#826 - Justin Wren

[0] Two, one.

[1] And we're live, Justin Wren.

[2] How are you, sir?

[3] I'm great.

[4] What's going on, brother?

[5] Man, I'm excited to be back here.

[6] You're out there kicking ass, digging wells, all the above?

[7] Trying, yeah.

[8] How many fights have you had now back in Bellator?

[9] Only two.

[10] Two.

[11] But I haven't been back since the first or second one, so this is fun.

[12] Yeah, we're here before your first one, right?

[13] Which was like you had a long break.

[14] Yeah, it was five years and two months.

[15] Wow.

[16] And I hadn't even really trained any at that point.

[17] Like I was just doing the wells and going to Congo and then got back into fighting and only had a little bit of time to train, but it was okay.

[18] How much time did you have before your first fight?

[19] I think actually whenever I was here with you, I fibbed a little where I said it was a little longer because I didn't know if my opponent was going to watch or whatever.

[20] but uh my my fight camp got cut in half um i was traveling traveling traveling the book was getting ready to come out and other stuff and trying to write the book and prepare and trying to figure all that out where we were just talking before we got on about just life stuff and scheduling it and everything and i had the book and then Congo and then um telling people about it and then also training for a fight and i didn't know how to balance those real well but uh i planned 12 weeks all of a sudden Congo corruption took me to Congo for three weeks at the beginning.

[21] So it cut it down to nine weeks.

[22] And then whenever I got back or while I was there, I found out they were moving the fight up on me three weeks.

[23] And so it cut my camp down to about six, seven weeks.

[24] So six, seven weeks after being off for more than five years.

[25] Yeah, and I had trained a few times before that.

[26] I mean, like, within the few months before.

[27] But I think it was probably tops, two months, nine weeks.

[28] Well, Puss, weren't you just like just getting over malaria?

[29] Yeah, and I was, uh, that's, that's, that's the tough stuff.

[30] That's, uh, that's tougher than you fight, I feel like.

[31] Fuck, man. We have one of our guys in Congo that's got, had malaria, one of our drillers.

[32] I just recently got real sick and it's kind of like constant.

[33] Like, it's just part of life there.

[34] Jesus.

[35] And it doesn't matter what kind of medication you take before you go out there?

[36] I was actually taking, uh, actually our director at Waterford was taking, um, Malarone.

[37] It's like the best anti -malaria pill.

[38] I think it's something like $7, $8 every pill.

[39] So it's the crim -dly -crim of malaria meds.

[40] And it didn't work on him.

[41] And then I was actually going into Congo.

[42] Actually, I stopped in London, did one of those TED talks at a university called Warwick University.

[43] And the day of the talk, I was at a 103 degree temperature, 103 .2.

[44] And I thought I was pulling out.

[45] They thought I was pulling out.

[46] We were at the hospital for four, five, six hours.

[47] Oh, and dude, even the opportunity to go speak at that is because their team was all fans of Jerry.

[48] Wow.

[49] Yeah.

[50] That's awesome.

[51] Yeah, that was the opportunity got because of this.

[52] And, I mean, it was, it was tough doing the talk.

[53] And then whenever I got into Congo, they told me I had the flu in London and the doctor's there.

[54] And that's what I feel like here, too.

[55] There can be tropical medicine specialist here.

[56] And they're probably really great, but I would trust a doctor that's lived in the climate, the tropical climate around malaria, that's seen it, that's treated it, that knows all the symptoms.

[57] Well, knows to look for it because no one gets it over here.

[58] Yeah, and so whenever I got into Congo, I flew from, yeah, from work to Congo, and whenever I landed, instead of going straight to the forest, they took me to like an airstrip at a kind of hospital out in the middle of nowhere.

[59] And so I landed, went straight to the hospital, and then right there, they're like, you don't have the flu, you have malaria.

[60] And I'm like, but I've been, I've been in the States.

[61] I just fought.

[62] And then I've, uh, in Europe, like, there's no, no malaria really there.

[63] But it was because it's still living inside me. There's like, um, I think there's three strands.

[64] One will live in your body for three years, five years.

[65] I think the other is like 30 to life or something.

[66] What?

[67] Yeah.

[68] And so, uh, so it just comes back?

[69] Yeah, it can.

[70] Like when your body's really run down, when you're really tired, immune system's low.

[71] Like training for a fight.

[72] Yeah, like training for a fight.

[73] Or right after the fight.

[74] Uh, right after the fight.

[75] fight went to London spoke then I went to Congo so but right after the fight so you recovering from malaria you go through your six week fight camp you have your fight you run down and then after the fight you got malaria again yes now the sickness I've had it now three times oh my god so at least confirm twice the third time they're like yeah you have it for sure but they you with malaria you have to get the test the blood test while you have a certain degree temperature like fever whenever it's cycling out of your liver coming out they have to draw the blood at that exact time to get it and so that's why I was misdiagnosed four times in the Congo and um what a sneaky fucking disease yeah it's nuts it's good they're crazy because they'll they'll hide in your liver and then they send them out in your bloodstream like a like a platoon they go and wreck havoc and then they retreat right back to the liver really yeah they live in your liver yeah that's where they're hiding away for three or or five or 30 years.

[76] Oh, my God.

[77] And what, is there any solution?

[78] Is there anything they could do?

[79] I don't think so.

[80] And I had a couple of things that happened where, you know, I started trying to take the anti -malarium meds, but I started getting, it's the only medicine I've ever really reacted to where get nauseous, start dragging.

[81] I've heard it's awful.

[82] Yeah, even, even, oh, I'm pasty white, and I get real sun -sensitive.

[83] I know another medicine called mephoquine, which is, I think it's developed in, you Switzerland or Sweden, supposed to be an awesome new malaria medicine.

[84] It's actually the one thing my body kind of responds to, but it's actually really dangerous because I've seen people that are there for aid work and different stuff.

[85] And dude, they have to retreat if they're there with kids and stuff.

[86] They've moved there to the country.

[87] They're taken off because kiddos or even adults have mental breaks that they can't come back from.

[88] You can have psychotic episodes for, I think they said, like, if it lasts longer than a week, it's probably going to last like three months it'll last longer than three months it's probably going to last forever what yeah so so this is from the medication yeah it's just the medication and it gives you terrible terrible nightmares I almost went to Tanzania this summer I was going to go on safari and too many people scare the shit out of me with malaria talk yeah I was going to take my whole family and I'm like look I'll take some malaria medication and feel like shit I'm not giving it to my six year old yeah it's not happening that would be I'm not doing it tough one yeah yeah but But that's a real concern, right?

[89] Tanzania has malaria as well, right?

[90] Yeah, they do.

[91] It's, because it's more of a, is that arid climate more, it's, they have less there.

[92] It's not so tropical there.

[93] I've been to Tanzania a couple times and out in Sanzibar.

[94] I mean, it's just, I mean, it wasn't there, but I saw it and it was, I don't know, man, it's a crazy, crazy place because you go from Congo where they have all these tropical diseases and you go, I don't know, the same continent, you just go over.

[95] a little bit and there's all these other kinds of parasites like in Congo there you have very little of a I believe they're called um jiggers with a jay and um instead chiggers be very careful when you say that word yeah well but jiggers with a jay sounds wrong yeah sounds like you should stop but they they they're these crazy parasites that burrow in your feet oh god and um and especially kids and elderly um why is that my kids and elderly um um Um, well, honestly, I think one reason with poverty, uh, the kids don't get shoes until they can work and buy them.

[96] And, uh, elderly, if they're not able to work and provide for themselves and, you know, it's harder for them to, to get shoes and stuff.

[97] But also, it's just the where they live, um, because on the sandy or, it's either sandy or the clayish, um, or silty soil that's real red in Uganda.

[98] Man, it just wreaks havoc on those kids to where they're having to have people come in every week to different villages, sit there with, uh, safety pins and all sorts of these little hooks that they dig into the people's feet and um oh god dude it's it's painful whenever i've seen people getting it done they're literally putting there and i've had one in my foot and it kind of came and gone it's not that bad when it's just one but whenever your whole foot or your whole heel or all the you know the balls of your feet are just covered and i mean i'm talking 20 30 40 50 of these parasites um they're just brutal so every step you see them When they're walking, they're grimacing.

[99] When you're taking it out, they're screaming.

[100] God damn, Africa.

[101] Yeah.

[102] Africa is such a strange, strange continent.

[103] Strange, but man, the people are beautiful in their hearts.

[104] You know, they're awesome.

[105] They're half, or probably more than half.

[106] If you're not a good one, you're very terrible.

[107] Yeah, that's simple, obviously from the outside.

[108] That's what it looks like.

[109] Someone like me who tries to pay attention.

[110] as much as I can but there's only so much you could actually know about it without being there I think right yeah I think so I think whenever you get there I don't know fall in love with the people and develop the relationships um that's why you can I don't know see past all the garbage all the discomfort you said that you were held up with uh corruption Congo corruption what happened so they they called me and said um my team I was actually I call him Papa White, because he's like a father figure to me. He's the one that had this vision.

[111] I came alongside him, and it's just been, it's been awesome to see what's happened.

[112] And whenever I went to him, actually what was the question you were just asking?

[113] I don't remember.

[114] What is I said about the corruption.

[115] Oh, corruption there you.

[116] Yeah, he called me and said, F, A, you got to get back here in like three weeks.

[117] And I'm like, what?

[118] I'm training for the fight.

[119] Like, it's coming up.

[120] And I can't leave now.

[121] He says, if you don't come back now, like, I don't know when you can come back, they'll, they're going to revoke your visa.

[122] They're going to, and I'm like, what for?

[123] And so they said, check your passport.

[124] They said your visa's expiring in three weeks.

[125] And I'm like, it shouldn't be expiring.

[126] I have a five -year visa.

[127] But then you have to come in and out of the country every 11 months because if you don't, you lose that five -year visa.

[128] And so whenever I left with my wife, literally, they, just so that they can get money out of us and steal and, um, be able to ask for $1 ,400, sometimes $2 ,500 to get a visa like this.

[129] You know, they write down on your visa when they stamp it the date, they write it in.

[130] And so now I know, look every single time they're writing to make sure they write the right date because she backdated it like six months or something like that or maybe nine months.

