HIking

Vic and I are going hiking today. we will be camping out for 2 days exploring the land that we are going to create our mountain bike trails on. I am so very excited. Well I have to go and Meet Simon, Derek, and Joseph. We are going camping with them.
Also we go rock climbing on saturday with a group of kids. I love this place.
Adventure is what I live on...
Gio

Photos

Hello,
Here are some photos I took recently in Africa on our adventures...

Life Never Stops Over Here

We have done so much these past few days. On Tuesday, Gio and I accompanied Tess to Waithaka. She has a couple of good friends out there, and she wanted us to meet them. Both of her friends work at a school, so we got to spend the entire morning with the kids. It was amazing. We got some great pictures with the children. We played soccer, catch, volleyball, and a ton of other random, fun stuff. The kids also sang us some songs. They were in both English and Swahili, and each song had a set of motions. Playing with these kids really brightened my day, but the next trip we took would change my outlook on this whole experience.

Once school let out, Tess's friend, Nancy, took us out to Kibera. Kibera is the largest sum in Africa. The conditions in this place were so horrible. We met up with one of Nancy's friends, and she took us out to her place. We just wandered the slum for an hour or two. It was life changing. Nancy's friend had a child, Morgan, and she followed me through our whole walk, holding my hand. It was the worst life I ever could have imagined, but the attitude of the people was something I never would have expected. People weren't miserable wrecks. They were just living the life they had to the best of their ability. Children were running around the ditches full of human feces playing ames and laughing. It was amazing to see people happily enduring one of the worst types of life. Most of the people were so accepting of what they had.

The next day, Tess went home to Melbourne, Australia. That was sad. Tess was a great person to have in the house. She was always having fun, and we will miss her a lot. Other than that, Wednesday was fairly uneventful, so I will go on to Thursday.

Jason had a ton of things to do on Thursday (actually his credit card didn’t work, so he couldn’t do as much as he would have liked, but he was still pretty booked), so he sent Gio and I out to run an errand in Athi River. We took a matatu out to the street of Daystar University, and we hitched a ride with the Vice-Chancellor of the school the rest of the way. We grabbed his mail from the school’s Post Office, and we then headed out to give Francis some money. Francis used to stay at Taraja Boys Home, and he has been friends with Jason ever since. Jason tries to help him out whenever he can, so Francis will be working on the restaurant. He is staying out near Taraja, but he had no money. Gio and I went to help him out. I think it is great that Francis will be working on a project that will solely benefit the Boys Home he grew up in.

That night, Gio and I hit a bar. It was a great time. We were going to eat at the South C Sports Club Restaurant, but it was empty, so we ate at the bar. This was the most dull bar I have ever seen (not that I have seen many), but we had a great time with it. We drank so much, I even fell off of my bar stool. I had four Stoneys, and Gio had three Krest’s. Kenya has the coolest soda. The food was great, and Alex and I had a good time hanging out together.

Yesterday, Jason had more ATM difficulty, so we spent the day trying to fix it so he could finally send this girl, Winnie, to secondary school. I went back to the house early to grab some PIN number for him. I had a migraine, so I slept for most of the day after that.

Later that night, after I had slept off my headache, we went out to the theatre. Jason’s girlfriend, Lydia, is a pretty famous actress in Kenya, so she had an in at the Phoenix Theatre. Lydia is actually on a few Kenyan television shows, and she does a ton of theatre work. The play we went to was nice. It was pretty funny, and it ended up being a great experience, but the highlight of the night was dinner. We ate at Trattoria’s, aain. This was the first time we had ordered actual meals, and they were amazing. It was some of the best Italian food I have ever had.

Today has been pretty relaxing. Saturdays are always nice. Mithoni, the cleaning lady, came this morning. I was out of clothes this week, so I did a little laundry by hand myself. I figured if Mithoni can do it, then why can’t I? Well, Mithoni walked into the patio place where we wash clothes, pointed at my pants, and said, “Those aren’t clean.” Needless to say, I have given up on laundry, and I will now make sure to have enough clothes to make it to Saturday.

