Well it has certainly been a ride. Today is 8 months to the day that I arrived in Nairobi back in August. My last couple weeks here I've been able to put up a basketball hoop, buy art supplies, clothes, and finish painting. I also got to have a lot of fun as well, as seen here:
I've been to Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret, Mombasa, and Naivasha to name some of the bigger cities. I've seen most areas of Southern and Western Kenya as well as parts of the East Coast. I went to Uganda and canoed across Lake Victoria and the Nile. I went to Tanzania and climbed Kilimanjaro to the highest point in all of Africa. I've seen the government buildings. I've been in mansions and affluent beach resorts. I've lived and worked in the slums. I've seen fights and gotten robbed. I've made friends and helped raise money. I speak more Swahili than I did when I first got here, and I taught English. I've traveled by train, bus, car, matatu, plane, boat, raft, motorcycle, and bicycle. I've walked everywhere. I've eaten chicken and goat intestines. I've stayed out all night, and I've also been locked in the flat(supposedly by accident). I've had local beers and local liquors. I've danced with girls from all over Africa and even parts of Europe.
Things I won't miss:
People always asking me for money.
Bribes.
Goat Intestines.
People thinking my name is Morris or Harold.
Those dumb birds that wake me up every morning.
The rat that lives above my ceiling.
Mosquitoes.
Paying for Internet by the Megabyte.
Power outages 2 or 3 times a week.
Macon.(and yes I mean Macon. not Bacon)
Sukuma Wiki.(worst vegetable ever)
Windows with bars.
Things I will miss:
Cheap beer.
Transportation costs and availability.
Hospitality.
Walking across highways with impunity.
People thinking I have money.
Monkeys.
Celebrations.
Cheap beer.
Avocado Trees.
Mango Trees.
Banana Trees.
Did I say cheap beer yet?
Things I am looking forward to:
Getting food after 9pm.
Driving my car.
Speaking English.
ESPN.
Going to the movies.
Making money.
Seeing my friends' children grow up.
Playing basketball with my brother.
Watching football.
Getting a beer with my dad.
Getting a beer with my friends.
Shaking hands and hugging everyone without fear of a horrible disease.
I had difficulty sleeping last night. I'm not sure why. I had literally stayed out all night the previous night and i'd only been able to take a couple hour nap during the day. So when I went to sleep at 11, I thought it would be for the night. 4:30am came around and I woke up wide awake. I lied there for awhile. Finally, I got up and walked outside. I looked up at the sky. It had a few clouds strewn about. But that red glow was there. Doesn't matter the whether. Could be clear or cloudy or rainy or bright with moonlight. There is always a glowing red tint across the whole sky. I'm sure it has something to do with the city lights and the red dirt on the ground. I don't know. But I do know that I won't see that in America. There will be many things that I might never see again. Some I'll probably do just fine without, and others I might always long for. The best I can do is try to appreciate what comes to mind to appreciate. I want to thank everyone who followed me on this journey. At times when it was hard and I felt alone, I'd check my blog account and see that my previous post had over 200 views. After that, I wouldn't feel as weak or alone because I knew that I had a ton of friends and family keeping up with me. Thanks for the money you all donated. I was able to do a lot of good things like I mentioned above, and those were just some of the more tangible examples. Much of the time it just allowed me to spend time with different people in different places, like being able to work at a school in Uganda or the Great Rift Valley. The organization FOCUS uses the term "radical" to explain how much availability their missionaries are supposed to have on college campuses. Between your donations and your prayers, I gain radical strength and was allowed radical availability for the people here in Kenya. I've been able to make connections with onsite organizations here that people from Belmont Abbey will be able to use hopefully for a good long while.
At some points on this trip I had doubts whether I was doing enough or whether my time spent here was actually worth it. If compared to all the experiences and influences of everyone else in world then sure my actions have barely caused a single movement in the great ocean of things. But if I take my efforts and see how they've affected individuals here, I truly believe that I have made differences and even some of the slightest differences I've made I pray and hope can have a good impact on the future. My goal here wasn't to change the world. It was simply to give my time, and hopefully have the talents and skills to help the people here in a good capacity. I can't know for sure if I've done anything great, but I do know that I tried my best. And I'm happy with that.
