letters from Dall

whats happenin friends! yes it is true, the dreads are gone..... i woke up this morning and felt like true hell so i said “who here knows how to cut hair?” and I had a couple volunteers and they got busy. I almost started to cry but it feels sooooo much better already. I barely ever sweat now compared to being the dirtiest kid ever when i had them. I honestly found some of the dirtiest critters in there it made me sick. but anyways where do i even start for today.. it has been so freakin sweet! it is good to hear from you all, the st george trip and dad coming home too early to take out the trash on saturday night with mccall haha thats priceless. good luck getting your phone back mccall what is this like the 87th time its been taken away? its all good i guess. so today we had a swahili lesson and i think I am really starting to understand all the greetings. I can now talk to all the kids and i think they are starting to be able to understand what i am saying. the only problem is that right when they respond i don’t know what to say after that so i just smile and walk away haha. its too bad they don’t understand english cause they are all so happy and dope. we met in the Mnyenzeni school that koins built a couple years ago and it is sooo much nicer than the one they had before. they still use both the school that the village built a while ago along with the one koins built and there is a huge difference since they build all of their buildings out of mud and sticks. then we went into the actual village of Dzivani and i was so freakin stoked! me and bret rode in on motorcycles and it seems like it has been forever since I have been on one of those since we just rip the mountain bikes now ad ays. but it was fun, it is exactly 18 kilometers away from Mnyenzeni and it is sooo amazing there. it is all hilly and the houses there are so freakin sweet even tho they are just made out of mud and whatever crap they can find. the actual village is so sick too, they have a huge field out in front of the secondary school that the kids play soccer on and the school is kind of up on this hill. The way we are going to build the school there today anthony explained it to me, we are just adding on the primary school that the government already built there. When Bret met with me and dad way back in september he didn’t think the government was going to build anything for them because they are jackasses but then they ended up building a secondary and a little primary school so what we are going to do is build onto the primary school that they built but it is way crappy so it is going to be sick! we will build another wing onto the primary school and it will be a two room kinda thing and a total of 60 feet addition. we then cruised down and checked out my house, it was the craziest thing! they have all the skeleton of it built but we just need to finished doing the horizontal supports of it and then start mudding it and then do the roof with tin sheets. It is soooo sick! can’t wait for you guys to do get over here. It is a two bedroom kinda thing with a bit of a hall way down the middle of the two. crazy huh! i am living straight luxury in this village haha and all the primary kids are scared of me because of how remote their village is. But I have the best view of Mombasa and the Indian ocean just right out in front of my front door. crazy but i am way stoked to move in. They also had me start learning how to put up the horizontal supports along all the walls and all the local dudes were just making fun of me in swahili it was awesome haha. The chief then told me that when every man turns 16 in the Kenya, he moves out of his parents house and he goes to build his own house for himself. so if mccall was a dude she would be living on her own right now how insane is that! and they are just expecting to know how to build it and you would be surprised how technical and completely flawless they can make their houses with basically a machete and sticks, it is ridiculous how good these guys are and how big of a rook I am. Then we just kinda got use to the village a little bit and we cruised back to Mnyenzeni and me and some dudes went into the workshop and started building some desks for the Vikolani school. We only got one built in like an hour and all the local dudes were just making fun of how stupid we were. they bust out like 50 a day and we got one done in a good hour, such rooks we are. Then anthony came over and got all pissed at us for how slow we were at building and said we have to build at least twenty on thursday. who knows if we can do it, probably not but we will see ha it is hard work. i am getting more than a cross fit work out every freakin day i live here its dope. I do miss cross fit so bad tho! all we eat here is Ugali which is just maize flour turned into a play dough kinda thing but it is way good and Chapati which is like a tortilla and maybe some fruit if we get lucky. I have no energy! I need meat and veggies or i am gonna die I swear. I am coming home weighing in at a good 140 i bet. We heard a cool story last night, the way the school system works here is that you are ranked in your class depending on how your grades are. So finals are going on right now and this kid was ranked number two in his class and he was going to take the ACT to qualify for Kenyata which is the university here, but he didn’t have the money to take the test. It is 35 bones to take it here and he is an orphan. So we found out who his sponsor was from the US and it turns out it was this girl who we are with it was her neighbor, so she went ahead and paid for his test and everyone starting crying including him cause of how grateful he was. They take school sooooo so so much more seriously then we do in the states, it is their life it is outta control! I would be the biggest bum here right now if I went to school here. To even be in the runnings to be considered for Kenyata, they have to have a 33 on their ACT......YEAHHHHH RIGHT! They are so much smarter than we are it is crazy. So Mccall you gotta schoot for that next time you take it.....siiiiiike! Oh yeah and i forgot to tell you, showering here is so dope. they just give you a bucket of water and you got into the kcc shower stall and just dump it on yourself and wash up and then rinse off. It is especially nice with this short hair I’m rocking now cause it washes so freakin good! But it is good here, the nights are amazing, the scenery is not even real i swear and i can’t wait for you guys to get here! i already have a thousand videos and pictures i need to show you but the internet here is the biggest joke so i can only send you a couple today. but i have so much footage it is ridiculous! hopefully dad you get this at the office and can read it to danny and those guys or something. Tell our cross fit posse that they inspire me to kick ass here every day and I miss all of them! keep it real mom, lacee, mccall and whoever else i send this e mail too i can’t even remember haha. can someone please get a hold of jess and tell her to e mail me!!!!!! i miss her so bad i honestly am in love and i sound like the biggest homo saying that but its true. anyway, stay in school mccall, these kids would kill to have the opportunity you have. sounds gay and i never thought I would say it, but take it seriously! don’t be a dumb shit like I was, pardon my language mother but its true. I sluffed and did gay crap sooo so so much and got away with it but you have to do good. check mobile me too i think i did some crap to it. any ways, enjoy this picture of my house and whoever wants me to e mail them just hit me with their e mail and i will see what i can do...... until next time.

