First a vacation, then an adventure

Welcome to the Blog. The main purpose of this site is to assure my mother that I am alive and well, but if anyone else wants to follow along for the ride they are more than welcome. Because different people have received more or less information about my trip, I will start out before I leave by giving a brief synopsis of what is going on here. For fun, I'll do it as a Q & A of questions I have gotten from various people.

Q. You're going where?

A. Actually, I am going to two very different places. The first is a place I know pretty well, and would ordinarily be more than enough of a trip for anyone- Ireland. I leave Friday, August 17 and get into Shannon Airport on Saturday morning.

I am flying over with my brother, Titanic, and will be meeting up with my college roommate One and our friend (I use the term losely) Perc, both of whom are lawyers in Chicago so desperate to get away from their jobs that they are willing to search for golf balls in the wind and the rain with two of the wildest, highest ball strikers I know (Titanic and me).

We will be playing golf for the first 6 days throughout the west and northwest of Ireland, staying in Doolin, Westport, Sligo, and Donegal and playing Lahinch, Connemara, Carne, Enniscrone, Sligo, and Narin & Portnoo before ending up in Dublin for two days of carousing in one of my favorite cities for doing just that. Then the other lads head back to the US and their jobs (Aer Lingus willing, for Titanic), and I head on to Nairobi, Kenya.

Yes, Nairobi, Kenya.

Q. What are you doing in Nairobi?

A. Writing a blog. Maybe checking out some elephants and giraffes. Hopefully drinking some Tusker beer. Almost certainly losing weight. Training to win the Boston Marathon? Trying to stay healthy. Meeting some very interesting people. Reading a lot of books. Shopping for clothes so that I can dress like Brooks Goddard. And doing whatever I can to help out at St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a college prep school for AIDS orphans in what appears to be one of the worst places on earth, the teeming slum of Kibera.

Q. How did you get hooked up with St. Al's?

A. The short answer is that I sent an email to Terry Charlton, SJ. The school has a close relationship with the Chicago Jesuit province and Fr. Charlton, the man most responsible for its existence, has established a connection with folks at Georgetown to do fundraising. I recall a few years ago receiving some kind of broadcast email about an event to support the school, and I read about its mission and I was impressed, though I never did anything more.

However, once I decided to leave Georgetown after law school, I also discovered that my future employers did not want me until early October, and the bar exam was in late July, leaving me plenty of time to do something interesting, and so I began to think of ways to spend that time (more on this below). For some reason St. Al's stuck in my head, so I Googled it and found an article written by a Georgetown grad and acquaintance named George Kearney. I contacted George, who put me in touch with Fr. Charlton, who then agreed to host me and allow me to do some work. All of that happened in December of 2006, and was confirmed when I met Terry on another visit to Georgetown in March.

Q. What will you be doing at the school?

A. Isn't that a good question? I guess I will have to keep you posted, but it is fairly open-ended right now. I am not going as a teacher, they have full time teachers and I am only there for 4 weeks. I am going as someone who wants to help in any way he can. I have been told I will have opportunity to help individual students with tutoring, and may be able to contribute something to classes in Civics, History, English, etc. Just so long as they don't ask me to teach Physics, I am willing to give it a shot. Of course I also plan on meeting as many people as I can and learning about them and about myself, taking pictures and writing it down so that I can be helpful to the school when I return to my lawyer gig.

Q. Where will you be staying?

A. Fr. Charlton has arranged for me to have a room at a boarding house run by the Association of the Sisterhood of Kenya at Tumaini Centre. I am told it is clean and safe, mostly religious live there, and they provide for breakfast and dinner daily. I am paying my own way there.

Q. What prompted this trip?

A. I suspect I will answer this question more fully as I go along, but for now I would say a few things combined. First, two of my brothers spent last fall halfway around the world, one backpacking through Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, the other studying at the University of Auckland. I was very interested to hear of their travels and jealous of their experiences. I would have loved to visit, but just getting there and back would have taken the better part of 4 days total, not leaving much time to see anything if you only have a week or 10 days of vacation time. So I realized with all the time I had, I should try to go to a part of the world I was unlikely to visit otherwise.

Second, I have long espoused an interest in serving others, but I don't think I have done it very effectively. I justified it by saying I am too busy between a full time job and law school at night, which works at some level, but it was pretty weak. Now, with all this time, I really wanted to put my beliefs into action.

In truth, I have been inspired by my experience of reading thousands of college applications and seeing how many high school students are doing impressive service, including projects around the world. A cynic would say that many were only doing it to impress saps like me, and there is something to that as well, but I felt like I really needed to get into the action if 16 and 17 year olds could do it. If I am feeling introspective and also feeling like sharing it with all of you, I will try to expand on these ideas in future posts.

Q. How will you keep in touch?

A. Internet access is still a bit up in the air. I understand I will have some opportunity to use the facilities at CLC Kenya from time to time, and that Tumaini has some internet access on Saturdays, but I don't expect it to be too frequent. I will have a cell phone with a local Kenya number and I will send it to anyone who wants it via email, but I don't need to publish it here. I would love to hear from anyone and everyone, via email with the understanding that I won't respond individually very often, trying to keep it to the blog for efficiency. But anyone who wants to send me news (preferably not links, but actual stories) about people or events, and especially Red Sox and Patriots scores, will be much appreciated.

Q. Do you speak Swahili?

A. Hapana (No).

Q. When do you get back?

A. September 21 in Boston, and likely making a trip to DC as September 26-30 or so before I come back to move in to my new place in Boston and start work. Just in time for the Sox in the playoffs.

Q. What does the name of your blog mean?

A. Watch Flight of the Conchords on HBO. Or don't. I guess I won't be watching for a while, so don't spoil any of the jokes for me.

So I will update as soon as I can and as often as possible from Kenya, but until then, tutaonana (see you later).