[131] And then all of a sudden I had to get back there because they're like, nope, it's going to expire.

[132] And they thought they gave them actually, it might have been less than three weeks.

[133] I think I had to go for three weeks is what happened because I had like a week.

[134] notice i just took off went it's actually the cheapest trip i've ever got there because it was like the last seat i was by the toilets in the back the whole time but it was only like eight hundred dollars round trip which was incredible that's pretty crazy yeah you can go to africa for 800 bucks yeah that was i i never seen it like that but it was uh yeah it's cool so i went and and i mean it helped because that that saved me some money that was going to have to pay to try to get out of the corruption and stuff but luckily when went there they didn't think i would just drop and you know be there in five six seven days so i took off went and we spent three weeks trying to just negotiate with the courts and everything else and say look this is you guys did this you set me up all this other stuff and trying to prove them wrong they're never wrong you know they're always right and uh trying to show them even receipts and pictures we were showing them pictures from ben's wedding he's like my best friend like a brother translator for me he's our team leader and um literally we're showing him pictures of me at his wedding and luckily it was dated and everything like i was here in the country when you said i had already left four or five months before.

[135] So it's just nuts.

[136] But the backdating is intentional?

[137] They do it on purpose?

[138] Yeah, they do it on purpose so that for me and my wife both, they made it the same date, which was like six months or eight months early.

[139] Like we left earlier than what we did.

[140] So from the outside, when you're visiting them, did they think somehow or know that you're wealthy and that, you know, they could take advantage of you?

[141] They know you're on television.

[142] Do they know all that?

[143] No. No, no, we keep that really kind of, when I'm there, I am a, let me see if I can get the right.

[144] I am a professor of appropriate technologies.

[145] And appropriate technologies are like community development or sustainable solutions.

[146] And I go there and I'm teaching the students at the university how to, and I only do like a week or two seminar with them.

[147] The rest of time I'm with my well drilling team.

[148] And that's my covering.

[149] I go there as quote unquote professor.

[150] I probably can give that up on the internet.

[151] Yeah, maybe no. People know.

[152] No, it's okay.

[153] But I do that because, you know, when I go and really, it's not because I'm on TV or anything like that or they think I have money.

[154] They just think anyone that's not Congolese has money.

[155] And so because that's what they've seen from people coming in and throwing money around.

[156] So they want theirs.

[157] Yeah.

[158] And a lot of the NGOs are like they have quotas and everything else and they have just a huge budget.

[159] They got to spend it and they got to meet those quotas.

[160] So sometimes they throw it around and they're not trying to be frugal with the money because it's not theirs.

[161] They didn't go out and get it or fundraise it or get a grant for it or anything like that.

[162] It's just they got it to spend.

[163] So they'll just give it away.

[164] Do the people that live in the Congo, like the pygmies, do they still get malaria?

[165] Mm -hmm.

[166] Is it really common with them?

[167] Yeah, really common.

[168] um but it's it's uh it's uh it's weird because whenever people come i i guess they're more acclimated to it but it still kills so many um and then but whenever i get it they're they're saying you know the doctor here told me because of the malaria meds it would be better for you to go because you're already getting sick to sick with medicine just go get malaria and then get it diagnosed quick enough get the cure and now your body's actually gonna adapt to it and the next time you get it'll be less and less wait so they told you to get malaria yeah oh fucking Christ but but I but one of the worst diseases a person can get right yeah but honestly I've seen people even even Ben Ben's nuts like the year that I was there he had malaria now it's almost killed him before too but he had malaria like three or four times in a year and and and it's just kind of really really common there.

[169] Wow.

[170] But once you, if you can survive it the first couple of times, then they say after that it gets more bearable because you feel it coming.

[171] You feel the heat waves coming over you.

[172] And then you feel the shoulder joint pains and elbows.

[173] And it just down your whole spine and your finger joints are just throbbing.

[174] Like you can feel your pulse.

[175] So it's an inflammation disease?

[176] It's a blood parasite disease and it just.

[177] But it causes some inflammation?

[178] The parasite somehow How another does that to your joints?

[179] Yeah, and it at least causes a lot of pain.

[180] I know that.

[181] And it, what was it?

[182] I lost 33 pounds, five days.

[183] Jesus Christ, 33 pounds and five days?

[184] Yeah, 33 pounds and five days.

[185] You get that Dr. Oz.

[186] Dr. Oz would sell that.

[187] I could, yeah, be in here.

[188] LA, I got a new L .A. I got a new L .A. diet for you guys.

[189] Yeah, you really do.

[190] It's the Congo diet.

[191] You get really hot.

[192] Thanks you're hot.

[193] So that's a massive sacrifice you're willing to take to do that and this the fact that it's it exists inside your body for an undetermined state of time that's uh that's pretty wild man it's it's scary um yeah honestly i feel like i was in a much scarier place personally um before before i found this before i found them before i got given a second family or accepted into a second family and you're more scarier because you were depressed because you yeah well depressed suicidal thoughts had for like 10 years just battled it from 13 years old 23 and so um so yeah that that was a lot scarier to me than going to go yeah you had suicidal thoughts when you were 13 yeah for sure and i i mean i was i was one that like you know the kid in the in the class that I mean, I wasn't, I wasn't, like, I wouldn't say I was, how do I say it?

[194] It was extremely brutal, but it was happening to, I mean, everyone gets bullied for the most part.

[195] Somebody was bullying you?

[196] Yeah, well, when I was growing up, that was from, from third grade till eighth grade for sure, it was brutal.

[197] Seventh and eighth grade was the worst.

[198] Were you smaller then?

[199] I was smaller for sure.

[200] You're a gigantic dude.

[201] I was smaller.

[202] It takes a lot of balls to bully you.

[203] Yeah.

[204] And, uh, that might backfire.

[205] It's actually kind of why I found fighting.

[206] or not why it is or not kind it is because I was 13 years old and I had just gotten so well two things have you ever seen in Texas for high school homecomings they have mums have you heard of that no it's a mom Texas tradition that's crazy now all the all the kids love them everything else but you get these like crusages or fake flowers that they put real big up top and then they are streamers with literal bells and Whistles, full -sized teddy bears.

[207] You can have two, three teddy bears.

[208] When I was in high school, the girl would wear it on her shoulder and the guy would wear it around his arm.

[209] Now in Texas, they literally have to put a harness around them and hold these things up because they're so big and, there you go.

[210] What?

[211] The Texas is a month.

[212] Isn't that nuts?

[213] Isn't that nuts?

[214] That's homecoming in Texas.

[215] What?

[216] Look at that.

[217] I'm telling you, it's nuts.

[218] It's the whole state?

[219] The whole state.

[220] I mean, every homecoming that comes around, Texans are nuts about this.

[221] I mean, I lived in Texas since I was.

[222] like four months old, so it was, uh, they're nuts.

[223] And they've gotten bigger and bigger and bigger every single year.

[224] And, uh, how am I just hearing about this?

[225] You're real proud of it.

[226] It's weird.

[227] I mean, I, I, you just hearing about this, Jamie?

[228] Yeah, never.

[229] I think those are literally like two and three hundred now.

[230] What?

[231] Yeah.

[232] When I was in high school, they were like 70, hundred.

[233] Oh my God, look at all those girls.

[234] Look at that picture that you had down there.

[235] There's a giant group of girls with all this.

[236] This is ridiculous.

[237] Is that not nuts?

[238] How do you, how do you go to the dance like that?

[239] How do you go to the game like that?

[240] I don't understand that.

[241] I mean, literally the boyfriends are walking behind.

[242] I'm holding the stuff up for them because it's getting too heavy.

[243] Their neck hurts.

[244] But they want to wear it.

[245] It's a tradition.

[246] Everybody gets excited.

[247] The bigger the mum?

[248] The bigger the mum.

[249] The better.

[250] The more your date liked you.

[251] Is this a mum company that you just clicked on?

[252] Oh my God.

[253] They're in every single grocery store in Texas.

[254] What?

[255] Yeah, whenever it comes to like September, October, November, around homecoming time high school, like this is people's jobs.

[256] Like seasonal jobs, they sit around and they take special.

[257] orders they make them for you or they sell them to where you can make them yourself um that's so strange isn't it just it always baffles me when i find out about something for the very first time i don't know why i'm so confused i i would like to find out where the tradition uh came from probably but i mean people is just so ingrained in you if you're texan that you have to get mums and so uh is there any other states find out of other states except that i literally Oklahoma doesn't do it Louisiana doesn't New Mexico, I mean, all around us.

[258] It's just Texas.

[259] Twelve things non -Texas need to know about homecoming mums.

[260] What in the fuck?

[261] The mum started as a simple flower.

[262] Hold on, scroll up a little bit.

[263] Mum started as a simple flower.

[264] Guys give them to their homecoming date.

[265] Oh, that's hilarious.

[266] Girls also give guys one called a garter, like a garter.

[267] Oh, they put it on your arm on your garter belt?

[268] Oh, oh, go over your bicycle.

[269] How bizarre?

[270] Like one of those things that tie box is where?

[271] Yeah.

[272] Being able to make mums can make you rich.

[273] Oh, God.

[274] See, $60, $300.

[275] What?

[276] $300 for fake flowers.

[277] $300.

[278] It ain't cheap to electrify a mom.

[279] Oh, my God, that chick's got one that lights up.

[280] That's so crazy.

[281] You can put LED lighting.

[282] Look at that.

[283] Scroll up a little bit.

[284] You can put LED lighting in mums.

[285] I didn't know how many folks are doing this back when I was in high school, but nowadays you really want to impress your date.

[286] the latest in mum lighting technology will help you do just that that is hilarious you know this isn't even like a joke website right no this is real they're taking it serious that's so strange it's really weird and so when i was in middle school seventh grade i you know look at that girl she's got a christmas tree on her tits that's ridiculous they uh so you want to save i saved it up and My allowance asked one of my crushes to go to the homecoming game with me. She said, yes, to my surprise.

[287] Went to the game and spent pretty much all my allowance on her mom.

[288] And her name's Jessica.

[289] And I took her to the game, and I'm up in the stands with her, and halftime comes around.

