So, This is What Hell Feels Like...

They said it's not a matter of if I'll get sick, it's a matter of how often and how severe. Well, I had my first experience. (Note from Lacee: I'll just put the whole email in here so Dal can describe it)


I woke up Wednesday morning and it felt like someone had started a fire in my throat. I could barely even swallow anything without feeling like I was going to die. I pretty much just spent all day Wednesday in bed with a gnarly fever and going from super hot to super cold. Then Wednesday night I started dry heaving because the only thing I was pretty much putting in my mouth was water, so I had nothing to throw up. All Wednesday night I honestly thought I was in the seventh circle of hell, my whole body felt like it was just seconds from shutting down completely.

Then Anthony called me Thursday morning to check up on how I was feeling and I said, “dude get me to a hospital”. So Buffalo knew this guy who works for the sheriff of all of Kinango district and he has a car that can avoid traffic completely by driving on the shoulder of the road and no one can stop him cause it is a government car. So this dude comes and picks me up and Buffalo and Chief Tuku road with me.

The traffic was soooo bad because it had been raining all the night before so this dude just starts four wheeling through the shoulder like it’s not even a problem. The shoulder is basically just like dirt road and potholes everywhere, so I’m just getting tossed all around inside this car, dry heaving like every twenty minutes. We finally got to Mombasa like an hour and a half later and they take me straight to the emergency room which I don’t know why because it wasn’t an emergency, but I guess since I’m white or something. It is a way nice hospital too, I thought for a minute I was back in the US.

So they started taking my blood pressure and all this crap and then this Arab looking guy came in and said he is my doctor and I’m like, “dude don’t stab me with a syringe or anything”. So he asks my symptoms and everything and I thought for sure I had malaria, even Anthony and Buffalo thought so too. But he said, no it can’t be malaria if you are taking your malaria medicine every day. So he checked out my throat and said he thinks that is the problem but he wants to be sure, so he wants to take a blood test.

All the sudden he just grabs my hand and jabs this needle into the top part and you know how I am with needles, I am out like a light. When I finally came to I had an IV hooked up to me and I was soaked with sweat. He came back and said that there is no malaria it’s just a bacterial infection in my throat. I was so stoked! I thought for sure it was malaria.

So he gave me a couple injections in my IV to stop the throwing up and stop the fever and a whole list of antibiotics we had to go buy from the hospital pharmacy. Luckily we were only there for a couple hours and Anthony thought for sure they would admit me. Then on the way back to KCC we stopped by the little shop Buffalo owns and he asked me if I wanted a sprite or something and I was like dude hook me up! That was the best thing I had ever tasted. So all in all yesterday the only thing I ate was a couple spoonfuls of beans and that sprite. I woke up today and I feel so much better than yesterday. I’m still not completely better, but there is a huge improvement for sure. I’m telling you this story only on one condition though, you can’t freak out! (mom) because I promise you everything is fine. I can’t tell you how many phone calls I get every hour from Chief Tuku, Buffalo, Anthony and Chakaya all making sure I am ok, it’s getting so annoying! Even Baba Chengo came to Mnyenzeni last night because he hasn’t seen us in Dzivani all week so he was worried, such a champ he is. So everything is totally cool now, I promise!

The Arrival of Mutuwa

The other day these two ladies came walking by and started talking to Anthony in Duruma so I had no idea what they were saying. So he turned to me and said these ladies have a monkey that they want to donate to the school what do you think. I told him heck yea get that monkey here right now. So we build a monkey cage behind the KCC with wood from the kitchen we tore down and the next day they brought my new sidekick. His name is Mutuwa and I'm so psyched! I've always dreamed of having a monkey. They said that he'll ride on my motorcycle but I'm not so sure about that. Right now I have to keep him on a leash all the time so he won't run off and he doesn't like it. We're getting used to each other, he bites me when he gets mad at me and I smack him when I get mad at him. It's gonna be fun to have a sidekick.

The Kitchen Construction at the KCC

Last year sometime a big storm destroyed the kitchen at the Koins Community Center. That's a big problem because they prepare food for and serve hundreds of students and adults here everyday. Since we are mostly done with the Austin Frampton school one of our new projects is to rebuild the kitchen. Since it's the rainy season we have to work hard and fast whenever the weather gives us a chance. Like the school, we started by digging the footings. Right after we got done digging it rained harder than I've ever seen so we spent a few hours getting the water out of the trenches.
Once we got all the water out we could pour the concrete and start to build the walls with the blocks we made. When I first got here I would wear my Vans to the construction site. I guess I've adopted their sense of work clothes now, "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem".

After we got the foundation done, it was time for the floor. We did it the same way as the school, we cover the whole area with big rocks, which we then pound into gravel with a sledge hammer. Once we've done that we pour cement over the whole thing, it mixes with the gravel and makes a super strong floor.




We have to take advantage of the breaks in the rain which means sometimes we work late into the night.

The School Is Almost Finished

So, we haven't been very good about keeping the posts up to date! But here is the progress of the Austin Frampton school. Once we finished with the bricks we put the timbers up for the roof.

While the guys were working on the trusses for the roof we kept working on plastering the walls. That's way fun because we just throw the cement on the wall and then smooth it out using trowels or boards. Some of the dudes are really skilled at it, they laugh at what a rookie I am.