Thanks again for all of your support. Going on mission was definitely one of the largest learning experiences of my life and absolutely worth it.
Signing off,
Harris Moriarty
Monday, April 22, 2013
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
And in the End The Love You Take is Equal to the Love You Make
Ah the classic Beatles song, "The End". Ringo Starr finally rips out the drum solo he'd never been allowed to play, it's followed by the groups philosophy on life. What's interesting about the song "The End" is that it was actually the 2nd to last song on the 2nd to last album. I feel it's appropriate to cite now because I'm going to have at least one, maybe two more blog posts for this "album" if you will. Then I'll go home and figure out what I'm going to do next. It's definitely been a ride. Anyways, here's the update:
I got back into the swing of things. Started really committing time to St. Maurus and seeing what I can do for my last few weeks here on the whole. So far, I've bought two basketball hoops and two balls. I'm hoping to set one up at the Street Kids Project and one at St. Benedict's primary school. My Dad has also collected a bunch of rosaries to be sent over here to give out to different communities.
I was going to do some more painting at St. Maurus this weekend, but unfortunately just a *little bit* of gun violence sprouted up over the appeals of the recent presidential election. I've been in my room watching episodes of "The West Wing" on my computer for about 4 days now. There was also a major power outage that spanned from Easter Sunday into Easter Monday. During the day I started reading a book, but at night time it was really too dark to do anything at all. I just sat and thought about stuff(dangerous, I know).
One thing that flew across my temporal lobe was a question. How is it possible that people can disagree with me on things. Yes, that's broad. And of course I'm not always right, but even still. If you ask me a question, I will answer it with certitude and knowledge. Then I remembered when I was younger, I was so eager to explain my point on something as menial as going up to the front of class to sharpen a pencil that the teachers or other students would cut me off before I'd said a third of what I wanted to. I then also remembered someone once telling me that speeches should be no more than 5 minutes because people lack the attention span to care any longer than that.
So then I thought, well that's kind of a sad state of the public. Sure that doesn't apply to all, but it applies to many. Are you secure enough in your own mind to count yourself out of that many? I can't make the call on myself yet. I do seem to remember a lot though. Anyways.
This triggered another thought process. Well, I can't change the state of the public mind. So how do I go about it? What can I do? I guess the solution would be to try and explain things more simply or at least with fewer words. At this point I had an entire conversation in my head with a friend back home. The argument devolved into: "Dude, you're wrong." and "Dude, I'm not." Unfortunately the "I'm not" is technically shorter than "you're wrong". So I still hadn't found the solution. So I went a different direction. Instead of talking TO the state of mind why not talk ABOUT the state of mind. Anyone know the seven deadly sins off the top of their head? Sloth, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and Pride. Pride being the king. I don't know many people who can name you all the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit, but I guarantee that even if they knew them all they'd have to spend 10 minutes on each one explaining what it means. The deadly sins however are pretty simple. You gotta explain a little bit, but everyone will get it and be on board pretty quickly. No wonder they're everywhere.
How do you fight evil when it grows like a weed and good grows like an oak tree? Well, finally late into the night I had an epiphany. Love. Yea, it sounds silly, I know. But think about it. Love is 4 letters long, and it is its own definition. One word. I realized that reducing my state of mind to the simplicity of that word could be the key. Sadly, I also started to realize that people don't have the same understanding of love. People think "tolerance" or "punishment" or "ignorance" or "emotion", they think these are love. Love is even simpler and less political than all these things.
I can't give you the answer because I don't know it. Well not just anyway. I know this entire blog in fact undermines my whole argument! a 1000 word essay to discuss how the answer is one word? But it's because I don't know the answer yet. I thought maybe it'd be something nice to share out loud though. So people can read about what I'm thinking on this trip and not just what I'm doing.