[290] I'm up at the very top left, and all of a sudden everyone looks back up over the right shoulders at us.

[291] And this one guy's kind of, my my bully through elementary and middle school for sure and his name was Justin as well and so he walks up and puts his arm out to her and she puts her arm around his and he grabs the streamer that says Justin and Jessica in the year on it or whatever and he says thanks for getting her this and I'm like what?

[292] He goes you didn't think she'd come with you did you and so he just kind of walks down all the schools looking they're all laughing having fun and that one hurt but what was worse was the next year because, you know, people liked that part of, I don't know, I think, for me, when I see bullying now, I just spoke out of middle school and I told one of the teachers asked, what should you tell a kid that's battling with suicidal thought or depression, even maybe suicidal thoughts?

[293] I'm like, well, if this is 300, 400 kids in here, like, for sure, one person is dealing with these issues right now.

[294] And I would say, you know, Um, the thing that probably saved me was my parents didn't own a gun, probably only Texans that don't own guns.

[295] And, uh, then, um, I don't know.

[296] I, I mean, I, I guess one of the main things was, um, well, I don't even know that I've ever said this publicly, but I remember, um, having attempted suicide once and then, um, thinking about it again and then, um, thinking, you know, what would this, what would this, what would this, to my mom, you know.

[297] And so I love my mom.

[298] I'm my mama's boy.

[299] Dad's great, too.

[300] But that's just who I am.

[301] She's a tough cookie.

[302] She's where I got my competitiveness.

[303] She was a national champion and barrel racing state champion in tennis.

[304] And so she always pushed me. My dad, if he, uh, if he was at a wrestling tournament and it's the finals, even state, I would dislocate my thumb or something to come up.

[305] You don't have to wrestle in the next match.

[306] Like, it's the finals.

[307] My mom's like, he's getting out there.

[308] So my mom's the one pushing him, shut up, Jimmy.

[309] He's going to go out there and he's going to wrestle and he's going to win.

[310] And so my dad was more of the one wanting to protect me, and she's the one wanting to push me out there.

[311] So I guess, I don't even know what I was saying that, except for, oh, that thought was just ringing in my head.

[312] And so whenever I finally verbalized that and start talking to people, that's what really helped.

[313] You know, it didn't have to be a bunch of people.

[314] I didn't have to go around and be, I don't know, a drama queen or do it for attention or whatever, but just find one person.

[315] And for me at that age, it was having a great mom.

[316] And parents that love me, and I think that's probably absolutely what saved me at that time.

[317] And so I was telling these kids, you know, hey, tell, even if it's just your mom.

[318] So I was taking pictures with some of the kids afterwards and stuff, and I walk out to leave.

[319] And I'm in the hall, and this mom stops me because she's with her little guy, and he's crying.

[320] So a mom had come to school, had heard there was anti -bullying talk.

[321] She came up, and I see this little guy.

[322] It reminded me a lot of me. The only difference was he had these kind of big glasses on.

[323] He was a little chubby and had, it just had one of those things that you'd see stereotypical, like, this kid's going to get picked on.

[324] Right.

[325] And so, probably a lot like me. He's used to getting his fat pinched and nipples twisted and, you know, all that different stuff.

[326] And so he was out there just bawling with his mom.

[327] His mom asked if I could come talk to him for a little bit.

[328] I did.

[329] And she was saying that he had never opened up with her in the last two years, but she knew he had been dealing with really bad.

[330] depression and right there he told her i've been dealing with suicidal thoughts for two years and so i don't know why i even brought that up except for like it's nuts my parents have a have a photography company and they made a memorial a few years back for a little boy who's getting bullied didn't think he had an option out and he took his life at nine years old oh my god's when i think it was his swing set out back and so um hung himself oh jesus christ and so um i saw the plaque and everything made up for them and just gut wrenching and so you know as I say that and the first story wasn't but in this kind of one that kind of brought everything to a head was I was in middle eighth grade this time um got invited to uh Jennifer's um birthday party really excited I got to invite one of the real invitations in my hands and um made the plans talk to my mom asked if I could go talk to some of the people who else is going that was kind of the Dorky kidding ways, but on the invitation, I know, man, it says costume contest and the winner gets a prize.

[331] Well, I started in research, all this other stuff.

[332] Other people were doing it, too.

[333] And I found out that her dad worked at Dr. Pepper and that their house was decorated with at all this other stuff.

[334] And then she loves transformers.

[335] And so I thought, what if I, you know, combine those two things?

[336] What if I could make myself a cardboard transformer from head to toe?

[337] I think it was a 24 pack around the head 12 packs around the arms legs boots I had I had a chest plate I had a sword out of cardboard a country kid Texas you see those mums we can do pretty much anything with duct tape and so duct tape cardboard just made it up and walked into the party and her grandma opened the door she goes oh Jennifer's gonna love this walked in they literally had a Dr. Pepper machine one of those like old school ones you didn't have to pay just push the button it pops out 13 year old kid you love that So we got Dr. Pepper can in one hand, have the Dr. Pepper cardboard sword in the other, walk to the backyard.

[338] And whenever the door opens, I open the door, I greeted there with like some flashes of lights and fingers pointing, people laughing.

[339] And I remember Jennifer saying, I can't believe you thought you were cool enough to come to my party.

[340] And I was the only one that was dressed up.

[341] Everybody else had gotten there early, and they all been planning it.

[342] And even the invitations were fake just so that I would come there, dress up.

[343] Another kid said, you're worthless.

[344] so in that moment I felt worthless and then the main bully said you should just kill yourself and so whenever he said that 13 years old battle with depression suicidal thoughts all the different stuff man it took me on a downward spiral tailspin it really sucked I didn't know how to cover it up and then I guess I'm getting back to them in May route where I found that 13 years old at like a flea market in Texas and walking down these aisles I'm looking for a BB gun and all of a sudden I get to this like used video shop and it's got ufc VHS i think it was two through 10 or 10 two through 11 or something like that and um so i just let bottom all um you were on there and that is a horrible story man yeah that is a terrible story how the fuck could those kids be so mean i mean that is honestly i i don't think it's i mean that crazy compared to i mean it is it's very like methodical like very planned out yeah um and a lot of people were in on it I think that probably was one of the things like honestly Jennifer was that the biggest crush I ever had and you know elementary middle school growing up you know and so she was the one I really wanted to impress that's why I did that research you know and then to know that she was in on it these other guys planned it but she went along with it um but to her to have to her say that to you like the I can't believe you thought you were cool enough to come to my party yeah fuck man yeah i ended up leaving um and this is before cell phones uh and i don't have a cell phone until it's like 16 17 and um so i'm 13 run out found a dairy queen um and uh went in the back and where the drive -thru is there was like a i don't know the dumpster and they got like the fence around it and i just was able to open it sit there and just cried basically until uh when we came out to throw away the trash and then they were like oh honey got down and what do you need and all this other stuff can you call your mom i'm like if if i have a phone and so i walked inside called her but she wasn't there so took a little while to get a hold of my mom and then um yeah i mean it was just it was nuts because um it's weird how you you'll believe especially in today's age with social media and all the tweets and things that people just throw away i throw around um you know it's nuts how you can see something to you know you can see something to don't even know them they might have one follower but somehow it can still if you let it it can still affect you instead of just shrugging it off that's a totally different thing though someone's saying something on twitter and someone saying something and looking you in the eyes yeah and planning out this big deception yeah but you're such a nice guy like i don't understand what what the fuck caused someone to be such a shithead like that well i don't know man i think well i think I've matured a lot where, I mean, obviously, 29, it's a 13, but I think I just became an easy target.

[345] Because you're just a nice guy, and they just...

[346] Maybe I wouldn't stand up for myself, and maybe I wasn't the biggest kid, but I was chubby and bigger, and, yeah, I think it just was easy to pick on me in the locker rooms, pick on me in the...

[347] I don't know, I think the stats I was looking at was something like 87%.

[348] bullying doesn't happen in the presence of adults right and then uh I forget but you know even the people around like how you're saying you know to people plan it out and everything else looking in the eyes I mean I think that might have been what took me back the most because I was like man like this is if you're sitting by that this is what I try to tell some of the kiddos growing up now it's like if you think that by laughing I mean if you're there and you're bullying but you're giggling you're laughing like you're definitely a part of it you're an encourager right but then if you're even if you're silent and you're just watching it and you don't like now you're if you see it you have a choice you can do something about it or you cannot and so I feel like that's a passive standby kind of encouragement where and so for me it was like everyone was there people were saying it people were laughing people were watching but nobody was was standing up for me so it was uh I think that's what I heard the most well see so So there's two giant instances, the one with the other guy named Justin.

[349] So they plan that out too?

[350] Fuck, man. You went to school with some evil kids.

[351] Yeah, it was actually part of the same kids.

[352] God damn.

[353] Yeah, and then, so from that, yeah, that's definitely been the biggest battle of my life has been depression, suicidal thoughts.

[354] And it was all from that bullying.

[355] There was nothing other than that.

[356] For the depression?

[357] Yeah.

[358] Yeah, I mean, it went from, technically, I would say, it went from third grade to 10th grade.

[359] And then whenever I started wrestling and my parents transformed me out of the school, everything else, then...

[360] But the bullying is what caused all these suicidal thoughts.

[361] There was nothing else that was bumming you out about life.

[362] That is so fucked up that some shitty mean kids can all of a sudden throw this monkey ranch in your life.

[363] And then I've learned, and I mean, I...

[364] Of course.

[365] I, you know, a lot of used to looking back, it shouldn't have, I shouldn't have ever let it get to the point to where, you know, I think I should hurt myself or kill my, you know what, just to real quick put that together with the pygmies in Congo.

[366] Whenever I opened up and shared with some of them around the campfire, just hanging out talking, sharing life stories, I shared that and I just remember the looks on several people's faces just so baffled.