Jason has a student visiting the house right now. He got to leave school for the weekend. His name is Eliud, and he seems to be a great kid. Also, there was a pretty big fire outside the apartments today. It was awful. One of the kiosks outside was accidentally caught on fire by a child. It was another one of the most horrible things I have ever seen. There was a huge crowd of people, but there was no way to get any water over there to put it out. It is another experience I will never rid from my mind.

Well, that should be it. We are headed out to the movies with Eliud soon, so I should check on Gio with his 57 minute (and counting) conversation with Pringles. I’ll try to keep posting as much as I can. I love you all.

-Victor Rogers IV

Adventure In Crescent Island

I entered this picture for competition on line hope it does well...

Finally, Things Are Moving (cont.)

Well, I'm back in Lazard's Internet Cafe, and I hope I can finish this post. I think I left off at Crescent Island, so I will pick up with that night. After our venture to the Island, Gio and I had the most amazing, yet strange, pasta from the YMCA. The power was out, so we had dinner in our room by candlelight. It was pretty awkward to say the least, but the food was great. To make up for the guy and guy candlelight dinner, Gio spent the night discussing his favorite subject, Jackie. It did a good job of taking the gayness from our evening.
The next morning, Gio decided to get up fairly early to bike out to Hell's Gate. I'm not really a morning person, but we headed out at eight a.m anyway. Aside from the migraine and the fifteen mile mountain biking trip, the day was amazing. The scenery was indescribable. On top of the gorgeous landscape, we got to see some more unexpected wildlife. On top of all the zebras and gazelles, we saw a warthog with its little hoglets and a five foot black cobra. The latter was one of the craziest things I had ever seen. Gio almost ran over it with his bike, and we both just stood about ten feet away from it, unsure what to do besides take pictures.
We biked all the way through Hell's Gate, but instead of going to the marked entrance to the gorge, we made a wrong turn and ended up in a Masai village. It worked out really well, though. One of the men from the village gave us a free tour of the gorge. It was some of the most amazing hiking I have ever done. The hot springs were so strange. You don't expect a small waterfall to be raining down hot water. It was amazingly beautiful.
We headed straight home after Hell's Gate, exhausted, hungry, and sunburned. I got burned on the top of my hands. It is a very strange place. It is bright red from my wrist up to my knuckles, and then my fingers are my typical pasty whiteness. Gio just started peeling last night. He unloaded bales shirtless, and didn't have sunscreen on, so his back was burned to a crisp. It now looks like he has leprosy. Pieces of his flesh are peeling off in chunks. It is pretty nasty, but he insists on showing me every time he peels. He even had me take a picture.
Well, Tess, Gio, and I are headed out to some town that Tess has a lot of friends in. She wanted to take us out before she leaves tomorrow, so I need to get going. If you are reading this, then odds are that I miss you a lot, and I love you a lot as well, but you can't always be sure. Thank you all for the prayers; they are greatly appreciated.
-Victor Rogers IV

Finally, Things Are Moving

Well, my first attempt at this post was just deleted because my computer at Lazard's just bombed out. I'm not that happy right now, but I'll get over it quickly. I don't have much time now, so this post won't be as great as the one I just wrote. I might not even finish it before we need to leave, but I will try my best.
Things are finally going. Thursday was a huge day. We got the bales delivered to Taraja, and Gio and I headed out to Naivasha. We hitched a ride out with Gitau, the man who delivered the bales, and we stayed at his apartment for the night. The truck ride to Naivasha was ridiculous. It took six hours to get to a place about an hour away. I rode in the back of the truck for a while with a calf and a sheep. The rest of the ride was spent uncomfortably close to three other men, one of which was a very large man with some very strange misconceptions on the U.S.
After our night with Gitau, Alex and I headed out to Lake Naivasha via matatu. We rented a Banda (small shack), and some bikes at the YMCA. We headed straight out, on mountain bike, to Crescent Island. We were able to wander the island alone, and what we encountered was amazing.
We saw zebras, giraffes, monkeys, gazelles, wildebeests, and some crazy birds. Well, I need to go now, so you are either going to have to wait for my next post to hear about the five foot black cobra, or you can just read Gio's last post. I hope to finish this story up soon.
-Victor Rogers IV