Once the tin got here they started doing the roof. They are so protective of me they wouldn't let me get up there and work on the roof at all. That's cool because they are a lot faster at it than I would ever be.
So Malau and I kept working on the inside, plastering and painting the walls. We're not gonna completely finish painting because I want to save some for Austin to paint when he gets here in July. But it's starting to look way sweet!
Here's what it looks like from the outside with the roof on. It has two classrooms and I think it will house 80 to 100 kids. We still have some work to do on the outside, we're going to plaster the walls and paint it. We should be done in another week or so.
I know some of you are asking what I'm going to do when we finish the school. Don't worry, I still have a ton of work to do. We are going to build all the desks for the school. We are going to build a new kitchen for the KCC, the old one got destroyed in a storm last year, and we are going to start building some other schools in different villages. I will have plenty to do!

The dreads are gone!

The Progress of The Austin Frampton School

What's happening my brothas and sistas? We've been working hard here in the mother land getting some stuff done! The school is going up so fast it is killing me. Monday we finished one of the peaks where the roof will rest and then yesterday we finished the other two. Then today was fun, we started plastering the walls so you won’t see all the crappy cinderblocks and stuff. All you do is grab some concrete and throw it against the wall. Malau thinks he is such a stud when he tries to work with the actual concrete guys but really he just doesn’t know what he is doing and I die laughing every time. It is so funny when he gets excited or mad and tries to speak English cause he isn’t fluent enough to really know what he is saying so his mouth just opens way wide and he just goes “uhhhhh” and his eyes go all big and he can’t find any words and it kills me every time. Then sometimes he will talk to me in Duruma thinking I will respond and then he will just bust up laughing cause he forgets. We had some fun putting up the peaks on the school and then plastering the walls.
I can't believe how much more finished it looks when we get the plastering done. These concrete guys are really good and really fast. Madzo and I are just trying to keep up!


We finished some of the plastering early today, so baba Chengo and I cruised down to Ghandini to grab some coconuts and break in my new machete, which is way dope by the way. We got down there and I saw this coconut tree that I wanted to climb and so I asked him if I could climb it and he started saying no and listing all these reasons why I couldn't. I'm like "Dude, relax" and I started cruising up that thing and he was yelling at me the whole way, and I just laughed. I think he finally realized I wasn’t some white boy wuss who doesn’t know how to do anything cause he stopped yelling and started laughing haha. Then we grabbed a buncha coconuts and skinned them like we had been doing it for years and sat back against a banana tree and just killed it for an hour or so. I am honestly making a summer home in Ghandini, that forest is the most unreal place on this earth.

My Kenyan Brothers - New Pictures

Several of you have asked for pictures of the people that I'm always talking about so here you go:

Anthony, the local head of Koins for Kenya. He is everybody's boss and when he talks they jump! He is the biggest stud in Kenya, he works his butt off and knows everything that is going on within 100 kilometers of here. He has me securely under his wing and it's his personal mission to make sure I get out of here alive.

This is Malau, he is so laid back and dope it is awesome. He's living with me in the other room in the hut. Notice the bunk beds, they are so if there are other Koins people in Dzivani they'll have a place to sleep. Malau is my companion and protector! I love the dude


This is Madzo, he's the foreman, supervisor, all around stud of the Austin Frampton school. He doesn't take any crap from anybody! He speaks about 5 words of English but when he talks to the crew they understand exactly what he is saying!This is Buffalo, the largest Kenyan I have ever seen. He is buttery and sweet and I love the guy! His daughter is way hot and Anthony always jokes with him that I need to take her out and it freaks Buffalo out. Anthony is going to give him a heart attack!
From the left, Mondero who is the head of the workshop in Mnyenzeni; me (in case you couldn't pick me out); Malau my roomie; Matano who is the tractor driver for Koins, he giggles everytime I see him, I get stoked just to be with him. The last two are two 19 year olds that are both married and have kids, I can't remember their names, but crazy that they are my age and married with kids!

This is the river we have to cross to get from Mnyenzeni to Dzivani. When it's not raining it's a dry road, when it rains you have to cross early or you don't cross at all. During the rainy season it becomes impassable for weeks at a time.

And one last picture, here's the progress of the Austin school, cinder block walls are going up. We're ahead of schedule! (Really there's no schedule I just like saying that!)

April 17, 2010

Even though it rained like crazy in Mnyenzeni, it stayed dry enough in Dzivani that we poured the concrete slab, let it dry and cure for a day, and now we are starting on the walls. Madzo, the foreman is such a stud. He just works his butt off!

These people really are the greatest people in the world, their spirit is rock solid and they honestly have everything. Once I got unpacked and everything a quote from Fightclub popped in my mind.. It's the part when Brad Pitt and that other dude are up in the bathroom and he can’t figure out why Brad Pitt lives in such a crap hole. All Brad Pitt says is “ once you have nothing, you realize you have everything” and that really is how I feel along with my Kenyan brothers. They are living in mud houses all over this country and more durumas live all over africa in this same way, but they don’t even care. They have three shirts to their name and probably 300 schillings in their wallet but they are so happy and they would do anything for you. I really do envy these people and this lifestyle is probably the best thing that has ever happened to me. I really am so stoked on everything in Dzivani, the school is going up strong and tomorrow the Dzivani soccer team goes up against the Mnyenzeni team so its gonna be huge! It's the semi finals so hopefully my boys can pull it out. Buffalo is rooting for the Mnyenzeni team cause his son is on the team so its gonna be intense! I am stoked, Madzo, me, and the crew are working til about 1 and then we are all going together in the Koins tractor trailer thing to the game along with the team. Such a team van huh? any way, i am stoked for the weekend and hope you guys are too...

Moving Day!

