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

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

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

PS

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

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

PS

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!

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

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