[367] like did he just say he wanted to hurt himself he was suicide he wanted to kill himself all the different stuff and then i started asking like does that not happen here and they're like well some of them were like well we've heard of that happening before and yeah there's there's this guy that was that guy and that guy and we heard that someone in their village had hurt themselves or killed themselves or something but most of the people i think were like no never hurt why would anyone if you hurt yourself you're only hurt like that's only hurting you right that's not going to help anything but you just wanted the pain yet to end yeah yeah here i just wanted the pain to end but there it's like it's nuts because they if if i look at it i was a little kid i got bullied by some some stupid kids and then look if i look at what they're going through man it makes it it makes it it shrinks it it it makes it microscopic whenever you stop just focusing on your own problems you start looking at others other problems that Maybe you can be a part of helping solve that problem.

[368] So this bullying all throughout your childhood led into adulthood, and the only thing that made it better was you going to the Congo and helping out these pygmies and building wells and sort of dedicating and devoting your life to their life.

[369] Yeah, I would say practically that has been, you know, to have a sense of purpose.

[370] I mean, I think it's a lot of different things.

[371] But that all kind of came together.

[372] But for me, yeah, I mean, when you're not living for yourself and you're living for others, you just want to.

[373] I mean, I didn't know that for me, I had a big paradigm shift or changing my life whenever, you know, coming out of the addiction, I felt like, oh man, like I don't have to walk around and hate myself and stay away from people because they're either going to hurt me or I'm going to want to hurt them.

[374] Like, I don't have to do that.

[375] I can help people.

[376] I can want to love them.

[377] I can, you know, figure out something.

[378] And I, dude, it first started, and what really started helping a lot was, I had involved with a lot of different stuff from a juvenile detention center, going in and meeting with some of those kids once a week, to a homeless shelter, to becoming an official volunteer at the Denver Children's Hospital and taking the grudge guys through there.

[379] And I think, like Rashad and Dwayne and Shane, Carlin and Brendan, and all these guys, you know, they were going.

[380] And they actually saw me going through the really, tough addictions and getting kicked off grudge fight team and then a year later um luckily able to organize an event where the they wouldn't let us come in just as fighters to visit the kids because they were like fighters why would you guys come and visit us and uh that's violent and so i decided oh well become a volunteer here go through all the processes and the training and all the other stuff and then i love volunteering there and then after they got to know me i'm like hey can we do a team visit man us in their the best visit they had ever had was the bikers um like this biker gang guys they always brought pizza on Wednesday night or something and uh and they literally did look look rough and tumble and then they said ours was the second best and I'm like you know what they said well I won't say the teams but some of the other uh big major league sports they said those have been and they named some of them they're like they've been some of our absolute worst and I'm like man see you thought fighters were going to come in here and I don't know if you thought we were going to beat up the kids or something, but, but, no, we're passionate about the sport.

[381] I mean, I think passionate means you love something so much that you'll suffer for it, or even that suffering looks like enjoyment or becomes enjoyment because you love it and you're passionate about it.

[382] And so, I mean, whenever you're a fighter, you're getting beat up and all the other stuff and, man, we're passionate people.

[383] we we really love each other it's all team camaraderie and yeah there's an intense camaraderie between people that train together yeah because you go through such difficult sessions and difficult sparring and difficult moments and conditioning and all that stuff and you push each other and it's a different kind of bond right yeah and on that i think i saw someone recently post uh something that was pretty cool where it showed uh like a jihitsu gym and it was um showing all the different people and in it it said something like this is the where's the one place you'll you can find these religious people and these different skin colors and i forget how that how it was worded but on the mats yeah and we all get along and there's all peace it's like on the mats i love that yeah i do as well did you do you stay in any way in touch with those kids from back in the day from the kids that bullied you did you ever it was actually funny after the ultimate fighter um I got invited out by one of the guys, and just because I think a couple of people, they'll just, yeah, I saw one of the guys who was one of the main guys, and he's like, hey, it's just so I'm walking around downtown Fort Worth, and he said, why don't we go out here, whatever?

[384] I'm like, all right, I'll go.

[385] And, well, he had actually brought me into the sushi restaurant, and all around the table was most of the people that were, not most, there's probably only eight or ten people.

[386] but they were some of the main kids that were at that party when I dressed up and everything like man if you if we had known you were a fighter or you know you could have kicked our butts then we wouldn't have done that to you and I'm just like so I told him I was going to the bathroom and just left I think that's the only time I've ever done anything like that but I was like I can't be around these guys did you did you sense any feeling of remorse from them or did they just want to be friends with you one or two of them one guy for sure he's he's pretty cool now and um but then one is uh is a knucklehead for sure and still yeah big time you know it's that classic thing of kids ganging up on one kid that's a weird instinct that sometimes children have you remember that movie carrie when they uh she goes to the prom and the see you ever see a cissy space music movie it's based on a great stephen king book you know i i know the cover i yeah the the cissy's basic movie was really trippy.

[387] John Travolta's in it back in the day, young and handsome.

[388] But it's, you know, that's the themes that they push her.

[389] She has these crazy telekinetic powers, and they push her to this point, and they do it by mocking her and bullying her.

[390] They take her to the prom, and they pour pig's blood on her head.

[391] She winds up killing everybody.

[392] Oh, wow.

[393] Yeah, it's pretty crazy.

[394] But that thing that happens when kids gang up on a kid that they feel like is vulnerable, like what the fuck is that?

[395] man what a horrible instinct like is that but i mean i just i struggle to understand where that instinct comes from or why people do it it's um especially little kids yeah i mean i guess i could understand that if the kids have been abused themselves and they want to lash out they're angry and hurt but oftentimes it's just they find someone who's a vulnerable it's like they find the pecking order and they find the one person they can get away with and they all funnel their insecurities and their anger and their aggression on this one person just because with no regard whatsoever what kind of impact it's going to have on that kid yeah and i think i think one of the things that makes it so much worse now is at least i mean i don't know i get to hear some of the stuff and they can't escape it like because it follows them home i'm all that cyberbullying and they get the text and the all the stuff so it's constantly so i could at least escape it from i don't know eight to three eight to three i was at school but when I came home, I was, I was okay.

[396] And maybe that gave me a break, but a little bit of a break from it.

[397] But, I mean, it's nuts.

[398] The world that we live in and the stuff that's happening.

[399] I mean, what you said happened in Germany and other, like, school shootings have happened here.

[400] I was in Aurora when the movie theater thing happened.

[401] And it's just terrible, but then there's absolutely, without a doubt, zero excuse for, you don't ever do anything like that.

[402] But then I kind of have looked at it maybe once before.

[403] be stupid for me to talk about it now, but I kind of can see where they've been pushed over the edge in a way, no excuse, they should not ever do anything like that.

[404] But for me, it's like, man, it was never a fair fight.

[405] They were always cornered, outnumbered, beaten down over and over and over, and then they just snapped.

[406] And now it's terrible.

[407] Don't do...

[408] Yeah, I don't know if that's the case of the Aurora shooter.

[409] I think he was completely insane.

[410] Yeah.

[411] But I think it certainly can happen to people where they get to this point where not only do they not want to live, they don't want you to live anymore either.

[412] Because, I mean, I'm sure if you had been in a situation where you knew someone, you had a friend who was in the same boat as you, you know, like those kids from Columbine, you know, where the two kids got together and they sort of helped each other do something really fucked up.

[413] If you were involved with the wrong people at that time and someone had a gun and you knew where these kids were and you, you know.

[414] know you wanted to do that to yourself who knows what you would have wanted to do to them as well yeah it's it's a it's kind of a scary thing to think about i i did have a dark period it was i think it was in between seventh and eighth grade where i started hanging out with a lot of the i don't know just the the kids that are were involved in just darker thoughts music stuff like that where it um where you know i'm hanging out with them and we're all we're all that Papa Roach song, the Last Resort, you know, I think it's like, cut myself bleeding, you know, I'm never gonna, or I don't want to breathe again or live again or something like that.

[415] And then all of a sudden they're bringing out, what are those big, big black cats or those M80s or something like that.

[416] There's a bunch of frogs where we lived in the country and they go, get the frogs, blow up a frog.

[417] Get another frog, blow up a frog.

[418] Oh, Jesus.

[419] And also I'm like, hey, this is a little way too dark for me. So I'm gonna.

[420] How do you blow up a frog?

[421] frog you stick it in its mouth yeah stick in his mouth and just light it right in front sorry for anyone and the frog just keeps it in his mouth for some strange version they're hopping hop and hopping with it in its mouth and because i i think maybe with the m80s they use those because they're big so you stick it in there it kind of sticks it oh they can't get it out oh god yeah so brutal anyways when that happened i was like okay i i need to i need to change the that was a group of like five or six kids that were just in a very very dark place and even once you even one's in jail so fuck dude what a bummer you're bumming me out i don't want to do that every time you've been here it's just been all joyful and loving and all the things i didn't know your history well hey man it's just honest expression there's nothing wrong with it it's just it makes me um as an adult i almost want to go back in time and like stop it from happening you know it makes me it makes me very sad It's just, it's one of the worst aspects of human beings that they could plan something like that and do that and just try to ruin someone's life just for sport, just for fun for no reason.

[422] You didn't do anything to them.

[423] It's just, it's fucked up, man. I see it as a thing that actually helped shape and mold me now in a way of like, I look at it and it's, it was Loretta while we were writing the book.

[424] She's like, do you not see all these kind of parallels?

[425] And I'm like, what do you mean?

[426] You grew up, got really, really bullied.

[427] and they're trying to help people that are like maybe the most bully people on planet earth.

[428] I'm like, oh, I guess I see that now and the, what was it last, not the last trip, but the second to last trip to Congo that had.

[429] I was there and we're having to get a mechanic to help wear tires and different stuff and all of a sudden a drunk mechanic comes out and he's always drunk and he comes out, he's talking with us, this little boy walks by, he's literally, he should be in school, but because his family's so poor, he's out selling eggs.

[430] And if he's selling eggs, you make, you know, nothing.

[431] But he'll never be able to go school probably, and he's just trying to make money to feed his family.

[432] And he's literally five, six, seven years old.

[433] And he's coming around selling the eggs.

[434] Normally they sell them hard -boiled, but sometimes they don't.

[435] When they're walking around, you want to eat it then.

[436] But this kids, we're all raw.

[437] And so it's even harder for him to sell them.

[438] But the drunk guy picked up the egg.

[439] He's looking at it, shakes it a little bit, finds out it's raw, and just smashes him the kids.

