Some of you may have already seen this, but I wanted to share this with everyone as it is pretty remarkable.

About a month ago, a professor from the University of Denver contacted me about KGSA and wondered what he could do to help. He is a big soccer fan and saw our website and was very impressed. He was coming to Kenya with several graduate students and was hoping to get a tour of Kibera and the school. We met and showed them around and both Teka and I talked with them about the school and how they could support KGSA from the US. Just a few days ago I received this email below and was brought to tears. I guess you can never really count youth out of anything, no matter how young they are! Here are two students that come from two countries that are experiencing some of the most serious human rights violations and they are taking time to focus on what we are doing here in Kibera... unbelievable.

On a side note, many of you have been asking to see photos from Cairo and an update on Egypt. It will be included after the email below...





Dear Abdul and Ryan,
We are Isha and Atung from the Westwood Bridge Project in Denver, Colorado, in the United States. We are writing you with the assistance of our group leader, Kelsey Hopson, who is an intern and a student affiliated with Phil Tedeschi at the University of Denver.

I, Atung immigrated from Sudan when I was four. I am eleven years old now and I am in the 6th grade. I, Isha, am from Somalia, but I was born in Kenya. I moved to the United States when I was nine years old. I am fourteen years old now and I am in the seventh grade. I am going to skip grades right to college- I hope (joke...don't forget to laugh). I, Isha have a single mom and I have four brothers here and I have three sisters in Kenya. My dad lives in New York. I have an older brother (he's annoying and bossy) and I am the only girl in my family in the United States. I, Atung, have a mom and a dad, two brothers, and one sister. I am the oldest in my family. Mubarak is the second oldest, Ticjok is the third oldest, Phoug is the youngest.

We are writing because we want to help you guys with your life and your school. We are going to raise some money for you in our Roots and Shoots group for school and soccer supplies. We are going to try our best to make as much as we can. Even though we are young, we hope we can be a lot of help because we got a lot of energy and we're always there for people when they need help. We are really proud of your school and your soccer team for not giving up even though you can't make your own choices in Kibera always.

We hope to hear from you soon!

Isha and Atung- The Roots and Shoots Girls




Cairo Update:

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Cairo, Egypt to visit my dad for my 25th birthday and it was absolutely fantastic and was so great to see the pops. Did anyone know that Cairo had 18 million people in the city??? Way too many people, way to little of a city to hold them, way too many cars, way too little roads. You’d think that with this many people and cars you really wouldn’t have to worry about crazy cab drivers because there would be no space. Ahh, but that’s where you would be wrong. Getting into a cab here is worse than airplane turbulence, rollercoaster’s, and bumper-car’s all put together. Basically what I’m saying is Grandma stay put; don’t even think of traveling here.

We did the obvious sight seeing of the Great Pyramids and those are simply incredible. Really does take your breathe away as you stand at the base of one of them. I never have been a big conspiracy theorist but the one about the aliens building the pyramids started to make a bit more sense this last week. No joke…

We took a boat, or feluka, on the Nile at sunset, we visited the famous market and bargained for hours, ate the most deliciously seasoned grilled chicken that both my dad and I will say was the best we’ve ever had, toured a beautiful mosque, and drank average bottles of red wine… while overlooking the Nile River, and smoked huca… that’s right, smoked huca with my father! All n’ all it was a great birthday celebration but it really nice to be back in Nairobi and working again. I’ll send more on what’s happening at KGSA soon as there is a lot going on as usual. African Cup is tomorrow night so Abdul and I are making plans! Look out Egypt, cause Ghana’s gonna rock your world!

Much love,

-Ryan