I am moved in people! and I wish I could have all of you here to give you a personal tour because this hut is the biggest, baddest piece of estate any dude would ask for, honestly. The set up could not be better, I walk out on my porch and look straight into Mombasa harbor and my roof is made of palm leaves instead of tin so it keeps it sooo perfect on temp during all hours of the day. Honestly there is not one thing I would change about it. I am laying in my hammock right now which is easily the most comfortable bed I have ever laid in, beats any queen size or king size whatever for only 60 bones. You really could see my hut in a movie or something, I really can’t believe I am actually the one living here it just blows my mind. I just showered on my back porch and just stared at the stars the whole time, they are so thick here it is crazy! Plus no one has lights around here and it is winter for them, so the sun sets at like 7 and so people just end up going to sleep so I have my own personal shower spot on a rock in my back yard with a view that most people would pay hundreds to see. It is just crazy how much these people will do for an outsider, this hut could be anyone's but they chose for this particular spot to be mine and Malau’s, it really has the best view out of the whole village.

My hammock is the envy of the village!

Here's my room with all the possessions I own in Kenya!

April 14, 2010 Dzivani, Kenya

Whats up my homies! This week has been cruising by so quick it blows my mind! I don’t really remember when I wrote you last, but I will try and bring you up on the haps in the mother land. So yesterday we laid all the stones in the flooring up both class rooms in the Austin school and then poured water in through the cracks and then we all went through with a sledge hammer and slammed everything down nice and hard because Madzo says that’s the strongest way to do it, and no one in the right mind questions Madzo, he is gnarly. He looks like a boxer who could just kill a whole crew if he had to, but he is so tight. That took almost all day because we had to load up all the rocks from this rock pile that’s probably 300 yards away and then bring them over to the site in wheel barrels. It is crazy how much we take for granted in the US and how much it makes things so much easier for us cause we could have had both those rooms done in like twenty minutes with just one dump from a truck from geneva rock or something but these people have nothing! They have to go to the riverbank to get the rocks for the flooring themselves and bring them to the village. There is no such thing as anything but your own back and arms to get things done, no engines, no trucks, no electricity, just everything by hand. These people are truly amazing, they have it down too, their tools are straight from the stone age but they are genius. The walls are perfectly straight on the Austin school and they don’t even know what a level or a construction square is. It blows my mind every day I get to the site, Kenyans are amazing!

So Chakaya and I got over there at like ten when we realized Dzivani was not happenin and got to work on desks. It is fun work, but the grinder is sooo loud and makes my brain feels like it is gonna run out my nostrils so I made some make shift ear plugs out of paper towels and it worked like a charm. Between grinding and painting that’s pretty much what I do whenever I go over there, but we need to start getting started on the desks for the Austin school, we need 40 total for there, twenty each room. Those are the easier ones to make because they are wooden and don’t have to be welded or anything. After the Austin school is done, Madzo and I and his crew are cruising over to Miguneni to start on the primary school one family is sponsoring that I think is coming in july with you guys.

But any way, then me and Malau went down to see how my house is coming and they had one side of the roof completely done with just three others to do. We thought for sure we would be able to move in on Thursday, but it probably won’t happen now because it rained alllllll day today and it truly just poured. When it rains here it is like the biggest crazy mess but it is sooo tight cause it is warm rain and I just go and run in it and all the kids just laugh at me haha but I love it. It just sucks cause we couldn’t get to Dzivani today because of the rain. The river was a raging crazy fest and the roads were messier than anything you have ever seen so when that happens, the wood shop is my work of choice.

Thanks again to you everyone who is doing the blog and reading the blog, hopefully you are getting some good readers and hopefully the pics are ok. I would be in more of them except trying to teach a Kenyan how to use a camera is like teaching a dog to read and write, technology is not their strong point ha but I am working with Chakaya and Malau and they are slowly catching on. Any way I love all you guys and these people are the greatest! Keep on killin it and lovin it and keep doin what you all do.

Check out all my pictures!

Hey, you can check out all my pix at:

http://gallery.me.com/dallinframpton

April 12, 2010

Here's my sweet ride and my brother Banana. He's a great soccer player and friend.

Some of my local bro's.