Letters from Dall

Leters from Dall

Whats up friends! so today was the dopest day ever.. we woke up and cruised into Changamwe to go to church and it was crazy. there were a good twenty people there but it was pretty cool cause they all spoke english. It is weird too cause the ward was right in the middle of the grossest and dirtiest part of town and especially the sketchiest. But they love white people every where we go, especially in the church. It looked like we were going to get raped cause it was down this back alley and then you look up and it says in written letters “church of jesus christ of latter day saints” it was pretty dope tho and then we went into this place called the Akamba Carvers and they are a tribe that make their living off of nothing but wood carvings. you know that carving in aunt roses house of that giraffe? yeah they carve animals of all kinds like that and they use nothing but a hand saw lookin thing and files. we got to see the guys actually making everything and it is crazy how skilled they are. the crazy thing is is that they all live in little grass huts with barely any clothes on but they whip out tons of these animals all freakin day and they are honestly the sickest things I have ever seen. One guy was making walking sticks that truly almost had me reaching in my wallet and grab a twenty to give to him but i didn’t have my money so i couldn’t buy anything i was pissed! but then we finally drove into the village of Mnyenzeni today and it is the craziest thing between the town and the village out here. Right when we rolled in, there was this welcoming committee of little kids that sang and danced for us it was so funny, I filmed all of it and I will send it to ya when i actually have this internet thing figured out. They honestly sang and danced for us for a good hour and then we got a tour of everything going on here in the village. Since Koins came along, they have given this village a girls high school, the KCC, a wood shop, a tractor and a bunch of dorm rooms for the girls to live while they are going to school. Tell MCcall that she has no idea how good she lives, here in Kenya they have to wake up at 5 in the morning to start class and they have 10 periods a day and they don’t get out of class until 10:30 and that doesn’t count homework or anything, that is when they get out of CLASS! yeah, kill me just thinkin about that. they also have to live at the school because some of them come from like 40 miles away to come to school. I got tons of pictures and videos i will send so you can actually kinda have a good idea of where I am at. Mom would honestly be the biggest wreck if she was here, there have been some moments when I just have to close my eyes and act like I didn’t just see what happened and walk away. It has been crazy, but I have been here two days and i freakin love this place. the sky here is soooo bright, if you think lake powell stars are cool, they got nothing on Mnyenzeni stars. but any way, thats all i got for tonight, we are about to hit the sack and tomorrow we actually start working with all the people tomorrow so until next time, laterrrrrrrrr

