Failed picture e-mail turned to a what's up e-mail

Hey you!

It's been too long sorry. We are going a million miles an hour still. Rome is fascinating. I am seriously loving it out here. I'm loving everything about Italy. It's been way long since I've sent a picture of Blaire and I. We look quite bummish right now. So here's a picture of just us. No sites or anything right now cause I don't have a close up picture of me and something else. Everything is so grand scale out here. Anyway, let's see if i can figure out how to send a picture....Hang in there. I'll see you all too soon.

Trent

P.S. K the usb drive isn't working on this thing. You'll just have to imagine a very hairy looking trent for now till I find a computer that works. Later gator.

Trip update

Hey everybody. We are now back into traveling mode again. It makes me feel a little selfish. Things are a little more hectic now because we are moving around the world while trying to build an orphanage. It adds to the stress a little. Last time I emailed I only had a couple min and I didn't get all the info out so I want to just give a detailed update on the progress of the orphanage. Last Thursday we left the orphanage to go on a quick safari trip before we left the country. The night before we left, everyone met together and thanked us for the work that we had done. Almost everyone cried. That town was by far the hardest place to leave of our trip. As I said before the work is going slower than I had expected but the budget is the same. Right now the roof should be finished and the center should look a little more like a home. There is still much more to do and a lot of money to be used. Because we previously arranged our tickets we were forced to leave Tanzania before the work was done so we are transferring the money to Hannah (who is the American volunteer at the center) and she will keep detailed records of how each penny is spent. Some people have inquired about the total amount that has been donated so I wanted to let everyone know. As amazing as it sounds the total was $3913. Add that to our donations and the total is $5913. It has turned out to be much more of an experience than we had ever expected and now we here that word of the orphanage reached the first lady of Tanzania and she will be visiting the center in the next couple days. I want to thank everyone for all of your emails, donations and support. I cant wait to see how things turn out.

As for our trip, we had an amazing safari in the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Lake Manyara. We saw much more than we had imagined and we have tons of pictures that could easily make it into National Geographic. The day we left Tanzania the parents of the woman who runs the center butchered a goat for us and made a feast filled with tradition and fun. As we had expected Tanzania was the highlight of our trip. It was a good thing that we had allotted more time in Tanzania than anywhere else. Now we are in Egypt where yesterday was spent riding camels around the pyramids of Giza, visiting the museum in Cairo and we finished with a light show of the pyramids. At ten o'clock we hopped a train to Luxor where we just arrived this morning and will spend the next few days.

If anyone has questions about the orphanage then please write me as I will be writing only simple updates from now on. Thank you all for the help and Happy Thanksgiving!

---Blair

Orphanage update

Dear friends and family,

Forgive me for the absence of e-mails over the last week. I have sent two, but they both came back as failure notices. My fault entirely. I tried to send to too many people and it couldn't handle it. What I said basically was that we were leaving on a 4 day safari and wouldn't have access to internet for about a week. I am back from the safari now. It was incredible! Do not die untill you have gone on a safari in africa!!

Work is going well on the new center. Over the last week, they have gotten the roof and floor installed on the smaller portion of the house, and the walls are in the progress on the larger portion. They should be able to move into the smaller portion in the next 2 or 3 weeks. Johnson, the director, told me that news of this project has been spread to many important figures in this region; including those in government, media, and business positions. This kind of publicity will bring local support for the orphanage, which is essential. How exciting!!

Blair and I have left Dar Es Salaam. As much as I wanted to stay and see this project to the end, the time came, tickets were already bought, and we had to go. Progress on the orphanage will not be slowed at all though. While we are in Egypt, Rome, and Brazil, we will be maintaining communication with the volunteer from Maine that introduced us to the orphanage in the first place. She is a member of the church, a very trustworthy young lady, and she has been with us every second of the way in this project. When more materials are needed, we will wire her the needed money. Again, no cold cash will be given to the orphanage, as we want to make sure every dollar is spent appropriately. Every possible measure has been taken to insure that, even though we will not be here, the project will continue to go smoothly, and no funds will be lost or inappropriately spent.
I want everybody to know how deeply grateful I am for the incredible support we have recieved, in e-mails, donations, and prayers. I never imagined we would recieve the support that has come. I wish you all could see the change that has been made here, not only in buildings and land developement, but also in the lives of the children and the directors of the orphanage. They have a new sense of hope about them that they did not have when we arrived. The directors of the orphanage send you all their deepest appreciation. The night before we left was one of the most moving experiences of my life. They did a little goodbye meeting for Blair and I where they all expressed their feelings. They were all crying. I wasn't even cried for that much when I left the mission! They are truly, truly grateful for what you have all done Thank you so much for how actively involved you have been in creating a miracle out here. It is
an honor to work with you. I will continue to inform you of the progress as I get it. We will see this project through to the end together.