What’s happenin homies! This weekend was off da hook, we went into Mombasa on Saturday to get me some last minute stuff for the big move to Dzivani which will hopefully happen Tuesday or at the latest Wednesday.. I can’t wait, my house really is the sickest thing I have ever seen, it is gonna be such a lair for me and Malau to kick back and make some stellar tunes under the African stars. The sunsets here are not even real, it really is like out of a story book or something and they are even sicker in Dzivani because you are right on the ocean and you can see the city lights from Mombasa and the sun setting on the water mmmm its the greatest feeling to see that. The stars here really are so dope too, kills lake powell by far cause there is some light pollution and stuff going on maybe like ten miles away from powell right? Well here they don’t even know what a light bulb is for a million kilometers so it’s like looking at a cloud the stars are so thick. But any way, Mombasa is such an anxiety attack of a place, especially on a Saturday, and being the only white dude in all of Kenya, everyone just runs up to me and tries to speak English selling everything in sight to me like their home grown drugs they grow here. The streets are sooo nasty and there are people literally everywhere, in the streets just walking around in front of cars, no street lights either so everyone just honks and screams at each other and they don’t even know what a speed limit is so they are doing it all at full speed. How any one can function there every day just blows my mind, chaos is really the only word I can use that even comes remotely close to what it really is cause words don’t even describe how that city works. You get home from spending a couple hours there and you wipe your forehead and it is just black because of all the pollution, no joke. So any way we shopped for some food stuff I am gonna need for the first couple weeks in Dzivani and I was with Buffalo, Anthony, Buffalo’s son and this other guy on the Koins for Kenya board named George, he is a true stud. Plus it takes 2 hours one way just to get into Mombasa from Mnyenzeni even though its only like 50 kilometers away, its disgusting how much backed up traffic there always is. That basically took up all of Saturday and then my Dzivani dad named Chengo invited me and Anthony to go to his grandpa’s remembrance day or something. It is where they remember the dead that have died but instead of crying and stuff they just throw on the dirtiest R and B swahili music and turn it up full blast in speakers that are from the 50’s it looks like and they just get trashed on coconut beer and have a good time. iI was so funny to see how these people party compared to how Americans party, it is a whole different take on it here. I was so stoked to see that captain Rymes was there too, he really is the coolest guy, I love that dude. He wants to come check out the school in Dzivani and since he is one of the richest dudes in this area, he might contribute for an outhouse project or something for the school which would be killer. Then Sunday Anthony had to go to this church in Samburu to try and fundraise for this church called the Apostical First Church and he wanted me to come with him. He said we would be back by no later than 2 so I of course was down. Never trust a Durumah on time I found out today because when he said 2 he meant 5. First we had to go visit 4 of his uncles that he tried to explain how he was related to them and I was lost after the first sentence. Every durumah in Kenya he said knows every one of their relatives, like even their great great aunts and uncles and grandparents and like nephew in law and they are way tight so we had to go into all of their houses before even getting to the fundraiser. The tradition here with the Durumahs is once you get in their house, you sit down and the wife of the house serves you a soda and you have to drink it. I was mad cause I haven’t had soda since high school and I broke that on Sunday! I kept trying to refuse but Anthony said they would be so offended. They feel like they have to offer you the world, especially if you are white and it starts getting so annoying. So I drank like a quarter of four different sodas and it made my stomach churn. Then we finally got over to the church and it was already 2... cool timing Anthony. This church I guess needs electricity for their building so Anthony basically just got up in front of this congregation and yelled in Swahili for two hours while this choir sang in the back ground and people brought up money and put it in this stack. They made me come up and sit by him in front of all these people and they speak Swahili the whole time so I am just sitting there smiling and sweating my butt off while another chick offers me a soda and Anthony makes me take it. . Their choir was off the hook though! These chicks can sing and the songs are dope, I recorded them on the flip and I will try to load them on mobileme. Then after Anthony was done screaming at them to bring up their money, we went into some little side office where they had made pilau for us which is like a rice and goat meat mixture that’s way good, so it was me and Anthony and then the bishop and these two pastors and they had these girls come in and wait on us or something and they were so mean to them I was getting mad. In this culture that’s how the girls are treated though, they are wives by night but I guess during the day they are just like slaves and these church leaders were just being so rude to them and I really wanted to say something but its just their culture, they have always done it this way and the women never say anything cause they don’t know any better. I really almost freaked out right then in that little office, so I got up and just said I had to go to the bathroom and just went outside and got some fresh air to cool off, you really could feel such an evil in that place even though they were doing some good things I guess but it was definitely the weirdest church I have ever been too. We finally got home around seven and I was so drained and about to freak out that I did a cross fit workout in my room ha since i haven’t done any cross fit for two and a half weeks! Gosh I am losing it without my cross fit homies... oh yeah and dad, Anthony told me that our driver when Bret was here, his name is Johnson, and he said that he had the Kenyan Olympic running team in his bus and taking them to the Mombasa continental hotel and they wanted to know more about the Mnyenzeni to Dzivani marathon we are gonna have when you guys get here. If we could have them come that would be SIIIIICK! We also need to start setting it up, getting all the sponsorships if you got runners world or anything and maybe get the money in Anthony’s hands so he can start making it happen. Then today which is now Monday we were getting all loaded up to run to Dzivani for the day but this place is crazy, it can be perfectly sunny one minute and then in five minutes in can be raining like insane and that’s exactly what happened. So I just cruised to the work shop and worked on desks all day for the Vikolani school and then at about 3 me and buffalo and Malau cruised to Dzivani to see if we could finally do some work there. There is this one guy that has been over seeing my house building who is a true stud and I wanted to give him something for doing such good work so I took him my old pair of vans to give him cause I was so stoked about my house. It honestly looked like it was Christmas morning to him, he was so happy but he can’t speak English so Buffalo was translating every thing for me but he didn’t even need to, I could tell that he was so stoked. It’s crazy how an old pair of shoes could be so touching to these people when in America that stuff just goes to thrift town or something but it was probably the best part of my week so far. I love that guy and I am stoked to move in Wednesday! Ask Austin what color he wants the school to be, tell him I was thinking light blue and light green, but it’s whatever he wants. Keep killin’ it people! I love you all and this place is the greatest place in the world. Keep sendin’ love and keep giving it

My New House

Hopefully you saw the earlier pictures of the boys and I lashing the sticks together to make the framework of my house. By looking at it you would never know how strong they are, but it's strong enough to hold a whole bunch of us on the roof.

After the framework is done they fill the spaces in between with mud mixed with grass!

Here's the view of my house from the neighbor's. I have enough land to raise some chickens!