Hell's Gate

I am back in Nairobi,

For all of you who were concerned for me I have been In Naivasha for a couple of days with no access to a computer... sorry

Besides that I had an absolutely amazing adventure. We biked about 30 miles in two days our first day we went to a place called Crescent Island, there we saw wild animals of all kinds on a beautiful secluded Island... I cant tell you how amazing this experience was.... we saw Wildebeest, Giraffe, birds of all kinds, Gazelle, and many other interesting things including the absolutly beautiful scenery in the backround including a massive Volcano in the distance (Mt. Longonot).
The next day we went on a bike ride to Hell's Gate National park... we biked for about 8 miles on dirt roads through magnificent scenery of red rock cliffs and towering mountains on all sides... we took a wrong turn at one point and instead of going down to the massive gorge paying a guide we ended up in a Masai village where we had on of the people give us a tour down to the gorge and through it for free plus he took us through some of the Masai land. That was increadable he was such a nice man. Most of the people in Kenya are very hospitable and friendly others just want to take advantage of you which has happened a number of times to us already we are getting pretty Savvy though and it doesn't really happen any more....
Now we have returned safely to Nairobi in one piece with a little more sunburn than before LOL and a bit more understanding of the country.
Happy to be home at our comfortable apartment in South C
-Gio

Sleeping is Great

The last few days have been extremely relaxing. Jason has been out, so Gio and I had nothing productive to do. It was amazing. I slept so much. We have also been playing chess and scrabble. I'm rocking Gio at chess. Even when I'm half asleep, I still kick his butt.
The time off has been really nice, but we will be getting back to work soon. We will probably be headed out to Naivasha tomorrow. It has been so rainy out there, but it looks like we will finally be able to get the bales. Getting started on all of this would be great. We have been waiting to get going forever, so once this is done we can get moving with the restaurant and the bike trails.
I've been making an attempt to teach Alex to cook (you're welcome, Jackie). It has been going very well. We made and amazing meal last night. We had chicken parm, a veggie-stir-fry, and spaghetti with a homemade marinara sauce. I was going to be a nice surprise for Jason after his miserable, long day, but he didn't even make it home last night, so everyone else in the house ate with us. It was a lot of fun.
Church the other day was great. Self-control and confession aren't spoken about enough in church. The sermon was pretty amazing. It was a great chance for me to let go of some things and become so much closer to God. He has done so much for me in the past few weeks. He is revealing himself to me in so many ways. I have been able to find Him in everything.
Well, I can't think of anything else to write about. I'm sure there is so much I could, but I'm not finding anything important in his big head of mine. I hope to post again soon.
-Victor Rogers IV

Relaxation Time

Cheers Mate,

Well the weather has cleared up a bit and I should be headed out to Naivasha again tomorrow to load hay bales about 250 tomorrow and 250 the next... But after that Vic and I will be going out together and will have an awesome opportunity to explore some of the Amazing Great Rift Valley...

Well things are going well Jason had to go out Chooka to visit a student he sponsors who had some disciplinary problems so Vic and I had 2 days to do pretty much whatever we wanted... So we SLEPT IN !! thank God.... and then we went and explored the city some more... we ate at a restaurant called Trattoria's (THE BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT) I have ever eaten at we had the most amazing thin crust pizza with artichokes, green olives, mushrooms, oregano, ham, and several other things I cant remember. It was Simply amazing... needless to say I haven't been starving out here I have been eating like a King...
We also went grocery shopping because when you live in a house with 3 men there is nothing in the fridge LOL,,, we bought all the fixings for and made our own Chicken Parmigiana with a vegetable stir fry and Past with sauce we made.... It was awesome....
we also bought other necessities such as toilet paper and light bulbs... We also bought mmm hot chocolate mix for me... and canned tuna fish (always a good backup meal)...