Sincerely,

Trent Frazer

Quickly

Everyone I am so sorry to make this short. Yesterday was spent crying because we had to leave the orphanage. We are doing a safari in northern Tanzania for the next 4 days and we were supposed to leave 20 min ago. The plans are running smoothly and the work is still going. If you still want to make a donation you still can and the money will get to the orphanage through the volunteer from America. I will get all the info to you in more detail when we get back from the safari. Thank you soo much.

---Blair

Orphanage update Nov. 15

Sent on November 15

Dear friends and family,

All is still going well. The main purpose of this e-mail is to inform you that Blair and I will be leaving Dar es Salaam tomorrow, November 16. We will be going on a 5 day safari and then leaving for egypt on the 22 of November. So no updates will be coming for about a week. Progress on the orphanage will not slow down in the least, though. While we are in Egypt, we will be maintaining communication with the volunteer from Maine that introduced us to the orphanage in the first place. She is a member of the church, a very trustworthy young lady, and she has been with us every second of the way concerning this project. When more materials are needed, we will wire her the needed money. Again, no cold cash will be given to the orphanage, as we want to make sure every dollar is spent appropriately. We are buying enough materials today to get them through the next five days while we are gone. So every possible measure has been taken to insure that, even though we will not be here, the project will continue to go smoothly, and no funds will be lost or inappropriately spent.
I want everybody to know how deeply grateful I am for the incredible support we have recieved, in e-mails, donations, and prayers. I have been profoundly moved by this experienced. I wish you all could see the change that has been made here, not only in buildings and land developement, but also in the lives of the children and the directors of the orphanage. The directors of the orphanage send you all their appreciation. Johnson, the director, told me yesterday that news of this has been spread to many important figures in this region; including those in government, media, and business positions. This kind of publicity will also yield tremendous fruits. Thank you so much for how actively involved you have been in creating a miracle out here. It is an honor to work with you. Take care and I will write again as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Trent Frazer

Orphanage update

Dear friends and family,

Things are still going better than planned. For some reason, everything seems to be ending better than we anticipated. We are being incredibly blessed. I know that those blessings are a direct result of the numerous prayers that are offered for us and we want to thank you all for your prayers. Yesterday was an incredible day. I probably lost about 10 pounds to sweat, but it was well worth it. While at church on Sunday, we mentioned to a couple missionaries what was going on, and jokingly said they could come out and work whenever they wanted to. Later that afternoon, at a church activity, those missionaries came to us and informed us that they had spoken to the entire zone of ten missionaries, and they all wanted to come and help the next day!! So these wonderful missionaries sacrificed their preparation day (they have one day off per week) to come and help build the orphanage. I couldn't believe it. So we told that to the director of the orphanage, and he immediately went to work informing press, and local government leaders about the undertaking that would happen the next day. So on Monday we had 10 missionaries, Blair, Hannah, me, and many of the older kids working most of the day on the building and land. We accomplished so much. It was blistering hot and rediculously humid, but we all had a blast and worked as hard as we could. We had 6 reporters come out, all representing different newspapers and radio stations! The church was well represented. They asked Blair and I about our world trip, like how many countries we've been to, including our missions and other travels. They also asked many questions about the church and it's doctrine. It was a wonderful opportunity we were given to do some missionary work.
As for the work, we dug two big holes, and got most of the cement put in for the floor of the orphanage. One whole was about 8 feet by 8 feet, and we got 4 and a half feet down. That's the hardest work I've ever had! You want some real excercize? Go dig a hole! This whole was for drainage. Their septic tank. Then the other hole was a big circle with about a 9 foot radius, and we got about 3 feet down on that one. It will eventually be 25 feet deep, and that will be their water storage. Having the missionaries out there saved us a LOT of money in labor costs, so we will be able to put that towards more materials.
So all is well here. We continue to recieve wonderful donations, and because of that we are now going to be able to put some money towards finishing the bigger portion of the house! Thank you so much for your help. We love you!