Whats happenin homies! alright first things first, I made an unbelievable discovery. I feel like christopher columbus when he first stepped foot on America, that’s how unreal this is. I finished the book Born to Run two days ago and it was easily the dopest book ever. I have always hated my running shoes and they have always made my back hurt so I took off for a run yesterday morning in my 3 year old vans and I felt like a straight cheetah cruising across the savannah, it was monumental. I felt like I could go forever and I felt my form instantly change and it was more comfortable then ever, my back stopped hurting and I started feeling like I could go all day... I am stoked on that and I really did want to go forever but my shorts were completely soaked in sweat not even joking like they got dipped on a pool of water, soaked. So I turned back feeling like I was probably gonna die of heat exhaustion, but I didn’t even care cause I was so stoked. Any way, that kicked off yesterday and it made it such a dope day. Chakaya and I cruised into Dzivani and helped the “fundi’s” which are the brick masons and we just hauled big cinderblocks all day for the walls. I get so confused on what happened on which day cause its all just a blur, but I think that’s really all we did yesterday, and then we cruised over to see how my house is looking and it was looking pretty dang awesome... this bad dude was getting the roof made by just doing cross braces across. It really is the easiest way to make a house and so freaking primitive, but this is how these people live, it just blows my mind every day. They make these houses so perfect that when you look at them you’re just like “ok wow they live in mud, they must be dirty billies”, but the time spent on these houses is crazy and they really will pretty much withstand a hurricane, they are so stable it is crazy. Then today Malau and I cruised to Dzivani because Chakaya had some stuff he had to do or something and on the way there the exhaust pipe on the motorcycle straight up fell off! Haha! Not just broke, but fell off the bike and rolled around on the road! I was dying it was so funny. So we waited like an hour in this coconut grove until one of the mechanics could come help us fix it. I don’t know why I was surprised, but I was when he showed up with some wire, a screw driver and some pliers. Every thing here is the biggest rig job you have ever seen, just whatever they can find and whatever makes it work is good. But that’s all they have so it’s pretty amazing after you see what they can do with just crap laying around. So this guy basically just wired the exhaust pipe back on and said yeah you’re good and we cruised off haha but it works like a charm so I’m pretty stoked on it. We started leveling the class room closest to the other school right when we got there, but we were going to run out of dirt fast with how uneven the dirt is there. So we took all the dirt from the other classroom and put it in that one so we at least had one class room done and we could worry about the other one tomorrow. It was hard work just using shovels to move a ton of dirt, but it looks sooo good and with Madzo leading the way, he doesn’t let any BS go down. After all the dirt is level, they starting layering bowling ball sized rocks on top of the dirt. I don’t exactly know why, but I don’t ask questions so I think it’s so they can pour cement on top of that for the floor of the class room so it’s not just dirt like in the other buildings. Then at about noon we went to go see how my house was coming along and it was almost completely mudded. I was mad cause I wanted to help, but luckily it wasn’t as far along as I thought so we got nice and dirty for the whole rest of the day. It was so much fun too, just throwing mud in between sticks and watching whole walls come together, it is crazy and it works like a charm. I had to learn how to do it by trying to communicate with like 4 dudes who speak no English only Swahili and I just had to mimic the way they did it and they would just say yes if I was doing good or wait if it was bad. Haha, it’s like a constant game of charades with these people its awesome. I haven’t heard a full English sentence I think ever since Bret and the group left but it is dope. Hopefully on Monday or Tuesday I should be ready to move in with Malau and he is stoked. He doesn’t even speak good English but he is the most laid back dude and he is so chill but when it comes to work, he kicks some serious butt and I have already learned so much from him. I am thinking about giving him my Oakleys because he has been digging my Natives sunglasses every time I throw them on and he is always in the sun, so I figure he needs them more than I do especially since he has to live with my stinky body! haha. well I’m uploading all the progress to mobileme right now so check it out for the progress it is gallery.me.com/dallinframpton. McCall, i don’t remember all your questions but the food here isn’t even bad, its like these tortilla things for breakfast and then they just say nahh to lunch and then dinner is like cabbage and rice and beans and maybe goat stew if I get lucky which is OFF THE HOOK! I always am sweating too, which is getting annoying but I get used to it. Right when you get out of the shower you are already sweating again ha ha so I am just a stinky African now! Tomorrow I am going into the seventh circle of hell which is commonly known as Mombasa, the dirtiest place on earth to get some materials for my house and we are also out of water so we should probably pick some of that up too before I drink the native water. This place is sick! There is nothing like throwing on some tunes and riding dirt roads in Kenya at sunset, there really is nothing better. Can’t wait to see you guys, so go raise some freaking money so you girls can come over here! I love the necklace idea so run with it. My back is already peeling like mad and I brought no aloe or anything so I have just been dealing with it! I am tired as heck so goodnight.

The School Progresses...

After we built the walls high enough and then backfilled all the dirt...

We added all these big rocks to the dirt floor. We'll next pour concrete over all these rocks and our school will be the only building in the village that doesn't have a dirt floor.

No one has been able to explain to me why we use such big rocks in the concrete instead of the small ones we use back home. Since we have about 10 words that we can actually understand each other I'm not gonna push my luck!

The Start of the Austin Frampton School

After the ceremonial groundbreaking, the real work started! We dug the footings, poured in the concrete and started building the walls. I was pretty slow which was very entertaining to them. They keep asking me if I need a break like I don't know how to work!

After the walls got up to ground level we used the dirt to backfill. This is one job where I knew what I was doing!

Death of the Dreadlocks

I woke up Tuesday morning, thinking my head feels like hell! I asked, "Does anyone know how to cut hair?" I had several volunteers! What does that mean?

