The Frampton's in Kenya - Dzendereni Crossfit School Project

Dallin Frampton and his father, Jason, spent a week in Kenya in December 2011.  Dallin had previously lived in Kenya for several months while building a school in the village of Dzivani.  This time, the school was built in the village of Dzendereni, and built with funds donated by Crossfit.  This is a journal of Dallin's experiences in December.

Jason and Dallin in front of Crossfit School in Dzendereni, Kenya

After a long flight and 32 hours after leaving Utah, my dad and I finally got into Mombasa late Thursday night, December 1st.  Only he and I went on this trip, which lasted just over a week, in order to finish up the Dzendereni Crossfit school project and hand it over to the village.

The new, unpainted Crossfit School in Dzendereni

Dallin mixing paint for classroom walls

Jason painting the interior of the school

We spent all day Friday, December 2nd in the town of Mombasa purchasing everything from food, paint for the school project and supplies we were going to need for building the 20 desks we were making for the school.  After Mombasa wiped us out and we got into the village later that night, the excitement and suspense of getting out to the school that next morning began to set in.  The plan was to head out to Dzendereni early and start painting everything we could with the soft white base color we had, and then kind of play it by ear from there.  They welcomed us that Saturday morning just like any other Koins village would, with all the board members and school children waiting for us to arrive and the opportunity to get down and dirty with us on their newest building.  I don’t think my dad knew what he was getting himself into as all the board members rushed to his side to meet him, and it was pretty funny watching him shake his head uncomprehendingly as they would smile and greet him in Duruma.  All day was spent in that beautiful village with the work crew getting as much painting done as we could. Unfortunately, we ran out with only a few more gables to finish up.  Anthony was heading into town the following morning, so he picked us up a couple more gallons and we were going to finish up the base coat of white and start the brown skirting the following Monday. 

Water available to villagers, a result of Kevin's Creek Dam project

Kevin's Creek Dam

Women waiting at clinic, recipients of new baby blaknets

Jason giving a new dress to a Kenyan girl

    Sunday was more of a mellow day for us as we started out by taking a walk down to the newly constructed dam to take some pictures and check it out.  We also had a lot of baby blankets and dresses we had been given to give out, so we found new owners for those over the course of our stay in Mnyenzeni.  After a cool little church service we had in the KCC, we headed out to my second home in the village of Dzivani where I was lucky enough to live for 5 months during the months of March-August 2010.  I was blown away by the way in which these teachers took my advice to heart when I left them over a year ago to head back to the states.  I told them that when I returned to the village, I wanted to see as many trees as they could plant on the school property, and they weren’t messing when they took that project on.  The school grounds of Dzivani use to be dry and desolate, and now it looks like there could be monkeys swinging from the trees in the year-old forest that is now on the grounds.

New trees in front of Austin Frampton School in Dzivani

Villagers with Jason and Dallin in front of Dzivani school

Dallin addressing villagers in Dzivani classroom

Giving pencils to school children at Dzivani

Dallin in front of the hut he lived in while building the Austin Frampton school

Dallin with the Dzivani soccer team

It was amazing, and almost surreal as I walked into the Austin Frampton school after a year and a half away from there, thinking about all the long days I was able to work with the crew on that building.  We walked around for a little while and checked out old and new sites, then the soccer team played a game for us out in the Dzivani field which was really fun to watch since we had brand new team uniforms donated to them during the summer expedition of 2010.  We didn’t get back to Koins until late that night because it was so hard to leave the village that I had grown to love so much.

Dallin in the Koins workshop, cutting wood for desks

Dallin assembling desk parts

Finished desks ready to take to Dzendereni

Jason painting the Crossfit school at Dzendereni

Dallin and crew painting the exterior of the Crossfit school

Final touches on the Crossfit school

    Monday was when we really had to get after it.  The guys from Crossfit HQ were coming out to Dzendereni for the handing over ceremony on Wednesday, so we had to make sure all the painting of the school was for sure finished, but we also had desks to build to fill up the classrooms.  We headed out early Monday morning to paint the dominant Crossfit brown color on the school for the skirting inside the classroom and more of an outline color on the outside.  All the school board members and even the head teacher all helped us paint, so we were covering a lot of ground fairly quickly.  We only finished the two classroom skirts that morning, and still had to do all the outside painting and the Head Teacher’s office the next day.  We then headed back to Koins around lunch time so we could start knocking out some desks.  The wood that comes in from Mombasa is in bad shape, so we first have to spend a while planing it just so we can get it down so it is smooth enough to measure into all the different sections we need for the desks.  So we had a total of four guys working on these things including me, my dad, Mwanzara and John.  Luckily they already had a bunch made, so it wasn’t quite as stressful as the thought of trying to finish up 20 desks in one afternoon.  My little brother’s school also did a little fundraiser before we left for this trip and were able to provide an additional 3 desks to the mix and so we were able to paint “Rosecrest” on the front of a few of them.  We finished all the desks just before sunset and we were able to crash after another tasty meal provided by my second mother, Mama Emily.

