AJ Can Blog Too

I am not the "blogging" type but I will try for the sake of everyone that is curious about how our trip is going from my perspective.  I am really glad to have this opportunity to see such a different culture first hand because seeing it on television or reading about it just doesn't do it justice.  Everyone in our group is incredibly nice and so are all of the Kenyan people that I have met.  This Transformed International group with whom we are staying is really doing good things for the people who live in this clearly troubled country.  Corruption and extreme poverty seem to be major issues, among many others.  I was surprised to hear how corrupt the government is and to actually see it for myself.  It is really cool to see how people have absolutely nothing but yet they are some of the happiest and most generous people that I have ever met.  The Kenyan men that I have been working with in the construction of a school work amazingly hard for something like $2.50 a day and are happy to be working at all.  Most things are a lot cheaper here than they are in the US, so $2.50 can actually feed a family for a day.  Gasoline is actually more expensive at a bit under 5$ a gallon.  I was surprised to hear about how many missionaries there are here in the country, and how some are actually doing harm without realizing it.  Orphaned children roam the streets sniffing glue to get high while white visitors give them money to eat.  They take the money and eat well with it, but then they refuse to stay in any of the many shelters/schools available to them because they can actually eat better from handouts.  Apparently the police are very corrupt and steal money from the hard working citizens constantly.  I am learning a lot about construction from helping to build the school which is pretty cool to me.  I am also learning patience because it seems like everything here moves at about one quarter of the pace that I am used to.  Also I think that I have gotten about 5 hours of sleep total since we have been here and I even stayed up all the night before we left so that I would sleep on the painfully long 31 hours of travel that we endured to get here, but no such luck.  Needless to say, I have had a lot of time to work on my severely lacking virtue of patience.  I am enjoying playing games with our group on the beautiful compound in which we are staying.  I am also enjoying playing with the young children that we have been introduced to who each have heartbreaking life stories.  It is really cool to bring them hope by just being here and spending time with them.  I am sleeping outside in one of three small wood huts with the rest of the guys while the girls sleep inside the main house.  I think that not being next to Tina at night is really hindering my ability to sleep, so I just lay there and think for most of the nights so far.  I can't even sleep after chewing up a couple of Benadryl, which is weird.  I am not looking forward to the long trip back nor the unnecessary stresses and materialism that is waiting for us in the US.  I am happy to be helping out how I can here in Kenya and I hope this will be a great experience to look back on.  I have a greater understanding of how people can truly live with the absolute minimum and still be extremely happy.  The electricity and internet goes out constantly which is not cool but apparently it is normal for Kenya.  I have had to learn how to use a hole in the ground outside for a bathroom which has been interesting to say the least.  Thank you very much once again to everyone who has aided in allowing for us to take this once in a lifetime trip.  I hope this was a good blog.  Go Phillies.