!

After all of the visits, our police and political escorts took us to our hotel. The problem was, our hotel was in the middle of a National Park. It just so happened that if you dont make it through the gates before 6pm. They will not let you in due the danger of the lions feeding time! So of course we got there 39 minutes after we were supposed to. Thankfully we still had the Professor with us. He simply went up to the gate, and “Handled It” for us. We headed down the dirt road dodging lions(not really), and a few miles later, we arrived at this beautiful African Safari Resort! As we exited the vehicle they promptly grabbed our bags and took them to our rooms and directed us to the grand entrance where we were met with some hotel crew members who politely said “Jambo” and handed us hot damp towels that smelled of eucalyptus. We cleaned up with the towels and next we were given a fresh mango juice! Wow! Talk about treatment! Hello! Did I mention Im not a hero! We were treated like kings. We made our way back to the restaurant area where we come upon the view of a watering hole where a heard of elephants are drinking an bathing! Is this real!? I was blown away! It was to dark to get pictures but Ill post one from the next morning. We then had a gourmet meal and returned to our rooms. Shawn and I crashed out quick, completely drained for the day.

Just getting there!

Before we even got on the plane, there were tons of preparations that needed to be made. I was just along for the ride, doing what I was told by "Quiet Way". This great Charity organization is the catalyst for this whole deal to begin with. Ron Hatfield is the leader and starter of this wonderful organization. If there is a Man responsible for all of our little group coming here and doing this service work. Its Ron! He's the Man!

Now, Ron's Daughter Crystal is the director of operations, so she called us a few days before we left and had us come down to Ron's property and load a huge crate of goods to be shipped to Africa. What an experience! I didn't get many photos, but the news came so I snapped a shot of Crystal being interviewed.

A few days later, it was off to Africa! Shawn and I hopped on a plane and blasted through Detroit. While we were there we met with our 3rd partner in Actionprofiles.com, Jesse DenHerder. It was really cool to see him, even for a short layover. We chatted about Africa and all of the upcoming items going on with AP. What a stud. We are going to have some much fun integrating this whole Africa movement with action sports.

Also, I snapped a photo of Shawn's suitcase as he had it open in the airport. He clearly has a snacking problem....and I'm the one who's overweight!

We arrived in Africa.....18 flight hours later! It was about 7 at night. After going through security, filling out our visa apps, etc. We then play the "find my bag" game! Wahoo! So much fun, especially when(in the Kenyan Airport) if there are too many bags on the carousel, they just throw them off at random on to the floor! WTF? We could find our bags for like an hour! I was freaking out! I finally found all of them off in a corner of the airport somewhere! Also, your not supposed to take photos in the Kenyan airport! So I got this footage incognito!

After the bag hunt, we met up with Benson, our Kenyan guide basically. Benson grew up in the area we are working in, but he later moved to the states to get a further education and work. He comes back often with Quiet Way to help translate and coordinate. Benson is a true humanitarian. What a great example he was to us while we were here. He was always buying things and giving them to the people, such as candy, cookies, toilet paper, etc.

Little Did I Know

When my good friend and business partner suggested we go to Africa and help some of the people there, by building dams(in the middle of launching two businesses) I was a little taken back! Thankfully, I complied and as they say "the rest is history".

Having never been out of the country or even traveled a significant amount, I was quite nervous about going to Africa! Ill expound later on how the transition was made from being a suburb livin Utahn, to a safari going humanitarian in Africa!

The real story lies in how much my eyes have been opened to the situation here! I've seen images on TV and the Internet and so forth, just like everyone else. However, until you see this for yourself and experience it first hand, you'll never fully understand. I know I'm not the first to come to Africa and experience what I have, and I will certainly not be the last. This is just my story and how it has, and is affecting me. Hopefully through reading this, it will have at least a fraction of the affect it has on me. Thanks for reading!