Dallin paints Rosecrest on desks for Dzendereni

Finished desks ready to go to Dzendereni

A fine Kenyan meal of ugali and chicken

    Tuesday called for some serious African improv, which I tend to be pretty good at after living among the great people of Kenya for 5 months.  We were running seriously short on our brown paint, and we still had a bunch of painting to do on the outside.  We did, however, have plenty of turpentine and that mixes very nicely with oil based paint.  So we ‘watered’ it down to perfection and it still looked awesome and we ended up on having plenty of paint to finish up the Crossfit School.  Then we talked a little bit with the school board and chairman about how the handing over ceremony would happen in the morning.  After we left Dzendereni, Anthony, my dad and I all cruised into Mombasa to meet up with the Crossfit guys and give them a bit of a run down on how things would go the next day.  They were staying at the White Sands hotel, so they were very comfortable compared to us out in the village.  When we met up with these guys, it was just Sevan who is the media guy/film maker for Crossfit, and then Greg was there as well, who is the founder and CEO of Crossfit.  We had a lengthy conversation about what Koins was all about, our service area and everything Koins has accomplished in the last ten years or so.  They were still waiting for one of their team to arrive the next morning, so they would meet us in the village the following day and then we would cruise out to Dzendereni together.

Crossfit group touring Koins/SRA garden

Crossfit group in Mnyenzeni

Greg planting a tree outside Crossfit Dzendereni school

Finished Crossfit school

Opening celebration for Crossfit Dzendereni school

When they arrived at Mnyenzeni, we continued to take them around to all of our sites, the workshop, the new garden and of course the KCC.  I was fortunate enough to ride out in Greg’s car to the village, so we were talking about everything from Crossfitting, to why the people in Kenya do the different things that they do.  The handing over ceremony was one of the best and one of the shortest I have ever been to.  When we arrived, the school board took Greg and the crew down to the old school so they could see everything that they had been working with, and then they were escorted up to the new school building and the difference between these two structures is night and day.  The children actually have a concrete floor and a tin roof over their head rather than dirt floors and mud walls.  Greg and his team were all given Duruma names along with other gifts like canes, kikois and kanga cloths.  After only a few people talked and Greg said a few words, the school was officially opened and then we took a walk into the actual village of Dzendereni.  Greg was able to shepherd a few goats and Lisa was able to mill a little bit of maize in the way in which the ladies of Kenya do everyday.  We were leaving for back home the following morning, so we got back to the KCC that evening, began packing, and looked back on a trip that was definitely worth every minute. 

Dallin Frampton

Dzendereni Classroom Before

 

 

 

Dzendereni Crossfit Classroom after

Asante Sana, Crossfit, for your generous contribution to the village of Dzendereni.  You have built classrooms that will benefit generations of village children for the good. 

IVL

Utah College Student To Build Second Africa School

Utah College Student To Build Second Africa School

(click on link to see KUTV news video)

Dallin Frampton may be nearly old enough to order a beer---not that he would necessarily---but the young Utah college student with the teen idol looks is planning to build his second school in Africa.

Over the weekend, Frampton set the stage for a fundraiser to help make the school become a reality. Then he took the stage with his band, the "Down Harmonies," and played for donations.

It was a concert outside his family's home in Holladay for friends, neighbors, and anyone with a soft heart for impoverished kids a half a world away.

"I'm actually going back to Africa on September 12th," said Dallin, who made his first journey to Kenya nearly 18 months ago. He traveled with the group Koins for Kenya, and in a small village with hardly any of the comforts of home, erected a cinderblock school. Dallin raised money for the building---up to $10,000---partly by an earlier cul-de-sac concert which drew a crowd and the police.

This time, the music ended at 10 pm, but the quest for helping craft better lives for African children plays on.

"I get a good feeling from helping people who have nothing, and just trying to do my part, in helping out the world I guess," said Dallin, who has not done it alone.

Koins for Kenya was started by Utah's Bret Van Leeuwen, and according to its website, became a private, non-profit organization five years ago. The group said it has built 20 schools, constructed water wells, and organized libraries in Africa. "We have no overhead, no paid staff, and no administrative staff that come from the foundation," said the Koins' site.

"We're seeing hundreds of children now getting their education," Van Leeuwen told 2News. "We have 19 people at universities, and those people will continue to uplift the community."

Dallin's efforts are also aided on the home front. Noted Utah vocalist, songwriter and musician Tessa Barton, and others, performed at the latest concert.

