Steven W. Shea: Man of the People/ Social Work Extraordinaire/ One Hell of a Model American

So I found out in late March that my buddy Steve Shea was coming to town for the whole month of June. He sent me an email first telling me that he reads my blog, and that it's the greatest website in the history of man. Nothing new, I get emails like that on the daily. But then he informed me that he was coming to Africa and wasn't leaving until we met up. Needless to say, I was pretty excited. It's been a while since I have seen someone I knew, especially someone as classy as Steven W. Shea.

I have known Steve for a couple of years now. He went to Fairfield University with my old friend, St. Denis Bulldawg football deity Adam Hepp. Steve is also an Avalon regular, hanging out with some of society's finest: John Paul "Boards" DiJulia, B. Mallon, Pat "the mayor" Nowlan, Hammy, and Matt "Nelson Mandela" Mullin. He even used to work at PJ Ryan's with all-star bartender Drew Zuccarini. He also knows Brian Kane, but they aren't really friends, mostly because Kane doesn't have any friends. (I am finished with the shameless shout-outs)

Steve is now taking classes atUPenn, where he is studying to receive degrees in both social work and non-profit leadership. He came to Kenya with a program that was funded and supervised by professors from the University of North Carolina. There were about 25 people in the group, most of whom either had social work backgrounds, or were in the middle of their studies. The purpose of the trip was to see how social work is applied somewhere outside the United States. The group got to experience what life is like for millions of Kenyans who live in inhumane conditions. They visited NGO's and non-profits that aimed to help street kids, slum dwellers, people suffering with HIV/AIDS, and those living in abstract poverty.

Along with the great work they saw being done, the group also took a trip to the coast for two days to see the Indian Ocean, and went on safari for a whole weekend. Steve's days were busy until about 7:30 pm every night, so I would usually meet up with him and a couple of kids from his group afterwards to hang out. And on Steve's free days, we did our best to see as much of Nairobi as we possibly could. We went to the Massai Market to get harrased by street vendors, and went to the elephant orphanage and the giraffe sanctuary. I let him sit in on one of my first classes as a teacher, and he let me crash on the floor of his room at the Hilton (fair trade). We even went out to a few clubs for cocktails and danced like only us unhip, uncool white boys can (to the horror of every Kenyan present).

After Steve's trip ended on the last week of June, he hopped on a bus and took a 13-hour ride to Kumpala, the capital city of Uganda, our neighbor to the west. He met up with another Fairfield alumnus named Tim Savage, who is volunteering with the Peace Corps. I actually met Tim at Hepp's graduation party, and we had a good conversation discussing our plans for the mother land. And then later that night, we were hanging out in the backyard, Mike Mailey fell out of a folding chair, which was probably the highlight of my summer.

So the last part of that paragraph was a little off the subject, but seeing a 230 pound beast fall backwards out of a chair is just too good not to mention.

Moving along. So when I labeled Steve as a social work extraordinaire, I wasn't exaggerating. For a term project at school, Steve helped set up the Kids' Zone Mentorship Program, which was designed to give tutoring, counseling, and mentoring to underprivelidged youth growing up in Germantown, Mt. Airy, West Oak Lane, and other poverty-stricken/violence-ridden areas of Philly. A couple of days after Steve gets back to the States, he is moving to NYC to intern for the Arthur Ashe Foundation. In addition, Steve is also an mentor/sponsor at the Gesu School in north Philly, which sits right next to my old high school, St. Joe's Prep. Small world. Gesu is the first school I ever tutored at.

The Man of the People in deep thought. Here he is trying to comprehend just how good a football player Adam Hepp was in grade school

Steve Shea and Ryan Keller: arguably the most dominant tandem of all time

Here are pictures from the David Sheldrick elephant orphanage. The David Sheldrick Wildlfe Trust is an NGO that rescues baby elephants whose parents have been killed either by poachers or disease. The site is open to visitors from 11 am- noon everyday, for feeding time.

The stampede

That bottle was done in about ten seconds


Later enormous tree branch

I tried to think of something interesting to write about this pic. I couldn't think of anything. This is me touching an elephant's butt.

After visiting the orphanage, I came to the conclusion that no matter what species of life you belong to, if you live in Kenya, you play soccer.



Here are some pics from the Nairobi Giraffe Center:



Unreal




This giraffe is actually 27,000 ft tall



Ridiculous



My look of shock comes from both the size of the giraffe's head and the fact that I was about to feed a giraffe. I was scared it was going to eat my arm






Giraffe tongues are black, slimy, and smelly. But you'd be suprised how good they taste (see below).





Shea getting taunted by a mammoth beast



The kiss of death.
It's funny to think that this guy's profession involves showing visitors how to properly feed giraffes from their mouths. He must get tongued by a giraffe at least 25 times a day.Talk about working hard for the money.




Goin in for the kill





glorious



This is me trying to pretend I didn't love it






This is me showing Shea the ancient Kenyan ritual of drinking beer. Actually that's a lie. That's me trying to get the taste of giraffe tongue out of my mouth

Two happy nerds (side note: Shea grew that beard in 8 hours)

So June turned out to be easily the best month in Kenya so far. Steve got to go on Safari, ride the rapids down the Nile River, and got to see both the Indian Ocean and Uganda, our neighbor to the west. I got to see the first familiar face in 6 months, and Steve got to experience the craziness that is life in Nairobi, Kenya. Cheers Stevey boy, come back soon. And tell Sherwood I said hello.