My mom told me before I left, "If you decide to cut your dreads please save me one." So I saved her several!

Oh no! What have I done? Notice the pile of dreads on the left... Bret called my mom and dad to tell them about this "momentous occasion", (his words not mine) I did get a chance to talk to my mom and dad.

It looks like I'm heading back to BYU! Not my first choice in hairdo's but it sure feels sweet!

Saturday April 3, 2010

What’s up! Holy freakin cow these days are starting to mush together and I can’t even tell them apart any more haha. Yesterday morning it rained and I promise you I thought that someone was going to die... I have never seen anything like that, it was almost scary. It was like ridiculous raining, like a hurricane was blowing through or something. I was talking to Anthony about it and he said that was not even bad compared to some of the storms they get here around May, he said that it rains for days and you can’t even go outside of your house because it is just gnarly and you will slip everywhere. So if it rains like that while I am in Dzivani it will straight up just make me stranded out there for days if I need help haha. We then went up to Miguneni after it cleared up which is the village that is on the way to Dzivani but only like ten minutes up the road. The Miguneni primary school is ranked number one in all of the southern part of Kenya for the highest scores, which is freakin impressive since the conditions are so ridiculous and it is one of the smaller primary schools around. The way the grading works here is everyone is ranked in a position in their class, so if you are number one then it means you are basically a 4.0 student and then number two would be close behind and so on. Secondary school starts after 8th grade and if they don’t have the grades to make it, their schooling basically stops there because it starts costing money at that point. So the higher up in your class you are, the more likely you are to keep moving on to school and maybe get a scholarship from Koins. So Miguneni has the highest scores out of anybody and they are also the most rapidly growing school that Koins works with, so they need more classrooms. Koins has already put one building up there and it was a three roomer I think, but they out grew that in two years. So they were using both the new building and their old which was a bunch of mud huts squished together with basically half the room mudded and the other half just open like they just said nahhhh to finishing building it haha. They also have a huge shortage of desks so the kids that are in the mud hut building have no desks. One of the Miguneni teachers is on the Koins board and he is dope, his name is Buffalo and he is the biggest Kenyan i have ever seen, so fat. He said he used to teach in the mud building and said he had about seventy students in a twelve by twenty foot space with no desks and they have to write their Swahili lessons and math problems in the floor with sticks... Good psych! I can’t even imagine how gross and sweaty and nappy that room had to smell cause everyone here smells like the sourest, grossest BO you have ever smelt, I am just used to it now, haha. But since they are so crammed and since they are working the hardest, we are putting another school building up there for them to have. It is going to be a two-room attachment onto one of the existing buildings they have already and we had the ground breaking of it yesterday. It was a lot less exciting then the Dzivani one they had for me, but its all good, the students and the people are stoked about it. The ladies here are the hardest freakin people you have ever seen, it makes me wanna just cry watching them while all the men just sit on their thumbs all day, literally all day. Today we had the opening ceremony for the Vikolani school which basically just means that we are finished with it and we hand it over to the village. It was a huge celebration just like how pretty much anything we do here is. They had dancers and all these parliament members came to see it and their bodyguards from the Kenyan army with big M-16s and all that good stuff. It was so bloody hot too, I was sweating thru my clothes again, but I am so use to it I just stopped caring any more. I have officially outlawed wearing boxers anymore, just straight swimsuits and tanks from here on out. But after the Vikolani ceremony, all the Koins crew left to go home. It was sad to see them go. When they left everyone was just pawning all their unwanted gear off to me so I was pretty much the Kenyan D.I. all afternoon. Once they left, I honestly had nothing to do! I kept asking all the Kenyan board members what work we need to do and they just shrug and say “Ah today Mr. Dallin we relax” and I was like, “OK today is Saturday and we need to work, tomorrow we relax.” They all just sit on camp chairs on the KCC porch and watch all the ladies do the work, it ticks me off so bad. So I cruised over to the work shop to see if they needed help on making desks. After I took a nap and I think Buffalo came in and told me that tomorrow I have to go with him in the truck or something all morning which I have no idea why because his English sucks so I have pretty much been speaking pidgin English with him for a week. But who knows, it could be fun and then I get to have my sacrament meeting tomorrow by myself which should be pretty tight, I am stoked for that. I am so jealous of St. George tho! I bet you guys are just killin’ it down thurrrrrr. I wanna rip something on my mountain bike so bad! I haven’t done anything physical for a week and I feel like the biggest waste of life... I can honestly feel my stomach just shrink more and more each day, and all my swim suits are getting more and more loose... haha there is no way I can be ready for that tri in august... I wish I had all gear here so I could train, but I honestly think I would die trying to do a half ironman when i will be coming from sea level for five months with nothing but my running shoes and no way to swim or ride... but I dunno maybe I can pull it off. Well that’s pretty much all I can really tell you cats about for now... we are going to work on the Austin School on Monday bright and early.. The trenches are already dug for the footings all three feet deep around the whole perimeter. They don’t mess around here, so I got this camera from this girl so I can start taking pics of the progress of it and send them home. Well kids, keep killin it, kickin back and feelin good... this life is too short and will pass you by too quick if you don’t learn to laugh and love... in the words of Neil Young, “keep on rockin in the free world” and love all of you.

Thursday April 1, 2010

I learned how to lash the sticks together to make the framework for my house..

It's actually going to be a 2 room castle!