For entertainment We bought a chess board and a Scrabble board... That has been lots of fun so far I think Chess will be good for Vic and I we both play but aren't that good so we are a good match...

Have a great day God Bless

Alex Giordano

Sunday

Church was really cool yesterday. They preached about self control. (what an idea huh??) Odly enough i have not ever heard a message preached quite like this but I was quite happy that they did. The message focused on sexual temptation, pornography, adultery, etc... things like that I was so impressed about how they preached about pornography and other sexual sins... they are such a MAJOR!!! struggle all around the world for so many millions of people. Every day I struggle with sexual temptation every day millions of Men and Women and even children struggle with the constant idea that casual sex and pornography are ok because of the message society is sending through its media, advertising, television, music and so so much more.
Why doesn't the Church take more initiative and begin to counter act that message just a little bit?? its like people are afraid to talk about it but thats what makes it such a big problem... No one is willing to talk about it and therefore it is left in the dark... when things are kept secrete and left alone they will never be dealt with. In order to deal with these things we must expose the ideas of Pornography, Masturbation, Casual sex, and other such ideas to the LIGHT!
Needless to say I was happy that the people in the church I attend here in Kenya Brought up the topic and spoke about it openly and honestly about the damage that immediate self gratification can do. Specifically The pastor said that by giving in to your immediate desires you will cause yourself to do things you wouldn't normally do... Like lie to cover up the tracks you just made.
There was a woman in the church who has become pregnant she was a leader and she confessed that she was pregnant and she is not married so that was a huge deal. However, I was so glad to see that she was willing to bring the situation in to the light. When we confess our sins we are allowing God to come in to our lives and set us free and we are allowing others to come beside us and help us through our struggles.
Anyway I think that the topic needs to have some light shed upon it and stop all the secrecy that has been making people feel alone in there struggle. This is the reason that so many fall into the pit of sexual immorality.

Besides that I am having a great time in Kenya. The weather has been really funny here. It's been sunny and raining on and off (weird)

Have a great day and God Bless

-Gio

Plans Change, But It Always Works Out

Well, it is about a week since we planned on going to Naivasha, but rain has prevented us from using the roads to get the bales, so we have been sitting around, doing busy work. We visited the place the restaurant will be built. The location is nice, but it is a pretty big trip. Because we don't have a car, our journey consisted of matatus, walking, and even hitchhiking. Hitching a ride was great. We rode in this huge Mack truck with about four other people. It was a lot of fun.
Other than that, Alex and I have been hanging around town, trying to blend in (which is pretty difficult). There hasn't been a day where we were in the city and we haven't been asked on a safari. Also, because we are white, everyone takes advantage of us. People can be horrible. I have never been so discouraged by humanity. Being black in America is nothing compared to being white in Kenya.
Even with all the adversity, Nairobi is a great place, and I am having the time of my life. It all seems normal, or second nature to me now, and I have only been here for ten days. God has really strengthened my faith and beliefs, and He has also opened my eyes to the rest of His creation. All in all, this is the greatest and most life-changing trip of my life, and, at the moment, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

-Victor Rogers IV

Grey Day,

Today is the first day that has not been absolutely beautiful it has been overcast and sort of sprinkling a little here. It is almost always perfect weather here. Its strange it is like 75-80 here every day dry heat its so nice so nice. It cools down at night so it is easier to sleep.

Unfortunately our trip to Naivasha has been postponed due to the rain. the roads are too muddy to travel and get the hay for the restaurant. We will still be going but not until the roads are dry enough.

I am Having an absolutely amazing time here in Kenya eating different things every day.. Today i had Goat. It was so good. lol

Ive got to go now

Gio.