[440] This is an adult, 30 -something -year -old man, and this is literally a 5, 6, 7, 8 -year -old kid just smashes it over his head, and the kid looks up at him with just fear.

[441] I mean, it's not smart for me because I'm the outsider to the government's eyes and everything else, but, like, I almost got in a fist fight with him.

[442] I remember just pulling my hand straight back and just almost just backhanding him right across the face.

[443] And then Ben's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[444] And I grabbed the, I think I grabbed his shirt, grabbed a shoulder and i said ben translate for me real quick if he ever leaves his hands on that kid or any other kid i'm gonna lay my hands on him and so just make sure he understands that this kind of thing and um i don't even know my woman that except for yeah man i just don't get get people sometimes um let's we'll get into some positive stuff but that that one just blew me away i was like you you're an old guy picking on a a kindergartner i just as a i mean as a person I don't understand it, but I also don't understand it, like, logically.

[445] I don't understand, like, where that inclination comes from.

[446] Like, what, what is it about a human being that makes them want to do that?

[447] Like, what, how did that develop?

[448] How is it so common?

[449] I don't know.

[450] I guess when you put someone down, you feel better about yourself.

[451] But do you, really?

[452] I mean, does anybody really?

[453] I know.

[454] What I've found is the exact opposite.

[455] When you help somebody, it actually helps you.

[456] Of course.

[457] love somebody you feel more loved when you yeah you know so um so it's counterintuitive but that's kind of what people do right do the opposite of what we could or should but it's so common i i i wonder like what is the cause the root cause of it or does it play some sort of evolutionary role like what is it like like pecking order with chickens like they try to find out who's the weakest one and they'll attack they'll all attack like the weakest chicken they'll all peck at it it's it's like what the fuck is that like why is it are they trying to weed out the week is it an evolutionary thing is it are they terrified of someone doing that to them so they strike first well you know what there's actually a pretty incredible video pull this up to you so yeah because of the voices is actually a pretty incredible that i was absolutely terrible whenever i gave the speech or whatever but i played part of the video cut it down to like three minutes it's like 12 i think it's called the battle at kruger have you seen that no it's in africa um Oh, I have seen that.

[458] Yeah.

[459] That's the water buffaloes and the lions and the crocodile.

[460] Yep.

[461] The lion takes the back of the pack, the smaller, weaker, younger.

[462] Lions all go after that one.

[463] Tackle it, splash in the water.

[464] They're dragging the baby out of the lake and then all, or river, and all of a sudden a huge crocodile comes and grabs it.

[465] And they have a tug -of -war match with this baby, I think it was a Cape Buffalo.

[466] Cape Buffalo, yeah.

[467] And so it wasn't a Wilderbeast, right?

[468] It was capable of.

[469] I think.

[470] Anyways, one of those.

[471] And, yeah, it's nuts.

[472] But what I love, almost in that analogy of where, you know, if you're standing by, like, you're encouraging it or if you're not doing anything, you're encouraging it.

[473] But if you just stand up, oh, that's the stat I saw where 87 % of bullying happens in the presence of nobody.

[474] But in the times that it is around people, if one person says one thing to the bully, 90 % of the time, it's 80 to 90 % of the time, it stops within five seconds.

[475] The bullying, it just stops.

[476] And it doesn't have to be anything aggressive.

[477] It can be, hey, man, lay off of them.

[478] And then if you, after that, it's something like 95 % of the time, if you invite the bullied victim to come into your group or hang out or sit at your table or whatever, then it stops even better right away when you don't address the bully, you address the person that's getting bullied.

[479] So it seems like the people that are bullying, they almost need reinforcement.

[480] And they get, they're getting reinforcement by people being complicit or being silent or they're joining in like those lines the one line decides to take out the little guys so different though that's what they just that's what they do for food you know that's how they stay alive that's a natural instinct this is a weird evilness the one thing i do like about it though is with those two stats like say something don't be passive whenever one cape buffalo turned around a couple other ones did too and then one came in there in the middle of the one hit one line threw it in the air and and then all of them tucked tail and ran.

[481] Yeah, once they realize what a Cape Buffalo could actually do to them.

[482] Man, that's so terrible.

[483] You know, Cape Buffalo's apparently are some of the most dangerous animals in Africa, and they will charge you.

[484] Yeah, I've seen it.

[485] They're just so used to being around people or around animals rather that are trying to kill them.

[486] Yeah.

[487] I almost got us arrested and not just a little bit, a lot of bit where we accidentally, I believe the Serengeti is in Tanzania, and we're on the border of Kenyan, Tanzania, and we're taking a shortcut from some locals, which is always fine if you're from there.

[488] And we saw this awesome, but we didn't know we were going through the Sarangetti.

[489] They just thought it was a shortcut.

[490] We didn't pay for a park pass or anything like that.

[491] And all of a sudden I see this just gigantic Cape Buffalo skull just sitting in the middle of nowhere.

[492] I'm like, let's get that, let's take it back.

[493] And so we put that in the back of the truck.

[494] All of a sudden we're driving, and we get pulled over by the, the park rangers then they see the cape buffalo skull they say we're poachers they say this that and just swarmed by uh by all these these park rangers like three or four different vehicles so they're going to arrest me all this different stuff and in our crew and uh luckily anyways that's a random thing but luckily we just said hey can i just put it right back where it was i didn't i didn't mean to i didn't know we were in a national park yeah they don't take any bullshit from poachers out there it's very dangerous they they kill poachers on site yeah um they can kill them where it's a lot of times it's um literally the life in prison sentence for for for for for um like endangered species for sure with like uh the okopee um one of my last trip someone tried to i i think i maybe said that earlier where on one of the past episodes where someone tried to sell me the meat and the fur of an okopee and then um the okubes are endangered Yes.

[495] And they're only found in the one area that we're kind of working in.

[496] And the rebel groups there went to a little wildlife reserve for them, protecting them.

[497] And they went and murdered like, I don't know, 15 or 20 of them, something like that.

[498] They were there trying to help stimulate them, you know, help them come back in the wild and everything else.

[499] They just went and killed them all.

[500] Yeah.

[501] And then another guy was trying to sell me a rhino horn.

[502] and yeah it's just brutal now poaching sucks but i love how the the pygmy's culture has with with hunting i even have a quick video um if i think um did you see what they're doing where they're making 3d printed uh cloned rhino horns and they're going to flood the market with them that's a great idea yeah see if you can find that with the shark fins too right yeah yeah they're um i mean these people eat shark fins.

[503] I mean, it's it's fucked up that they're killing them all and making soup out of them, but Jesus, at least they're eating them.

[504] The rhino thing is insane.

[505] Yeah.

[506] It's...

[507] It's absolutely based on nothing.

[508] I mean, the eye...

[509] Medicine.

[510] But it's crazy.

[511] Yeah.

[512] I just can't imagine that here we are in 2016 with Viagra and Cialis and all these different boner pills you buy at the gas station that Red Band takes.

[513] When I was pulling this up, I found this on vice and also 3D printing the rhino horns are not the solution to poaching crisis experts say yeah the experts don't agree that that's the best way well I don't know if it's the best way either I mean I just can't imagine that the rhinos are literally on the verge of going extinct because people want to kill them and take their horns which do nothing I mean it's isn't it like the same substance as like a fingernail or toenail yeah it is exactly that's exactly what it is it's like hair yeah it's but they have this erroneous idea that you eat it and it makes your dick hard.

[514] I just I don't know, what the fuck is going on with Asia?

[515] That's a broad statement, isn't it?

[516] Boy, boy, I generalize.

[517] It generalize on a billion people.

[518] The fuck's going on with Asia, man. I mean, I wonder, I think it's also a status symbol I was reading that even though it might not necessarily be real or really work, but it's such an ancient, cultural, status symbol thing that like these businessmen will get together and they'll have like rhino horn tea you know and they but they think it's cool because it's illegal and you can't get it and it's dangerous and it's got to come from africa and so must for the work i don't no no i'm just kidding maybe that's what they think though if it's illegal it's this expensive yeah maybe it does something their their grandfather said it worked his grandfather said it worked why don't you google that jame it does rhino horn actually work no it It won't.

[519] I know.

[520] I mean, maybe it doesn't work as good as other stuff.

[521] Your fingernails doesn't...

[522] Maybe it does.

[523] Then you just got to eat enough fingernails.

[524] Yeah.

[525] What's an acceptable source to find?

[526] This is true or not.

[527] I don't think there would be one.

[528] Is it from China's Google?

[529] Isn't that funny?

[530] Like, you have to find a website that you trust, right?

[531] It's got to be like wired .com or something like that.

[532] PBS has a story on factor fiction use on it, but...

[533] What does that say?

[534] PBS is probably valid.

[535] That's a lot of information that has.

[536] have to read first, but just a long article about it.

[537] Rhino horn use fact or fiction.

[538] I always, when I'm exhausted and I look at something like that, I go to the very bottom and say, hmm, how do they wrap this up?

[539] Overall, not much evidence to support.

[540] Yeah, the plethora of claims about the hearing properties of the horns.

[541] There you go.

[542] That's a good little tip I just learned from it.

[543] Yeah, if you're not really, this isn't life dependent.

[544] This is not something that you're really, it's not really a factor in your life.

[545] Yeah.

[546] Just go to the bottom line.

[547] It is very strange.

[548] Oh, okay.

[549] Not believed as once believed.

[550] It's not as once believed, rather, made simply from a clump of compressed or modified hair.

[551] Recent studies by researchers in Ohio University, Ohio, there you go, using computerized, what is that word, tomography?

[552] CT scans have shown that the horns are in fact similar in structure to horses' hooves, turtle beaks and cockatoo bills.

[553] The studies also reveal that the centers of the horns have dense mineral.

[554] deposits of calcium and melanin, a finding that may explain the curve and shape, sharp tip of the horn, the calcium would strengthen the horn, while the melanin would protect some of the core from being degradated by ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

[555] Huh.

[556] Softer, outer portion worn away over time by the sun and typical rhino activities, bashing horns with other animals, rubbing it on the ground.

[557] The inner core would be sharpened into a point, much like a wooden pencil.

[558] Huh.