Dallin

Letters from Dall

Whats up fam! So this is by far the craziest place i have ever seen, by far crazier than anything i expected. We got in last night around midnight, about 2 in the after noon your time and then we basically got here and just crashed in the hotel. With a combined 22 hours of flying time, 26 hours including layovers and what not, it feels like the biggest blur two days of my life. salt lake to portland was just a crap flight but then i threw down an ambien on the way to amsterdam and it felt like that flight was a good 20 seconds, that thing knocked me out before the plane even got off the ground and i woke up with a pool of drool dripping everywhere on the tray table and the captain saying we were about to land. Amsterdam is a tight place, it looked really green and cool from the air. We had a 2 hour layover, so we cruised to the casino because the legal gambling age there is only 18 haha. it was sooo much fun, if I could gamble in the US I would have no money, it is so addicting. I first hit up the blackjack table and tripled my money like a bad A but then the dealer kicked me right in the sack when he got black jack two times in a row. then we cruised over to the roulette table and that is by far funner than any slots or anything in that casino. I just bet red or black every time and I won a bunch there, but once again i lost everything haha. I ended up walking away with a new addiction and 25 bones less than i started with. but any way, Kenya is the craziest place! we had to roll into town today to buy a bunch of groceries for what we are going to eat all week. I honestly can’t even describe the city and the way of life down here, it is a whole different world. There are monkeys everywhere that try and steal your stuff and i almost had one run away with my camera. They are annoying little buggers and they think they are so tough when you get close to try and take a picture, its funny they run at you all fast and if you just don’t move they hurry and turn back and get all scared. The city of Mombasa looks like Tijiuana on Steroids pretty much. People selling everything, including THE HERB, Cocaine and all other sorts of weeds that can widdle your teeth down to nothing just to get a buzz. Everyone drives on the different side of the street than in the US and the cars all have the steering wheel on the other side of the dash. We saw kids basically naked just running around everywhere saying “Baba Baba!” to all the white dudes which means father and holding out there hand for money. Mom would honestly shiz her self if she were here, so make sure she doesn’t come in August haha. I am kinda scared to even send some of the pictures I took today because you guys might freak. Oh yeah and if you think you have felt heat, think again. Today it was 87 degrees with 85 percent humidity. I haven’t stopped sweating this whole day haha my shirt is just soaked with sweat and its not just me either, everyone just gets soaked and its all cool. I wish I could tell you more about today cause my eyes were opened so freakin much and its just the first day! but we are about to go eat dinner so I will hit you up in a couple days or something when we get into the village. Keep it real and keep doing what you all do and remember Kenya in your prayers.. this place needs it more than you know.

Dallin

Change

i dont really like change. i used to like change. i used to love being away from my family. i loved living in provo and going to italy and being on my own. about a year ago my life changed and ever since then i hate change. i like a routine. i like waking up, going to work, coming home to dallin all all his loud friends. i have noticed with the children at my preschool that even they dont like change. i like knowing that everyone i need is in the same house as me. now it has changed. dallin left today for africa. i am really sad. dallin is my best friend. he is always there for me. the house was always filled with his music and his laughter. now it has changed. dallin will have so much fun in africa. i am jealous that he gets to do that.

i love you dall. see you in august.

xoxo,

lace dawg

me and dallin at the airport saying our goodbyes

me and austin waiting for dallin to get his bags all checked in

me and austin were sad

dallin's going away dinner

we are goofs

me and dallin spent one year going to high school together. i loved it!

me and dallin were in the same ward. this is a ward activity. there was a game on my phone that me and dallin tried each sacrament meeting to beat. (dont judge. i know you play games during sacrament meeting also) i was sitting on the stand one sunday and i look and dallin is mouthing to me i beat it! i beat it! we were so excited!

me and dallin lived in provo together. this is our halloween costumes

my apartment in provo

i love going to lake powell with dallin. we will have a trip planned when he gets home.

fridays were my favorite day of the week. dall didnt have work and i didnt have to go to work until noon so it would go something like this:

dall would come down to my room kinda early (8 am!) and rip me outta bed and

we would go here:

and eat waffles and fries. yum! we would be half asleep but we would chat and catch up on how our week has been. my mom would get mad that we would spend money eating out for breakfast each week but it was mine and dalls thing. we would get the same thing each week.

then we would come home and watch the night befores episode of this:

we would sit and laugh and laugh. anyone want to carry on this tradition with me?

i'm taking applications!

i love you dall!

Dallin on the news

Young Utah Man Africa Bound | Utah News, KUTV, 2News, Utah Community

Dallin is going to Kenya on Thursday. Here is the story that the news did on him.

Laura and Sean's wedding

My good friend Laura got married last night to Sean. I am so happy for her. Jane and Brian came in for the day and it was fun to see them.

Congrats Laura! I love you.

xoxo,

Lacee Rae

Jazzy

On Saturday my sorority went to the Jazz game.

I took Conor and Felicia took Tilf. I had so much fun. Look how cute Conor is!

Tilf got us into the 100 club. Thanks Tilf!

Work

Work was so bad last week. Our classroom was crazy!! We had two twins in our class that were sick and their parents wouldnt keep them home. They got everyone else sick. It is really hard to have 8 kids in your class that are all sick. They were screaming and wanting to be held. It was a mess. Me and the other teachers in my class were going crazy!

IF YOUR KIDS ARE SICK

DON'T BRING THEM TO MY CLASS!!!

Conor

this is conor. i like him.

The Bachelor

I don't really wanna talk about it but I feel like I need to post about it. I am very sad that he chose her. Yuckkkyy!!!! However, I am excited about Ali.