The Best Tickets Ever
Carr Educational Foundation’s director Mark Lukach told me last month about an interesting current that is running itself through the WorldWideWeb: the “6 word autobiography.” It’s not as easy as it sounds. How would you crush your entire life into six words? Moments ago I asked my father, who is visiting campus for the first time, that same question. Mind you, little thought and less reflection went into his answer. At the same time, at 71 I hope to God I can say the same.
“I would not change a day” – Jack Doherty
As I have been typing up the following installment of the Daraja Academy blog, the question has returned to me several times – how would I explain my life? The way I viewed my relationship to the world and my place in it, in only six words?
Though not my six-word autobiography, I am going to preface what is left of this blog, with a realization that has been surging through me in larger and larger swells of emotion…
I honestly believe that I would rather be dead, than live my life minus the feeling of gratitude.
Mind you, I miss my wife, friends and family. There are tastes, smells and things I often took for granted while back home in California that I deeply wish I had here in Kenya. Even so, the following phrase continues to circulate through my mind, often on a daily basis, “how did I get so lucky for this to be my life?”
How is it that I sit here, looking down on this slice of God’s pocket that is the Daraja Academy’s campus? Right here… right now?
It is Sunday morning and my father and I are sitting on the deck of my home, which overlooks campus. The emotion in my heart and pride in my soul cannot be described in words that human beings have created or in punched out letters on a keyboard. Their width and breath far surpass anything I could explain, but I’ll try.
Having worked so hard to make this campus more than just a thought, but a reality, has left a dry riverbed running through me that is very susceptible to flood. Often without any warning, emotion crashes through without any thought of consultation. If we can raise the money, raise the awareness that will make “YEAR 1” a reality, this world will be right.
This campus is still a shell of what it will eventually be – the students are not here. The soul is not here. Yet, it is still a miracle. The dozen-or-so colors of bougainvilleas spill across the 150 acres as if a giant tripped while carrying an armload of different cans of paint to the Gods. Herds of cows, goats, sheep and smaller animals roam back and forth under the constant symphony of thousands of equatorial song bids. Small antelope (duikers and dik dik), some no larger than rabbits, dash about in groups of twos and threes, nibbling the green shoots of grass that grows beneath the thorn covered acacia trees. There are baboons that sleep in the trees by the river at night, porcupines and tortoises The Daraja Academy campus is here. It waits for the world to take notice and give it life.
On Tuesday I am driving south to a small town called Makindu with Peter Wathitu and my father. We will be visiting an incredible nonprofit that has been operating for 10 years providing care, food and opportunity for a very special group of children. This project in Makindu cares and advocates for orphans of the HIV/AIDs epidemic. As most children born in Africa with the virus die within months, over 90% of these children are healthy but on their own, due to a cruel twist of fate and circumstance. That is, they were on their own, until they came into contact with the Makindu Project.
The group in Makindu takes care of their immediate needs and even helps with secondary school fees for many of the children, but running a school for these children of poverty is not part of their mission. Running a school for children of poverty is Daraja Academy’s mission.
Both Makindu and Daraja believe that a future partnership should exist. Hopefully the fates agree.
I am working, trying to prepare the campus for January, when the students will arrive. This isn’t an info-mercial; this is a school for girls. Girls who dream about a high school education, but at this point lack the means of achieving that dream.
Please ask your friends to read about the Daraja Academy dream and the girls who will have a better life because of it. Today, monetarily we are a small institution, but the result of our efforts is not small. It cannot be measured in increments. It is the light in our future students eyes, it is the way tomorrow is changing for them and the hope that accompanies that change which reverberates through their souls and ours.
Please consider helping us and the dream that will soon belong to the girls of Daraja Academy. We have built this tiny kingdom of hope out of the generous contributions of those people who believe in a greater good. Believe in us. Believe in a greater good.
(Here is my 6 word autobiography:)
“My TICKETS paid for these seats?” – Jason Doherty
Filed under From the Founder, News : Comments (7) : Aug 25th, 2008
August 25th, 2008 at 10:58 AM
As I was reading your post, the one thought that crowded my mind was, You are experiencing such an amazing time in your life because you have EARNED it.
All of the things that you have suffered through in your have delivered this moment to you. But remember that nothing is permanent and attachments can be dangerous.
Enjoy the miracles you have cultivated; you deserve them, but remember that “This too will pass.” Only for life to present you the next stage.
I am trying to get a hold of you or your wife to find out if you will be in Kenya in early December. I want to come visit. It is 99.9% a sure thing. Just give me the word and I will buy my ticket. I can come for a week after December 4th, I was thinking the 5th.
Shoot me an email with details and your phone number too.
August 30th, 2008 at 10:58 PM
my 6 word autobiography : “Why haven’t you tried calling again?”
September 9th, 2008 at 2:03 PM
Hey Mr. Doherty this is Mitul from hogan. we all miss you and your class. thanks for everything. very soon i will make a donation to this program. im just not able to right now because i have to pay for my college, but as soon as i get money i will donate. plz email me and keep me update. i would like your phone number so i can probably call you. let me know when you come back to the united states. all that i would like to say stay cool and safe. and i’ll try to make a donation asap.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:08 PM
Hey…. It’s been a really long time. I miss you and jenni so much! It’s been hell around here but i think about how amazing you guys are for what you are doing and it makes all my problems go away!
I hope to visit you soon.
Love always, Jess
September 24th, 2008 at 12:10 PM
Here are my 6:
Only you can change the world!
707-655-6377 call me some time and let me know how you are!
October 12th, 2008 at 12:41 AM
So many words and thoughts have come to me as I read about The Daraja Academy, and the true partnership that you and Jenni have developed together. How truly amazing to see your dreams become a reality. You must always follow your heart to create and accomplish the greatest good. I hope and pray all the time that my children and my husband will one day have the opportunity to not only know you, but really have the opportunity to have you in their hearts (and visa versa). Your hearts are so large and i am so proud to know you and now see your biggest dreams become reality.
Some day, when I’m awfully low, and the world is cold, I will feel a glow just thinking of you!
November 14th, 2008 at 5:04 PM
Your words bring me to tears when I read them. Not of sadness, but those of joy.
I am very glad that you and Jenni are doing such a selfless thing for these girls. If it were for me; I would be very grateful, and for that I am glad to be able to participate in the Daraja-Academy Club at Hogan again this year.
When I saw you this morning, walking into your old classroom, I teared up. I haven’t seen you since graduation last year, while you were sitting upon that stage with the class of 2008. Me, and many others at Hogan really miss you, but are glad that you are gone for a good cause.
Unfortunately you will not be here for very long, it is great that everyone had a chance to see you.
By the way, I am looking forward to visiting you in Africa, and getting to see the girls. I really want to see their smiling faces once the school opens. You and Jenni are doing a great thing for those girls. Good Luck with year 1.