[559] Yeah, there were, in the horn that, this kid was basically trying to sell it.

[560] He was like 15, 16 years old.

[561] His dad was the poacher, and his dad didn't want to get arrested, so he sends his kid.

[562] And it had all sorts of, like, deep, deep, like, scratches inside of it and stuff.

[563] Or just all over kind of the top was all nicked up and stuff.

[564] University of Hong Kong found that large doses of rhino horn extract could slightly lower fever in rats.

[565] Imagine if rhino horn was a cure to malaria.

[566] when we would start breeding them right for like we do with chickens and stuff yeah how strange it's just it mean obviously it's not happening in the western world it's not happening here uh but it could i guess right i mean some people are just fucked up some people they don't care if something's about to go extinct they just want they want what they want and if they want that rhino horn for whatever strange reason it's just you know what's like It's like kind of with the trees.

[567] You know, we're getting ready, I think, to replant.

[568] I think it's 1 ,000 more trees, which would take our total up to 4 ,500 on the land for the pygmies.

[569] And around there, the reason that, I mean, China and all these other places are coming in there, cutting down the rare hardwoods, the mahogany, and the reason King Leopold went there was the rubber boom and the trees there and everything else.

[570] But then it's just nuts, man, because I think there, you know, They want it for greed, money, everything else.

[571] But then the people in the country, they're starting to learn and get educated in the fact that, like, hey, if we're cutting down all these trees, we better start replanting some because it takes so long for them to grow back.

[572] And so, no, but it's just for charcoal or fire.

[573] And they're like, once that's gone, what do you have?

[574] Yeah.

[575] Boonea, actually, the town that all of our well drillers live in at the university, they used to be in a rainforest.

[576] Now you have to drive three, four hours to get to the closest forest.

[577] Whoa.

[578] You have to drive three or four hours away, and it used to be in the center of the, not center of the rainforest, but the edge of the rainforest.

[579] Oh, my God.

[580] It used to be all forest.

[581] No, it's not.

[582] Three or four hours drive.

[583] Yeah.

[584] It's all just because of deforestation, all chopping down for logging.

[585] Fuck, man. I was in Canada, and they do a pretty good job of regulating it in BC, but it's still disserving because you come across these big gigantic fields where the trees are just gone.

[586] All the trees have been cut.

[587] And, you know, they plant some and they have, they also have, like, perches.

[588] They leave perches for animals, which is probably like an awesome spot for, like, a hawk or an eagle or something like that.

[589] Because everything's cut down.

[590] They can see everything.

[591] They see straight to the prey.

[592] Yeah, but it's these cut, I forget what they call it, these patch.

[593] where everything's cut down.

[594] It's so disturbing.

[595] It's like, I get, I get that they replant, I get that they have a cycle, I get that this, but it just bugs me that people could do that.

[596] They just giant swaths of the landscape shaved off and turned into toothpicks or whatever the fuck they do with it.

[597] Yeah, and so I was in a village before my wife's first time to Congo, and it was, I mean, it was almost like, you know, lush, untouched, virgin forest.

[598] And then all of a sudden, come back next time with her, come out for us, come back in.

[599] It was probably a month or so because we went to a couple other villages.

[600] We'd go back, start going on the same hike.

[601] And all of a sudden there's just a huge clearing, at least 10 acres, probably 20, 25.

[602] And it was just nothing there except for a few remaining huge cut -down trees that I could stand in front of in the, I don't know, the base or whatever was way taller than I was.

[603] I look like a midget next to that.

[604] Fuck, man. So, yeah, it's pretty crazy.

[605] And I was telling her, I'm like, babe, like, when I was like, take some picture of this.

[606] I think I have some pictures right here of where we are right now on this trail.

[607] And, like, there used to be trees here.

[608] And it was nuts because all of a sudden, for me, if I'm, the rainforest is great, actually.

[609] I mean, it's hot and I'm all hairy.

[610] But she or, but being under the canopy of the rainforest, I mean, I love that because it's shaded and everything else.

[611] Right.

[612] Still hot, still humid, but I'm not getting burned.

[613] Yeah.

[614] Yeah, especially, yeah, you're really pale, right?

[615] On a hike, I was getting burned, and I'm like, man, this is nuts.

[616] Especially you're on that malaria medication, right?

[617] Right.

[618] They were talking on this documentary I was watching about the deforestation of the Amazon, about how fast it's happening and how terrifying it is, and a big part of it, I guess, is not even, well, there's logging, but there's also they cut it down to make room for cattle grazing.

[619] And when they were showing, there's just a sheer size of this.

[620] the deforestation of how much they've done in so quickly.

[621] And then also the people that live in these areas where if they resist the loggers or they resist, they just get murdered.

[622] Yeah, especially the indigenous people that are more out there.

[623] And that happens with the pygmies too, because they're the weaker, more vulnerable ones that you can push around and they can't push back.

[624] When you consider your life and you consider this horrible, these stories that you're telling us about your upbringing, how disturbing it is.

[625] Does it feel to you since you've found this sense of purpose and this real connection with these people in the Congo that almost like these horrible events in your life were setting you up to be the perfect person to find these folks?

[626] Without a doubt.

[627] For me, honestly, it's almost like, it's the right word.

[628] Maybe sort of my chance at kind of redemption or just not being the kid that I grew up being not that I was a bad kid or anything but just I hated myself and I was like you know what I get to I get to stop hating myself and I get to stop love it and I get to start loving others and not just that you also have this massive impact on other people you have all these people that love you you have this amazing wife now you have this amazing pygmy family you have your regular family it's amazing like you have so much positive going on now it's really kind of incredible it's almost like you're the horrible experiences you had as a young kid have sort of made you into this incredible adult oh i'll think i don't know about that because i well you're very jack up and i uh but you know what i missed i mean i i don't even know how this honestly there's there's not a good explanation that i could probably explain that like it should be working or that it's working like it is because well with me at the front of it because I don't have any community development training or a degree I actually don't speak the language I'm learning but how much can you speak when he wrote a mentory I don't even know like Como Teiyamo Joe yeah I can say my name is this where's the bathroom right you're doing okay you're sure when they start bocola you're like ah you lost me it's tough if if if if if if if The saying is pretty...

[629] What does it sound like?

[630] What do they sound like when they're talking?

[631] Jimmy, Woo -wa!

[632] Loua!

[633] Hey, yo!

[634] Hey, yo!

[635] That's what they talk?

[636] Oh, yay!

[637] That's what they talk?

[638] That's kind of like our walkie -talkies.

[639] Oh, yeah?

[640] You yell that out, let people know where you are?

[641] So what are you saying when you're saying that?

[642] That is actually, that's not a word, it's just kind of like your own.

[643] It's like yo?

[644] Yeah.

[645] Or it's actually like, I'm over here.

[646] Where are you?

[647] Kind of things like that.

[648] Or we're just checking.

[649] We're even just excitement, just fun.

[650] I mean, whenever we go on hikes, Those hikes are long, right?

[651] And there's no TV or you can't text or scroll, scroll, the internet.

[652] You, yeah, have each other, which is always great, but then you goof off.

[653] I mean, actually, you know what?

[654] I bet in one of those videos it has them speaking, and it's pretty awesome.

[655] I remember that.

[656] When you're saying hikes, like, you're talking like recreational hikes?

[657] No, no. You just got to get around.

[658] You hear someone talk about hikes in L .A. It's like, oh, I'm going to take my little dog to run you.

[659] and we're going to go hiking.

[660] Like you say hiking.

[661] That's what people think of.

[662] They think of some recreational activity with one of those little, you know, those little camel things, the little water things, camelback, water reservoirs.

[663] You put on your back and you suck on the straw as you're walking.

[664] It's funny.

[665] It's a thing, I, staying hydrated.

[666] I took a couple of those to Congo the first couple times, and I realized just how impractical they are.

[667] And in a real long term, not a day hike or a three -day weekend or something.

[668] A lot of guys don't like those.

[669] Yeah.

[670] A lot of guys don't like them.

[671] They'd rather have a, how do you say that word, Nalgene, Nalgene, right?

[672] Nalgene.

[673] How do you say it?

[674] I think it's Nalgin.

[675] What is that?

[676] Is this like a certain type of plastic?

[677] I think it's a really hard, durable plastic that.

[678] Yeah, that people use for water jugs.

[679] But a lot's what I would rather use because the other one's too hard to clean and too hard to fill up and leaks and it's just all sorts of stuff.

[680] But some people like it because they don't, they don't have to stop.

[681] They can just keep walking, just suck on that thing as they're walking.

[682] I've never used one, though.

[683] Yeah, I used it for the first two times I went, which was like about a month each.

[684] You switch to water bottles?

[685] Yeah, and then even they have those camelback kind of like, I think they're called like a platypus or something that's, it's a gravity filter for water where you have a dirty water bag and you have a clean, scoop the dirty, hang the dirty and it goes down through a filter into the clean bag.

[686] Yeah, I've seen that.

[687] interesting yeah those don't let me see if you could find that does that work those don't work the uh i think they work great here in the states where you're not dealing with much right but whenever the water is is is dirty like really dirty um it they break pretty quick so you have to backwash them and other stuff there's there's some that are that are good but even the maintenance of them just really really tough so they work for like one filtration but they won't work over and over and over again?

[688] My first time I went for about a month.

[689] I had it for a week or two.

[690] And then all of a sudden it started breaking because I was even filtering the water, you know, in the town that's coming from wells because I don't know if they.

[691] Right.

[692] If they did it properly, right?

[693] When they built it.

[694] And so I had been sick enough.

[695] I'm like, I'm done of this.

[696] I hear you.

[697] So I'm filtering that stuff.

[698] And then by the time I get out to the forest, I was able to use it a few days.

[699] And then it was out.

[700] And then all of a sudden I was stuck with just chlorine tablets, the rest of the.

[701] And you can't boil it, but it's just impractical where every single time you want to drink, you take a, you know, take a container down to dirty water, which could be 30, 40, 5 minutes away.

[702] Bring it back, boil it.

[703] Right.

[704] Bring it back, boil it.

[705] Filter it.

[706] Yeah, and then all of a sudden all the ash is getting in it.