Naivasha and Hell's Gate National Park

I will be headed out to Naivasha, tomarrow to load hay bales and then drop them off at our resturant construction sight. after we drom them off Vic and I will head out to Naivasha again in the back of a truck and stay a couple of days there exploring safari type stuff ... we will see gorges, hot springs all sorts of animals like giraffe, wildebeest, elaphants etc... I am really excited about the pics im gonna get ... i cant wait...

-Gio

Finally

Sorry it took so long to post... Vic and I havent been able to get to this sight at our appartment so we are in a Cyber Cafe using different computers ... unfortunatly Kenya doesnt have High speed internet ... basically just dial up so i wont be uploading as many pictures as I thought Sorry !! you will just have to see them all when i get home.
So far our experiance has been amazing .... so amazing Vic and I both feel as if we have been here for ages already because we have done so much .... Jason has tought us how to navigate around the city well so today is our first day out and about by ourselves... its really exciting and slightly scary ... but we are doing well...
We have been following Jason alot and well he is very busy and does a ton for the poor community here...
We went to church today for the first time that was amazing... the worship was outstanding and very African ... they are such amazing musicians... The preaching was hard to understand due to their heavy accent....
After we leave this cafe we will most likely go and explore the city a little and then go home on a Matatu ( a 16 passenger taxi ish thing) a ride from here to our road cost 30 shillings and we have to walk the rest of the way... there is a lot of walking here and odly enought hardly any Fat People... only the white people are fat lol ....
well today is the first day i have taken my camera to the city (for fear of losing it) but i feel confident in getting around and such now so i was comfortable enough to bring it i will take some pics of the city and try to post some if possible...

Anyway Got to get going my bill is running up here Haha ... 24 shillings right now ... or less than a dollar really haha

-Gio

Nairobi is Crazy

I finally got on to the blog! This has been a crazy trip, and I wish it were easier to update the blog, but I'll work with what I have. Well, Gio and I are in the city, alone, at a cyber cafe. So much has happened in the past few days.
The flight was long and tiring, but it was exciting nonetheless. We saw so much. The Italian Alps, The tip of the Italian boot, Amsterdam (which was the most perfect, organized city I have ever seen, and an amazing sunrise in the sky were just a few of our sights. Gio actually got stopped by security in Detroit for taking pictures of the plane. He did look fairly suspicious, but it all worked out. I only lost one bag, and I got it the next day, so it was almost a flawless trip.
We are staying in an apartment in South C, which is about ten to fifteen minutes south of the city (with average traffic). The apartment is nice, and is surrounded by a huge wall topped with barbed wire (less exciting than the shards of glass on the other security walls). We are right outside of a slum, which is full of tiny, handmade shacks, made of scrap metal. These are called Kiosks.
For the most part, we have been taking in the city, and learning how to get around. Nairobi is a very chaotic city, but it is loads of fun. The craziest part for me is the driving. It seems like there are no rules, though everyone claims that is not true. People are just crazy, and they don't stop for people or care about anything. In order to get into the city, we need to jump on a matatu, which works like a bus, but they are all run down vans. On each matatu, there is a driver and another guy that runs the back of the van. This other guy is constantly jumping on and off the moving matatu, calling other people aboard and collecting money. You tap the side of the van to signal you want to get off. It is great, and very cheap. It costs thirty shillings for each trip to Nairobi (it is seventy shillings to every dollar).
Gio and I have a basic understanding of the city, and we are getting around very well. We have visited a number of students KKM is sponsoring, which is very exciting. We have met so many interesting people, and I will never forget them. All of the donations we brought (backpacks, toys, etc.), have been greatly appreciated. Everyone here sends their thanks to those of you who have helped.
The food is another amazing part of Kenya. I love cooking, eating, and trying anything, so this is perfect. I have tasted so many new foods, like pilao, ugali, and samosas. They are all amazing and very different. The tastes of the city is one of my favorite parts.
Well, I hope to update this again soon, but I think this is enough for now. Gio and I are going to explore the city. I am so thankful for this adventure, and I am constantly in awe of God and how he works through our lives. I love you all.
-Victor Rogers IV