Ok, well now that's done. Quick clean-up of things. If you're interested in any part of my trip whether you're thinking about coming or donating, please please please let me know. harris.moriarty@gmail.com. My dad is collecting rosaries at my house. 692 Ellsworth Avenue Great Falls, Va 22066. If you want to mail it straight here, send me an email and I'll give you the details. I'll try and post again soon.
-Harris Moriarty
I got back into the swing of things. Started really committing time to St. Maurus and seeing what I can do for my last few weeks here on the whole. So far, I've bought two basketball hoops and two balls. I'm hoping to set one up at the Street Kids Project and one at St. Benedict's primary school. My Dad has also collected a bunch of rosaries to be sent over here to give out to different communities.
I was going to do some more painting at St. Maurus this weekend, but unfortunately just a *little bit* of gun violence sprouted up over the appeals of the recent presidential election. I've been in my room watching episodes of "The West Wing" on my computer for about 4 days now. There was also a major power outage that spanned from Easter Sunday into Easter Monday. During the day I started reading a book, but at night time it was really too dark to do anything at all. I just sat and thought about stuff(dangerous, I know).
One thing that flew across my temporal lobe was a question. How is it possible that people can disagree with me on things. Yes, that's broad. And of course I'm not always right, but even still. If you ask me a question, I will answer it with certitude and knowledge. Then I remembered when I was younger, I was so eager to explain my point on something as menial as going up to the front of class to sharpen a pencil that the teachers or other students would cut me off before I'd said a third of what I wanted to. I then also remembered someone once telling me that speeches should be no more than 5 minutes because people lack the attention span to care any longer than that.
So then I thought, well that's kind of a sad state of the public. Sure that doesn't apply to all, but it applies to many. Are you secure enough in your own mind to count yourself out of that many? I can't make the call on myself yet. I do seem to remember a lot though. Anyways.
This triggered another thought process. Well, I can't change the state of the public mind. So how do I go about it? What can I do? I guess the solution would be to try and explain things more simply or at least with fewer words. At this point I had an entire conversation in my head with a friend back home. The argument devolved into: "Dude, you're wrong." and "Dude, I'm not." Unfortunately the "I'm not" is technically shorter than "you're wrong". So I still hadn't found the solution. So I went a different direction. Instead of talking TO the state of mind why not talk ABOUT the state of mind. Anyone know the seven deadly sins off the top of their head? Sloth, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and Pride. Pride being the king. I don't know many people who can name you all the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit, but I guarantee that even if they knew them all they'd have to spend 10 minutes on each one explaining what it means. The deadly sins however are pretty simple. You gotta explain a little bit, but everyone will get it and be on board pretty quickly. No wonder they're everywhere.
How do you fight evil when it grows like a weed and good grows like an oak tree? Well, finally late into the night I had an epiphany. Love. Yea, it sounds silly, I know. But think about it. Love is 4 letters long, and it is its own definition. One word. I realized that reducing my state of mind to the simplicity of that word could be the key. Sadly, I also started to realize that people don't have the same understanding of love. People think "tolerance" or "punishment" or "ignorance" or "emotion", they think these are love. Love is even simpler and less political than all these things.
I can't give you the answer because I don't know it. Well not just anyway. I know this entire blog in fact undermines my whole argument! a 1000 word essay to discuss how the answer is one word? But it's because I don't know the answer yet. I thought maybe it'd be something nice to share out loud though. So people can read about what I'm thinking on this trip and not just what I'm doing.
Ok, well now that's done. Quick clean-up of things. If you're interested in any part of my trip whether you're thinking about coming or donating, please please please let me know. harris.moriarty@gmail.com. My dad is collecting rosaries at my house. 692 Ellsworth Avenue Great Falls, Va 22066. If you want to mail it straight here, send me an email and I'll give you the details. I'll try and post again soon.
-Harris Moriarty
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