From the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune, writer Mike Vandermause talks to Donald Driver about the trip.
The 10-day excursion included two nights in a dorm-like hotel in Mutomo, Kenya, with no air conditioning or ceiling fans. At least the players were provided with mosquito nets so they could sleep.
"There's no way you would be able to sleep without mosquitoes tearing you up," said Driver. "You have bugs in your room that you've never seen in your life."
Driver spent part of his teen years in Houston living out of a U-Haul truck, but some of the conditions in Africa astounded even him.
"It touched me, because I've lived homeless before, but to that extent, no. I've never lived like that," he said. "I think that makes you appreciate the way you live. I didn't have any problems compared to what they have over there."
Why would two highly paid professional athletes, joined by their wives, spend their offseason free time walking through the slums of Nairobi, standing amid squalid conditions, witnessing the heartbreaking reality of a country stricken by hunger, an AIDS epidemic and an unsanitary water supply?
For Driver, who was reluctant when his wife, Betina, first suggested the trip, it was an eye-opening experience.
"It changes your perspective on life," he said. "It makes you appreciate what you have. You can't complain about the little things we complain about."
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