Dang my friends! It’s so good to hear from all of you and that you are all killin it back at home! These past two days have honestly been off the HOOK! Yesterday we went on an all day safari and it was easily the coolest thing of my life... we saw elephants, giraffes, kudu, antelope, impala, cape buffalo and a cheetah was honestly ten feet from our van, just walking up and down the side of our van like a true boss. it was sooo dope we have the best footage of it. I will try and upload some of the photos to mobileme and tell you my address if I can get it some how. The only problem is that it takes so freakin long for the pictures to upload on attachments that I think the only way to do it is mobileme cause it doesn’t take as long... I put a couple dope pics up on the site two days ago and I thought you guys would know it but I will send you the address again or something. On the safari we also kinda saw a lion but it was like 200 hundred yards away and we could only see his tail swishing around in the bush but our driver Johnson said that it was for sure a lion so we are counting it. Johnson is such a bad dude, I already planned a safari with him when you guys get to Kenya and we will go into the same place we went, Tsavo east and it is so sick back there. He has been our driver for the past week but he is a safari driver for a living and he is so sick. He is stoked for you guys to come and so it will be dope.

Here I'm getting my Duruma name: Rua wa Chengo

I was able to break ground for the Austin Frampton school. They let me toss the first shovel of dirt!

Anyways, today we went into Dzivani for the official ground breaking of the Austin Frampton School. It was insane! They were honestly worshipping me, they just thirst for an education and they will do anything for another structure. I can’t remember if I told you this already, but we are just adding on the existing primary school and it is going to be so dope. They had a huge welcoming committee for us and they sang for like an hour and Bret just said that we had to keep smiling and waving and acting like we were enjoying it haha. It was getting old though, but they are so stoked. Then we went over to the actual ground where it is going to and they had me swing the shovel first and the whole village just lit up and starting jumping for joy. It was hotter than hell too, I was just sweating to death, and the locals were just laughing at me. Luckily I haven’t really burnt yet but I know I will. Some of the locals here even say that they get burnt sometimes so white man is screwed ha ha.... but then they gave me a Duruma name and I met my adopted dad and grandfather. They are both sooo tight but they have the worst teeth you have ever seen. They are so stoked on me tho so its all good. I went into this circle of the village elders and this dude was just screaming swahili at me for a good five minutes and then he gave me my name and it is this sacred process I guess... my new name is Rua Chengo, its pronounced like roo-ah. but you roll the r like you speaking Spanish. Sick huh! It’s a type of flower, but I saw the flower in the wild and it is so sick, its not femi at all which I thought it would be. So I am now Rua! Everyone here calls me that now its funny cause no one can pronounce Dallin it sounds like “Dulleen” it is funny.

Here's my new dad, Chengo

My house is also almost finished, and honestly I can say that it is the nicest one in the whole village... I feel so bad cause these guys will work for 300 schillings a day which is about 3 dollars and they think they are rolling in the benjamins just to finish my house. They put in an archway at the front made out of palm leaves and a nice little porch, I’m living the life in this new village straight up! But it won’t be finished until next Tuesday or so, so I have to stay at the KCC until then which is a bummer cause that village is ugly I think... Dzivani is soooo freakin pretty, rolling hills of red sand and trees and the sacred forest of Ghandini where there are lions and monkeys and stuff. Oh yeah, and I talked to Anthony today and he said the school will be finished at the LATEST in six weeks... how insane is that from start to finish. And the ladies do all the work with kids on their backs the whole time just swinging shovels, you have no idea how strong these duruma ladies are. The coconut trees are my favorite tho by far, they are at the lowest part of the land because that is where the water is so at all the little valleys in between the hills there are coconut groves and they look so sick its ridiculous. I love this freakin place I can’t even tell you. That’s all I got for today really.. I am gonna try and get these pictures up so you can see the safari... Have fun riding Bear Paw. I miss those trails so much and I wish I had my bike here! The roads are sick here for bikes... any way keep doing what you do family, and keep killin it... LATER