Love always,

Trent

making memories

Hey everybody. This whole experience has been amazing. Yesterday we had all the missionaries in the zone come out and help to do some manual labor. There were 10 missionaries in total we had enough work to keep them busy for the entire time. We even had a newspaper crew come out to the work site to see what was going on, and I think they will put an article in the paper about the orphanage and the church. It was a great day. I want to thank everybody for all the donations that you have made. We never expected to get such a great response. It is kind of overwhelming. We have been working meticulously with the recipts and workers to make sure that the money is spent propperly. The job is running smoothly but mabe a little slower than I had expected. We have cleared brush, built cinder blocks, dug huge water and sewage holes, poured the concreet floors, made friends with the workers, and neighbors, and enjoyed every minute of the process. I have pictures that I tried to post the other day but the computer was too slow and I had to go before they finished downloading. The computer that I am on now is even slower so Im not sure if I can get the pictures out right away. Just know that we are taking lots of photos and you will be able to see them eventually. It has been quite an experience living in the current orpahanage for the last few days. We are treated like kings. Even though there is no running water or electricity, our shower water is always full in the morning and they light candles for us every night. They serve us our meals and always keep our water glasses full. We have memorized almost everyones names and we know enough Swahili to have fun with the kids and play games. The orphans have taught us a bit about work ethic. From the time they get up in the morning till the time they go to bed they are constantly working, and when we get tired working on the new house they just keep going. It is going to be hard to leave this place. I want to thank everyone again for all the help. You are definitely making a difference out here. The kids that this orphanage turns out are great and this new center will make it possible to help so many more. Thank You so much. Ill talk to you soon.

---Blair

Tremendous progress!!

Dear friends and family,

First of all I want you to know how awed I am at the response we've gotten from everyone. I never, ever though the support would be even close to what it has been. Not only are we now able to make the house inhabitable, but we now have enough to completely finish it so that it will look like a real home! With doors, windows, paint, and everything!! If we do end up getting enough to do more, we will start work on the next part of the new house. The original plan was to finish off the part of the house needed to allow them to move out to the new center. This portion is just big enough to allow them to live there. Actually living there will allow them to accelerate their progress by eliminating travel time to and from the site, which is about a 20 minute drive, and it will eliminate the 100 dollar a month rent. There is another part of the house that is waiting to be finished, which is the larger portion that will allow them to quadruple the amount of orphans they can take in. Originally they were hoping to finish this part within the next two years. With the incredible support we have recieved though, it might even be possible to start work on this part as well, which would move the orphanag along at a rate they had never before imagined. So if we recieve more than is needed to finish the house, that is where the surplus money will go. We never thought that would even be a possibility, but now it is becoming a reality. We feel honored to be representing such a fine group of people. Progress on the new center is going fantastically. Currently we have the land completely cleared from all the plant growth that has happened from years of neglect. It was kind of fun to do that actually. It was all hacked down with machetes, then we gathered it all, piled it up, and lit it on fire! The concrete has been laid for the roof, and is drying as I write this e-mail, so that tomorrow work will begin on contructing the roof. The kids are eccstatic at the prospect of moving out there, and are working right along with us to get this going. Thank you again for your support! E-mail us with more questions, and we will keep in touch!!

Love,

Trent and Blair

Tanzania Orphanage

Dear friends and family,

Things are progressing well on the completion of the new orphanage!! We have bought the first of the needed materials, and construction began immediately. There was one essential bit of information that I didn't mention in the last e-mail which came to mind the night I sent off the first e-mail. We are only in Tanzania for a limited amount of time, so don't send any donations after November 17. Please forgive me for leaving that out! Blair and I will be leaving this city by the above mentioned date. We will be personally applying our limited construction skills to the structure up till that time, but if donations come on the last day we will still be able to purchase additional materials so that construction might continue even after we're gone. We will not be giving them any cold cash though when we leave, as we want complete control over what is being bought. Thank you again for your attention and the support we have already recieved. It is truly appreciated. Take care and we will keep you informed.

