After an Skype session with my beautiful wife, 2 kids, and my bro Cody I was spent. I was ecited to sleep in an actually bed. (I hate sleeping sitting up like the plane required us to do for the last 2 nights) I slept like a champ until we were woken up by the alarm, we had to have a 2 night bag ready to go by 8:30 am so that we could make the 3 hour drive to Kwebeze and meet the Mayor and his team to discuss with them our plans to build dams, and bring food, medical, & educational supplies to his constituency. We also had trucks meeting us a 3 villages later to drop food off.

We skipped breakfast and piled into the stretched Land Cruiser and embarked.

The lengthy bumpy drive was our first opportunity to see Africa in the daylight. We left the city behind and started to see what I had expected Africa to look like; Baboons, Zebra, Giraffes, Gazelles, and more right on or near the road. We (Ron, Justin, Ryan, Jason, Brad, Benson, Kye, & Myself) starting speculating on what we were going to actually be doing and reminding ourselves that we were in Africa in the first place. We stopped at the Hunters Lodge (about 5 minutes from our first destination) to eat and wait for a call from the Mayors office letting us know that they were ready for us.

The Lodge was a quiet place with outdoor dining right next to a spring fed lake. An incredible setting for our first lunch in Africa. Ron, Jason Draper and I, stood on the bridge drinking Stoney (an African take on Squirt that has become my drink of choice here) and talking about how we can make the Dam projects happen. Our lunch was sent to our table and we had received the call so I had to inhale my Lamb skewers and rice as we walked to the Cruiser. The Lamb was freaking great and has become my entree of choice here. We were all excited like a football team getting ready for the big game, this was our chance to initiate the Give A Dam campaign for real.

We drove into a small, dusty town, that looks less like a place the Mayor would live and more like a ghost town left destitute by lack of rain over the last 5 years because of world wide climate changes. And truly the latter was exactly what it was... a ghost town inhabited with a happy, hard working people, that were ready for a chance to raise crops and more livestock with increased water tables and irrigation. They have to walk over 8 miles daily to retrieve water needed to water crops, cook, and drink. Leaving children home unattended and hungary. This was the first time we had a chance to see what we had all be talking about for months prior to organizing this trip. We were greeted by a group of people that have to be seen to be understood. Their appearance is hard to describe. If you can imagine what a homeless person would like if they were given $20 bucks at the DI to get a nice outfit for this meeting. That is what they all looked like, the Mayor look healthy and well dressed but everyone else look needy. We met the Mayor of the largest Constituency in Kenya and his team in his office and then walked with him past his armed guards to the board room. He introduced us to his team and gave a brief breakdown to all of us about what was happening in his area of authority Kwebweze (KA-bway-zee). In short a lack of water has caused a detrimental domino effect that was causing his people to starve and wither. Ron was asked to speak and without my prior knowledge he called me up to discuss my plans and talk more about the Give A Dam campaign. The news was received with praises and thank yous from the group. Now Give A Dam was officially more than an idea. It was a need that had to be met. These people, and not just the 20 in the room, but the hundreds of thousands scattered across miles and miles of land were counting me an my team to "bring the rain". We have to deliver!

The meeting adjourned and we were rushed to waiting vehicles, after piling in the Cruiser again we followed the Mayor in his Toyota SUV and the 2 military vehicles and headed to the first food and supply drop point. This was already more of a show than I thought it would be. The received us very well at the Mayors office, adding the military escort was over the top I thought....

It turns out the armed guards escort was not a flex of muscle or a fanning of the political feathers for the Mayors new friends. This is what awaited us at the first drop point.

Over 1000 villagers came to thank us with songs and dances they prepared. What a way to spend your first day in Africa, definitely an experience I will not soon forget! This was just the first stop we still had 2 more to go.

I will let the pictures tell most of the story from here on out, a lot of our experience will be captured on video as well.

Ill add more pics when I get back from the Open Air Market...