(Copyright 2011 - Four Points Media)

Dallin Frampton's Kenyan Experience

Dallin with his sisters and Anthony Yama at the school he built in Dzivani, Kenya

Dallin Frampton returned in August from a 5 month stay in the Koins village area of Kenya.  Dallin had a desire to do something good in a part of the world that really needed help.  After a meeting with Bret Van Leeuwen, the founder of Koins for Kenya, in September 2009, he began raising funds to build a school in the village of Dzivani.  He did concerts, made t-shirts, solicited funds from friends, neighbors and family, and departed in March of 2010 with a small group of Koins expeditioners.  The work on the school in Dzivani and the mud hut in the village of Dzivani which would become his new home in Kenya was begun during that March trip, and he continued that work once the rest of the expedition departed.

Dallin responded to a questionnaire I sent him, giving a little more detail about his stay in Kenya.

Name:  Dallin Frampton   

Age:  20 years old

Hometown:  Holladay, UT

Work Experience:  I did construction all through high school, it definitely helped me when I got to Kenya so I at least had a bit of a base to work off of when we really got to work on the school in Dzivani

Duration of Stay:  5 months

How did you learn about Koins for Kenya?  I learned about Koins through this girl that went to East High named Tara Tolbert, she is awesome and she is really the reason why I got hooked up with Bret and Koins in the first place

What were your primary responsibilities as a volunteer?  I built a school in the village of Dzivani primarily, and then went from there to building a kitchen and repairing the water cistern at the Koins Community Center, as well as building two more primary schools at Mwache and Miguneni,

What did you learn about Koins for Kenya while in Kenya?  Koins has given countless numbers of Kenyans, ranging from all ages, hope and opportunities in their lives to excel where as before, they would have fallen victim to the blockade of poverty and lack of resources which would in the end, halt them from succeeding in life whatsoever.  Koins has also given jobs to about ten individuals, all of which are some of my best friends in the world, and Koins has helped to establish a few micro-businesses that charge cell phones and car batteries for people to run radios or other simple electronics off of. 

What surprised you the most about volunteering for Koins?  I was mostly surprised about the unreal amounts of joy I felt while living over in Kenya.  I had nothing, I lived as a native in Dzivani and I had the time of my life.  Volunteering with Koins for the 5 months I was there helped me to gain some of the best friendships I have ever had in my life and it instilled an undying love in my soul for the people in Duruma land.  Just to see the joy on children's faces after completing a project in the Koins area basically brought me to tears every time and I had never felt like that before I left to go live there.

What surprised you most about living in Kenya?  I was expecting to live as a native, but it is definitely a night and day difference between just saying it, and actually living it.  It blew me away how easy we have it in the USA and how we take every little thing for granted, it really is mind blowing.  I lived in a mud hut and it was the best time of my life, having no plumbing of any kind, dirt floors and a gas stove to cook all my food.  The joy that living in Kenya brought me is unmeasurable, being able to live as a Kenyan, with Kenyans and having them accept me as an actual Duruma, not an American was amazing.  I didn't hear my name 'Dallin' for 5 months, everybody called me 'Ruwa', the name they gave me when I first got to Kenya and it was so much fun being able to be accepted into the village as one of them and being able to work alongside these people day after day

What do you plan to do upon your return to the USA?  I am at school right now up at the U of U, just trying to get my generals out of the way and I am planning on going to medical school to hopefully become a surgeon or something along those lines.  I am also working part time doing construction and landscaping with my neighbor.

Any piece of advice for future volunteers?  I would say to anybody planning on going to just dive in and work harder than you ever have, it will be rewarding in so many ways and make as many friends as you can, Kenyans are amazing people and they will teach you much more about hard work and happiness more than you could ever teach them.  Also, don't go swimming in rivers.  My legs are covered in parasites and crap cause I kind of have a problem listening to rules, but I am proof that you will be miserable if you do. 

What has been your favorite part of volunteering in Kenya?  My favorite part of the trip was of course being able to construct so many different projects from the ground breaking all the way up until we are putting the roof on and making final touches, but I also kind of fell into a weird situation where I got stuck with a pet monkey which ended up to be one of the funner parts of my stay in Kenya.  He was pretty much my side kick and we got a lot of work done together, him mostly just hanging on my head all day while I was plastering walls or something.  I miss that little man bad, but he is good hands with our girl Kendy who is teaching school down there right now. 


THE FUN STUFF:

Favorite movie:  The Town

Favorite book:  Born to Run

What was your favorite musical group when you were in junior high?  Less Than Jake

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?  Kenya!  best place in the world, I want to live there so bad

Who is the person you respect the most and why?  Probably Jimi Hendrix, I love music and it took him a long time to reach the top and he owned it once he got there

What do you think is the secret to a good life?  service and selflessness is definitely what I think is how we can be happy.  Plus in my opinion, the less we have the happier we are, so as long as we don't get caught up in what this crazy world tells us we need, we will love our lives

Dallin's Kenyan home, a mud hut he helped build