[707] And then it's the hot, humid rainforest on the equator and boiling water doesn't cool down basically ever there.

[708] And so it's, it's impractical to do it that way.

[709] Fuck.

[710] But what I love now is, oh, you know what I'm pumped up there we go?

[711] Let's do it.

[712] So this girl, first of all, she's way too hot to be in this video.

[713] She's very distracting.

[714] But they're going to take this in what looks like a very clean stream.

[715] So this is so much different than what you, but people should also be aware that clean streams, although they may look clean, you can still get jar dea from them.

[716] Yeah, that's exactly what I learned from his name, his name is.

[717] buddy mine named Matt he was the director of implementation now he's like the I think chief operating officer and he uh he came out there and one of the things he really drilled into us for a well drilling team we're learning from a great guy he's saying hey you can uh you can drill a hundred wells or 200 wells but if you didn't do it right and proper then I would have rather you done one the right way or none none if you do it the right or the wrong way a hundred times two hundred times Sometimes, and you are giving a village, like you just hit home hard because he's like, look, we're learning every single step.

[718] You can't skip one.

[719] We've got to drill us in you where you know it, you know, because we can't skip a step or miss something.

[720] And then all of a sudden, they are looking at it, drinking it, it tastes good.

[721] It's clean.

[722] It's cool.

[723] It's crisp.

[724] It's in a well.

[725] But yet it can still be, you know, contaminated dirty.

[726] You can still get real sick if you don't properly construct the well.

[727] No matter what well it is.

[728] The well's here.

[729] anywhere what is the what are the factors like when you say properly construct like what are the issues that you have to avoid yes we um man and our our team's getting getting great but by way real quick last time i was on the show i think we had completed 20 water wells yeah i went back and looked at that 20 water wells today i got a picture sent to me um and it's our 45th water well oh yeah man that's incredible dude i love it i absolutely love it and so what's so great is seeing that you know they're they're they're they're taking this on as as their own thing and flying on their own two wings they they were empowered in a way that's like hey you can you can do this you can do it for yourself for your countrymen um you guys are going to be more passionate about ending the suffering because you know the suffering because you have suffered you've lost family members you have sick kids all that different stuff and so they're going to be able to be a better champion for this cause than I could be because I mean maybe we have different resources where I get to you know you share your platform with me which has been incredible and the kickstart and the documentary coming out all the different stuff is really great but um but I know that the team there like I I couldn't do anything without them doing it and how great they've gotten but well that's a beautiful thing that you've helped them help themselves You taught them how to help themselves.

[730] Yeah.

[731] Well, I think that's...

[732] There you are right there.

[733] Look at that picture.

[734] There we go.

[735] Yeah.

[736] I love it.

[737] That, to me, if I could explain it, is better than, I don't know, I've been to the world.

[738] I was just at UFC 200.

[739] Was that the World Series, NBA Finals, Super Bowl, Pachial fights.

[740] I mean, I've been to all these things.

[741] And, I mean, those crowds, those huge crowds are 30, 40, 50, 50.

[742] hundred thousand different stuff and that little crowd of 100 120 like to me it drowns out the sound of a entire stadium like it's a different kind of it's a different kind of gratitude thankfulness right when you've suffered your whole life and then you you get to partner with people and then i'm not even talking about me like our team our well drillers you know they see them coming in staying with them living like they're living eating like they're eating sitting around the campfire like they sit around, which nobody else does that with them.

[743] And so sleeping in the huts that they sleep in, which nobody else would do in that area.

[744] And then, like, you just develop this bond and really quickly and to where all of a sudden they're jumping in and helping with the construction of the well and everything else.

[745] Now, they do the simple day laborer stuff, not the technical stuff.

[746] But then, yeah, our guys are, they're getting it down, which is pretty cool.

[747] That's amazing.

[748] Now, you're at 45 wells.

[749] Yeah.

[750] And what is, do you have an ultimate goal or would you just like to continue?

[751] I think the, my ultimate goal lines up with Water 4's ultimate goal, which I love.

[752] And then with our drillers in Congo, like our goal is to end the water crisis if possible.

[753] We think it is possible.

[754] And we have the technology.

[755] We should be able to do it in our lifetime.

[756] Like before you or me past this earth, like we should have the technology to get everyone clean water.

[757] Isn't it crazy that that's their issue?

[758] When over here in America, we have so many trivial things that we're constantly worrying about and fretting, when it gets down to basic human necessities like water, the ability to get clean water, which is without that, all the other things that we argue are bicker about, they're all, it's all nonsense.

[759] Yeah, absolutely.

[760] That's something that, oh, man, that's something that I almost, I get this crazy culture.

[761] shot because I feel like I'm in two different worlds and when I'm there it's so I mean there's it's uncomfortable but because I'm passionate about it you know I enjoy it but then getting back here sometimes it's like man like everything a lot of times everything that we're chasing even me it doesn't really matter in the big grand scheme of things you know how can we how can we instead get for ourselves how can we give to another person because like I mean it truly is like that's that's better and I know you have to take care of yourself so you can take care of someone else like I get that right um I just think it's kind of like this our culture here you see kids and even adults that's mine right I mean that's that's our culture we say that's mine give me that it's mine in Congo if if a kid if that kid that had the eggs instead of having an egg if he had a bag of peanuts and he bought it for himself and then I walk by sit down with him if I'm a friend or not even just introducing myself he's going to offer me his food he said like instead of it's mine he's going to say you want some and so it's different in that culture where it's not they don't have anything but they'll give you everything they got like for instance um that that knife last time uh that I was able to you know bring back that chief leome made um you know he he made a bow and arrow and I'm actually bringing that to you, it was under our crawl space and I lost it and now I know where it is.

[762] But he's pumped to bring that back to you.

[763] But I mean, for them to give that kind of stuff away, whenever Leo May, he's the chief of his village and now because he's got a job, he might have more.

[764] But whenever I knew him, he had maybe he was lucky if he had two changes of clothes.

[765] Because most of the pygmies have the clothes on their back.

[766] They don't even have a blanket.

[767] The fire is their blanket.

[768] Wow.

[769] And so it's just, completely I don't know night and day difference there's a lot of people to listen to this that have gotten this far that want to figure out how they can help so what what can people do to donate where where can they go water for his website is that the best place to start or fight for the forgotten .com both of them are one in the same fight for the forgotten dot com yeah dot com dot org they both work both work fact for the guy on org dot com and there's a big yellow donate button click on that and have at it folks Well, thank you, man. It's been crazy to see what's going on.

[770] We're getting ready to do something that I'm pumped about.

[771] Me and Papa Y and Ben and Matt, we had like talked about it and kind of dreamed it up.

[772] And we were saying how awesome would it be if in this, if in Bunea, which is kind of a city center, maybe less than half a million people for sure.

[773] But, you know, in the city center where there's a university, there's a community development program that's literally changing their part of Congo.

[774] by not waiting on the government or by not waiting on an NGO, like they're just taking the initiative themselves.

[775] And so we've seen that they're so bought in that whenever we presented an idea of, what if we could start a sustainable solutions appropriate technology center where there's land, water, and food solutions, and then after that maybe we can get into solar.

[776] Maybe after that we can do this or that or whatever.

[777] But at that place, we'll have different stations where here's land, you can come learn about land rights, how to replant the trees, the forestry aspect, you know, all that different stuff, the importance of land, and we have people there that can help and show them things.

[778] If a chief wants to come in and book our well drilling team for their community, for their, they can come in, see how we do it, why we do it, everything about it.

[779] We want to have a little conference room where we can train people up on the wash program because now we're doing that.

[780] All the villages that we've drilled wells in, we're going back in and we're doing the wash program, water and sanitation and hygiene.

[781] and so with that i mean if you have they have outhouses what do they use for they're getting them they're getting them now and so uh for the year i was there there was one or two of the ten villages we were in had a quote unquote latrine but it was only like three or four feet deep which isn't isn't a safe so most of them are just going in the woods yeah and honestly like that's if yeah until you do it the right way with because outside of there's some of those some of those latrines in the cities.

[782] Man, I definitely think I've gotten sick from a fly that maybe landed there.

[783] So, I mean, I don't know.

[784] But yeah, so we get to go in there now, teach them how to dig the latrines, make sure it's way far enough away from the water well.

[785] And then, you know, outside of the...

[786] That's another issue too, right?

[787] It can contaminate the water.

[788] Yeah, if you want, if you have to keep, what is I think, 30 meters away or more, any latrines.

[789] And then if it's a, uh, uh, like a, what was that, a dump, trash dump.

[790] It has to be 50 meters or more.

[791] There's any batteries, different stuff like that in it.

[792] And so, yeah, we make sure.

[793] And this is what's nuts.

[794] So one of my last trips I went and we're going through Uganda on the border of Congo.

[795] And there's these people that are so proud of their water well.

[796] And I love that.

[797] But then I feel like the people who ever did it, I don't know, cut them.

[798] really short or just they shouldn't be drilling wells because i went in the restroom and then all of a sudden i look out the window and it's i'm at a gas station ugana's a lot nicer than congo um i mean there's still terrible brutal poverty parts of that but it's just night and day difference um and whenever i looked out i see there's here's the 18 wheeler filling up here's someone else filling up and in between that i'm i'm at the toilets at the other side there's a trash dump there's 18 wheelers and trucks filling up with fuel and right in the middle of the two fuel pumps is a water well.

[799] Oh, God.

[800] They drilled it on the, on the lot of the gas station with a trash dump, with the latrines and toilets.

[801] Oh, God.

[802] And so it was completely contaminating.

[803] And the line was so long.

[804] And Ben was trying to tell him, like, hey, just want to tell you, because we love you, that water is really not safe.

[805] Same thing.

[806] Matt, Matt, kind of ingrained that into us to where it's like, you know, you got to do it the right way.

[807] and so Ben was taught that.

[808] So this was a recent well that these guys had put in?

[809] And it was one of the...

[810] And there's a big line of people to try to get to this recent well.

[811] I'm telling you there was at least 20, 30 people in line.

[812] And Ben was trying to tell them in the most appropriate way possible to, like, not crush the hopes and dreams of the village there.

[813] But he also wanted to know, like, hey, this water can...

[814] It looks safe.