Tuesday March 30, 2010

What’s happenin’ friends! Yes it is true, the dreads are gone..... I woke up this morning and felt like hell so I said “Who here knows how to cut hair?” and I had a couple volunteers and they got busy. I almost started to cry but it feels sooooo much better already. I barely even sweat now compared to being the dirtiest kid ever when I had them. I honestly found some of the dirtiest critters in there it made me sick. So where do I even start for today.. it has been so freakin sweet! Today we had a swahili lesson and I think I am really starting to understand all the greetings. I can now talk to all the kids and I think they are starting to be able to understand what I am saying. The only problem is that right when they respond I don’t know what to say after that so I just smile and walk away haha. its too bad they don’t understand English cause they are all so happy and dope. We met in the Mnyenzeni school that Koins built a couple years ago and it is sooo much nicer than the one they had before. They still use both the school that the village built a while ago along with the one Koins built and there is a huge difference since they build all of their buildings out of mud and sticks. Then we went into the actual village of Dzivani and I was so freakin stoked! Bret and I rode in on motorcycles and it seems like it has been forever since I have been on one of those since we just rip the mountain bikes now a days. But it was fun, it is exactly 18 kilometers away from Mnyenzeni and it is sooo amazing there. It is all hilly and the houses there are so freakin sweet even tho they are just made out of mud and whatever crap they can find. The actual village is so sick too, they have a huge field out in front of the secondary school that the kids play soccer on and the school is kind of up on this hill. The way we are going to build the school there today Anthony explained it to me, we are just adding on the primary school that the government already built there. When Bret met with me and dad way back in September he didn’t think the government was going to build anything for them because they are jackasses but then they ended up building a secondary and a little primary school so what we are going to do is build onto the primary school that they built but it is way crappy so it is going to be sick! We will build another wing onto the primary school and it will be a two room kinda thing and a total of 60 feet addition. We then cruised down and checked out my house, it was the craziest thing! They have all the skeleton of it built but we just need to finish doing the horizontal supports of it and then start mudding it and then do the roof with tin sheets. It is soooo sick! can’t wait for you guys to get over here. It is a two bedroom kinda thing with a bit of a hall way down the middle of the two. crazy huh! I am living straight luxury in this village haha and all the primary kids are scared of me because of how remote their village is. But I have the best view of Mombasa and the Indian Ocean just right out in front of my front door. Crazy but I am way stoked to move in. They also had me start learning how to put up the horizontal supports along all the walls and all the local dudes were just making fun of me in swahili it was awesome haha. The chief then told me that when every man turns 16 in the Kenya, he moves out of his parents’ house and he goes to build his own house for himself. They are just expecting to know how to build it and you would be surprised how technical and completely flawless they can make their houses with basically a machete and sticks, it is ridiculous how good these guys are and how big of a rook I am. Then we just kinda got use to the village a little bit and we cruised back to Mnyenzeni and me and some dudes went into the workshop and started building some desks for the Vikolani school. We only got one built in like an hour and all the local dudes were just making fun of how stupid we were. They bust out like 50 a day and we got one done in a good hour, such rooks we are. Then Anthony came over and got mad at us for how slow we were at building and said we have to build at least twenty on Thursday. Who knows if we can do it, probably not but we will see, it is hard work. I am getting more than a cross fit work out every freakin day i live here, its dope. I do miss cross fit so bad tho! All we eat here is Ugali which is just maize flour turned into a play dough kinda thing but it is way good and Chapati which is like a tortilla and maybe some fruit if we get lucky. I have no energy! I need meat and veggies or I am gonna die I swear. I am coming home weighing in at a good 140 I bet. We heard a cool story last night, the way the school system works here is that you are ranked in your class depending on how your grades are. So finals are going on right now and this kid was ranked number two in his class and he was going to take the ACT to qualify for Kenyata which is the university here, but he didn’t have the money to take the test. It is 35 bones to take it here and he is an orphan. So we found out who his sponsor was from the US and it turns out it was this girl who we are with it was her neighbor, so she went ahead and paid for his test and everyone starting crying including him cause of how grateful he was. They take school sooooo so so much more seriously then we do in the states, it is their life it is outta control! I would be the biggest bum here right now if I went to school here. To even be in the runnings to be considered for Kenyata, they have to have a 33 on their ACT......YEAHHHHH RIGHT! They are so much smarter than we are it is crazy. Oh yeah and i forgot to tell you, showering here is so dope. They just give you a bucket of water and you got into the KCC shower stall and just dump it on yourself and wash up and then rinse off. It is especially nice with this short hair I’m rocking now cause it washes so freakin good! But it is good here, the nights are amazing, the scenery is not even real Iswear and I can’t wait for you guys to get here! I already have a thousand videos and pictures I need to show you but the internet here is the biggest joke so I can only send you a couple today...... until next time.

Sunday March 28, 2010

Whats up friends! So today was the dopest day ever.. We woke up and cruised into Changamwe to go to church and it was crazy. There were a good twenty people there but it was pretty cool cause they all spoke English. It is weird too cause the ward was right in the middle of the grossest and dirtiest part of town and especially the sketchiest. But they love white people everywhere we go, especially in the church. It looked like we were going to get robbed cause it was down this back alley and then you look up and it says in written letters “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” It was pretty dope though and then we went into this place called the Akamba Carvers and they are a tribe that makes their living off of nothing but wood carvings. You know that carving in Aunt Rose’s house of that giraffe? They carve animals of all kinds like that and they use nothing but a hand saw looking thing and files. We got to see the guys actually making everything and it is crazy how skilled they are. The crazy thing is that they all live in little grass huts with barely any clothes on but they whip out tons of these animals all freakin day and they are honestly the sickest things I have ever seen. One guy was making walking sticks that truly almost had me reaching in my wallet and grab a twenty to give to him but I didn’t have my money so I couldn’t buy anything! Then we finally drove into the village of Mnyenzeni today and it is the craziest thing between the town and the village out here. Right when we rolled in, there was this welcoming committee of little kids that sang and danced for us it was so funny, I filmed all of it and I will send it to ya when I actually have this internet thing figured out. They honestly sang and danced for us for a good hour and then we got a tour of everything going on here in the village. Since Koins came along, they have given this village a girls high school, the KCC, a wood shop, a tractor and a bunch of dorm rooms for the girls to live while they are going to school. Tell McCall that she has no idea how good she lives, here in Kenya they have to wake up at 5 in the morning to start class and they have 10 periods a day and they don’t get out of class until 10:30 and that doesn’t count homework or anything, that is when they get out of CLASS! Yeah, kill me just thinkin about that. They also have to live at the school because some of them come from like 40 miles away to come to school. I got tons of pictures and videos I will send so you can actually kinda have a good idea of where I am at. Mom would honestly be the biggest wreck if she was here, there have been some moments when I just have to close my eyes and act like I didn’t just see what happened and walk away. It has been crazy, but I have been here two days and I freakin love this place. The sky here is soooo bright, if you think lake powell stars are cool, they got nothing on Mnyenzeni stars. But any way, that’s all I got for tonight, we are about to hit the sack and tomorrow we actually start working with all the people,so until next time, laterrrrrrrrr

Dallin