Sincerely,

Blair and Trent

Trip stuff

Dear friends and family,

All is well! We are actually doing quite well. After some stresses and minor problems in figuring out how the heck travelers survive out here, we think we have it mostly figured out, and we are now having more of a quality experience than we ever thought we would have out here. We have changed our plans in what we are going to do out here in Tanzania. Originally we were going to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro, which would take six days, and then after one day of rest we were going to do a six day safari. In dealing with tour companies about climbing the mountain (as it is illegal to climb without one), we found first of all that they require a rediculous amount of money. Nine hundred and sixty dollars each to be exact! Apparently the government out here requires rediculous fees to even step foot on the mountain. We were originally planning on going ahead and paying the money to hike the mountain. This sunday we went to church out in Dar es Salaam, and met a young lady from America who is volunteering at a certain orphanage for three months. We decided to hang out at this orphanage for a day. What we saw amazed us. It was one of the most incredible and most fulfilling days we have had yet on this trip. At the end of the day the head of this orphanage gave us a tour of another facility that is partially completed. It has a strong foundation and four walls, and it lacks a roof and the insides. This center will dramatically improve the conditions of this orphanage and it will quadruple it's ability to take in orphans, which, we have found, is a true problem out here with the epidemic of AIDS. Currently they are at capacity with 13 orphans, and this center will provide space and means to allow for 45. The reason this center is partially built is simply because they ran out of money and can't finish it. The minimal amount needed to allow this new center to be habitable is $2,235.00, and one week of hard labour. The amount needed to finish the place entirely, with all the doors, paint, and make it look like a house is $4,000.00. The day they make the center habitable is the day they will be able to move in and make significant progress towards growing to it's future level. After touring the center, and having been with the kids all day long, we made the rather obvious observation that the amount of money and time we were going to spend on hiking Kilimanjaro is exactly the amount of money and time needed by this orphanage to complete the center and allow them all to move in and continue progressing. We both felt that the money and our time would be of infinite more use if applied to the orphanage. So Blair and I have decided to use the money and time we were going to spend on Kilimanjaro, and finish the construction of the orphanage. We will have complete control of where every penny goes, and what material it will be used for, and we have gone into complete detail of every item that is needed, and have made everything as cheap and as efficient as is possible. Like I said earlier, we are only providing enough to make this center habitable. In order to make it look like a home, it is going to need about twice that. Any financial support of any kind from anyone would be of great use. The U.S. dollar goes a long way out here, so any donation will go a long way. Every penny will go towards the completion of the orphanage, and any funds recieved from family and friends will be considered sacred. We hope to leave Tanzania having given what we can to make a real and significant contribution out here, and we have been given an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of many orphans. Thank you for your time and consideration. Unfortunately we don't have a fancy website to visit or phone line to call, but we do have a Wells Fargo account. If you want to make a donation, go to the local Wells Fargo, and make a deposit into Blair Abdon's checking account. Simply fill out a deposit slip and ask to put it into Blair Abdon's checking account. Blairs address is in Rocklin, CA so verify that it goes into the correct account. You can write Blairs account number on the deposit slip and it will speed up the proccess. Email Anthony for the account number. If you have any questions you can email us. If you want to know exactly where your money is going, just e-mail us and we will give you a detailed account of where everything is going. Thank you so much for your attention. Have a perfect day, and I'll see you soon!

Love always,

Trent Frazer

Made it to Tanzania

Well after 24 hours of traveling on Wednesday we finally arrived at the airport in Kilimanjaro, Africa. We faced a couple challenges with money at the airport since no one could chage chinese money and there were no ATMs. We had to borrow money from a taxi driver just to get to a hotel in Arusha ( I had to buy a visa at the airport and they wouldnt let me take my passport without paying first) We later paid the taxi driver and everything was okay. We didnt stay in that area long because we had to figure some stuff out so we came out to the coast to relax and figure out the rest of our time in Tanzania. Now we are in Dar es Salaam and we just had dinner with some amazing people from church. We met a girl from the US that is helping out at an orphanage and tomorrow we are going there to check things out and see if we can do anything to help. Im really excited. After that we should go out to the island of Zanzibar to relax on the beach and do some scuba diving. Then its back up north to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and go on a safari in the Sarengetti. So far Africa has been awesome. The people are happy and nice, but people are poor and always looking for a way to make some quick money off you. ( carry your luggage 5 feet and then ask for a tip, or show you where the book store is then ask for a tip) The weather at the airport where we flew in was very cool but now we are on the coast and it rains a lot and is very humid. Riding the bus here is quite an experience and the landscapes are beautiful. I havent seen any big animals yet but I did see 2 monkeys on our bus ride to Dar es Salaam. If I dont write back for a while it is because I am having too much fun but I will let you know what happens as soon as possible.

---Blair

China is over

Received 10/31/06

Well we are out of here in about five hours. This place has been great cause we packed in the fun. I slept on a train for the last two nights (I havent showered for that much time also). The trip was great but I have had a cold for the last couple of days. I got some medicine yesterday and I think I have it under control. The best thing would probably be to rest but that is not going to happen. We saw the terracotta warriors yesterday and it was pretty amazing. China definitely has some serious culture. The people do cut in line and spit all over the place but you find a lot of nice people also who just want to help you out. This place has been fun but with 1.3 billion people it is definitely not relaxing. Im soo excited to go to Tanzania where I fully expect to have the best time of the trip. We have everything planned in our minds and I am very excited. Trent is a great tour guide. All you have to do is give him a lonely planet book and he will read it all and have the trip all ready to go. Life is great.

--Blair

Nihaau!

Received 10/31/06

good I was just going to write you. Yeah I set up a yahoo account. I was sick of loging on to BYU's and seeing it not up and deleting the pictures I would download. Plus I'm too dumb to use it's technicality! I clearly needed a more user friendly one. Yeah sorry I haven't written for a while. So I'm totally done with China! YAY! China was great, well, some sights were, but I cannot say I'm sad to leave. The Chinese people are different, they have no idea what a line is, and spit all over the place. Even inside on carpet. Though I did grow to love the elderly and the kids are cool. The elderly because they are totally cultural and in touch with Chineseity, but people ages 30-50 aren't. Probably because they were raised during the cultural revolution. Seriously though. So I'm boarding a plane in about 4 hours to take a very long flight to Kilimingaro!!! I cannot wait. I doubt i'll be writing much over the next three weeks, as I will mainly be on top of a huge mountain and/or touring the seringehti and remote villages. This really is the pinnacle of my entire trip and I cannot wait! I'll see you all too soon, I can't believe it's half way over in 4 days. Later

Trent

P.S. No pictures today. They don't believe in public USB connections out here either!

Still going

Received 10/28/06

Hey guys, We are still in china and we are having a blast. The people here don't speak a word of English and hardly anything is written in English. This makes getting around hard but you can always talk about the people and nobody knows you are talking about them. We have stayed in a hostel the whole time here but we have our own room which makes it just like a hotel only cheaper. So far in China we have seen the forbidden city, the summer palace, the great wall, an acrobatic show, a kung fu show, a performance by the china philharmonic orchestra, and we went to the Beijing zoo. Tomorrow night we will catch the night train down south to see the terracotta warriors and then we fly out on Tuesday for Tanzania. Here in China we have only been in Beijing and the parts of the city that you see are very clean and neat. They are getting ready for the 2008 Olympics and much of the city is covered up to hide the run down poor part. The city is huge and what looks very close on the map is very deceiving. One city block takes ten minutes to walk down. Luckily they have a subway that we take most of the time and the buses here are real cheap. The stuff we have done here has been amazing but they don't let you use the usb ports on these computers so you will have to wait for the pictures. The good weather always seems to follow us and we have been very lucky so far. It has been a little cooler here which i like. We are getting some use out of our jackets before we go sweat in Africa. We are doing great and I hope everyone else is also.

---Blair