[815] It's not.

[816] Oh, God.

[817] And so that's why we're testing our wells and...

[818] Whatever happened in that, did you have to leave?

[819] Yeah, I mean, it's a...

[820] town we don't i've been in the town maybe twice but um yeah this the first time i i saw it last time jesus yeah so uh but that's what's great a lot of people don't know like uh i think it's no i know it is half the hospital beds in the world right now are because of dirty water or waterborne related diseases half half in the world yep so if if we were able to if if as human beings If we could join forces unite, kind of like everyone did against Ebola.

[821] You know, if we attack the problem head on, and just because we got it, we don't pretend everybody else has it.

[822] Like, we could really end this thing.

[823] We could, we could fix it.

[824] Like, the tools are there.

[825] The water is there.

[826] It's under our feet.

[827] And here we waste it, and there we, there they don't have it.

[828] We don't hear about Ebola anymore.

[829] It's like it's over.

[830] It's like they moved on to Zika.

[831] Zika?

[832] Zika.

[833] Yeah, Zika.

[834] Yeah.

[835] are all the Olympians are going to get it?

[836] Yeah, they're fucked.

[837] Yeah.

[838] All of them.

[839] Oh, this last time when I got back, they were, the CDC was testing me. Two different rounds of treatments trying to figure out what.

[840] So on that trip, I told you going in, I got malaria.

[841] Right.

[842] Now, malaria, keep me to ask you this.

[843] If you have malaria, can someone else get it from you?

[844] No. If a mosquito stings you while you have malaria and then stings somebody else, they can't get it?

[845] Uh, I mean, that's, that's when I know.

[846] I've never heard of, I mean, I've never thought of that one, but...

[847] Remember that when people were worried about that with HIV?

[848] They were worried about mosquito transmission.

[849] That was like the big thing.

[850] Keep away from gay people in the summer.

[851] Yeah.

[852] No, I, I had never thought of that, but I know that...

[853] Don't shoot hair in the swamp.

[854] I know that the, yeah, the doctors that, you know, they're always saying, you're fine.

[855] I mean, I can fight and everything else.

[856] That's crazy.

[857] You have malaria and you can fight.

[858] Yeah, but I literally don't, because it's in my liver, I think you would have to go into the liver, unless it was a current outbreak that.

[859] What about a liver kick?

[860] If you got liver kicked?

[861] Don't let out that secret.

[862] Just kidding.

[863] No, but it's, it's been a lot of fun to, I don't know, I think what maybe kind of shifted was that kind of growing up, you know, getting bullied, you're only looking at, why am I getting bullied?

[864] and all this stuff's true and I am not a good person and then or nobody likes me whatever then when I got 23 fighting still not really fulfilled I was living for more for myself there and I'm like man what what am I doing with my life and now it's so cool because seeing that and being able to tell you that last time I was here 20 water wells or 25 but regardless we've we've done 20 or 25 more and so that to me is a life that I get to look at and If I were to, if I were to die, I know, I know without a shadow of a doubt that my life meant something.

[865] And I know that I would have, I never felt that before during the depression, addiction and all that other stuff.

[866] But now I know that the life I live hopefully will, I'll outlive my life, you know, like the, I want this team to do what they're doing, climb higher than I can climb farther than I can run, jump higher than I can jump, you know, like, I want my, what's that saying?

[867] I want my ceiling to be their floor.

[868] I want them to go farther than I can go because then that means that I actually made a impact that matters, that mattered to them enough, that it continued, that it had a residual effect, it just kept, kept on going.

[869] And man, that's really shifted kind of, kind of everything in my life.

[870] Like, man, this is what life is about.

[871] like if i've been signed in my book recently or ever since it came out but i sign it live to love love to live and i know that can sound cheesy or goofy or whatever but that's something that just really helped me whenever i was sobering up was man if that's what i focus on if i can live my life to love love then i'll love to live but everyone wants to love their own life that they live and so they're just focused on that and get this and get this materialistic thing and get this different chick because she didn't make me happier you know this or that or whatever whenever it's like you know what like hey let's focus let's i don't know if that's makes sense i think there's a natural inclination to gravitate towards unattatable things like ferrari's and mansions and you see those things on tv and the movies and you just that shows you that you've made it and when you don't have anything and you're wanting for things you don't have money and you're struggling you look at someone who's got all those things and money and you think if I only had that all my worries would be gone and then I would be happy but if you have that and nobody likes you your life is shit yeah it's it's still shit meanwhile you are in a hut in the middle of nowhere with well in the middle of the Congo with all these people and you're having a great time and you're making wells and you're loving life that that picture that came up, I think, why I got so excited was, um, because that night in that village, um, I mean, we, I'm not kidding, danced and danced and, and, and, and feasted.

[872] I mean, we, we, we just all came together just to celebrate, celebrate life, celebrate each other, celebrate, guess what, our kids aren't going to be sick anymore, different stuff like that to where, oh, it's just a life where, like, like what you were just saying, you always comparing comparing comparing for me man comparison i think for most people um comparison is probably the number one thief what robs us of joy of being able to be at peace is we're always comparing ourselves and we always compare up we never compare down right um or just compare ourselves to people that are just like us we always look at that what you're saying is unattainable and um always pursuing that and my whole thing has been like recently is man i just want to I think our I've learned it from our team in Congo like that's been the greatest gift like you were saying that you know there's been a lot of great stuff that's been happening and that's true but and I mean I started thinking and now I think it sounds cliche but I'll say it anyways where man like they've given me more of a gift than I can I can give them I mean you see I told you that growing up and everything else but to find a life of of purpose of passion of helping one another of i don't know our mission statement is defend the week love the unloved empower the voiceless and the the vision statement is overcoming oppression with overwhelming opportunity and so if we can go into these communities and we've seen incredible stuff that's what's going to be in the dock this last trip me ben matt and derrick the filmmaker we would not be they wouldn't be ashamed of me saying this we were in tears after an interview with uh one of the former slave masters that ran a hospital.

[873] And actually, if you could pull up a picture, it's called Kaptula.

[874] And we were at this hospital.

[875] And it's tough because we were trying to get treatment for Kaptula.

[876] He's a buddy of mine that passed away.

[877] And we spent seven months taking him the hospital, taking him the hospital, taking the hospital.

[878] And they were just sending them away because he was a pygmy.

[879] And it's like, I knew when I first saw him.

[880] And actually, if you bring up the, maybe the first Kaptula one, that's when I saw him.

[881] That's when I saw him for the very first time.

[882] Well, we're looking at a guy that's extremely emaciated.

[883] Yeah, and so for me. So what is it going on with his health right here?

[884] Right there, we didn't know.

[885] But I had a gut feeling that it could have been tuberculosis because we've helped several of the pygmies that have tuberculosis and stuff.

[886] Little growing Fina and some others.

[887] What's the root cause of?

[888] tuberculosis.

[889] There was some sort of a study on that recently.

[890] I think you have a low immune system and there was something that just came out like really recently about tuberculosis where there they had something to do with fire.

[891] Hmm.

[892] Oh if it's something to do with smoke I believe that because the bacteria spread from person to person through microscopic droplets released in the air can happen when someone in the untreated active form of tuberculosis cough speaks sneezes Spits laughs or sings Jesus Christ Imagine getting tuberculosis from a shitty song Like some dude breaks out the banjo Like that scene in Animal House He breaks out a guitar and starts singing He gives you tuberculosis as well as An ear beating But see if there's some connection With fire I swear I read something Really recently about that Some connection between tuberculosis Is that it?

[893] Here it is Was tuberculosis born of fire by damaging lungs and bringing people together fire may have turned a soil microbe into a global pathogen whoa many thousands of years ago chilly african night that's interesting so they think that might have started it off around a fire in a cave and that they're always in the fire i can't i can't sleep with that's why the bugs are even worse on me because i i have many times slept in the huts whenever the fire going but it just fills up with smoke to where my eyes are just tears are coming down my face the whole time they light a fire in their hut yeah that's their that's how they keep the bugs out oh well it's one of the ways but it's mainly for warmth but a benefit is there's less bugs and then um it uh and it can help waterproof their their twig and leaf huts where um enough smoke and everything it kind of i think it's like a tar so it yeah on the leaves in your lungs too though right of course yeah and there's so many kids that are getting in the And at the Sustainable Solutions Center that we're hoping to get up and running, we're wanting one for cooking, where they can use either corn cobs or corn husk or peanut shells or different things where they can put those into little briquettes.

[894] And then they can use that and recycle it and everything else.

[895] And it burns longer at the same temperature.

[896] And yeah, and you're not having to deforest anything and you're not breathing in that terrible smoke.

[897] Yeah, coconut charcoal is a really, there's some company, a grill, Camado company.

[898] You know what a Camado is?

[899] One of those Japanese grills.

[900] Yeah.

[901] It's like a green egg, that kind of thing.

[902] And they sell charcoal made out of coconut.

[903] Apparently, it's like one of the best chargoles because it's like really sustainable.

[904] It's really easy to grow and it's apparently slow burning.

[905] Yeah.

[906] You just throw it away.

[907] So what if we recycle it?

[908] Exactly.

[909] People throw the outside.

[910] of the coconut away, but apparently it's really good for charcoal.

[911] So Bellator has embraced this narrative.

[912] They've embraced your story and they've made it a big part of your fighting there to let everybody know that you're doing it not just because you want to compete, but also because you want to expose the world to this passion, this project, this sort of life direction that you've taken.

[913] Yeah, absolutely.

[914] And I, it's really cool that they've done that.

[915] Yeah, no, I agree.

[916] And that's, that was the, I love the UFC.

[917] That's what I was 13 years old, found those tapes.

[918] And just on that real quick, I bottle those tapes, put them under my bed.

[919] And I would wait for my parents to go to work or to go to sleep.

[920] And I'd be popping them in the, you know, the VHS.

[921] And my dad comes in and I turn it off real quick, lay down, act like I'm asleep.

[922] And it's, you know, the VCRs, the VHS, the VHS, it's still.

[923] moving and the I don't know the screen still lit up and everything but dad confiscated that tape then when he found the rest he thought it was all porn but it was a it was just the UFC why did he confiscate it?

[924] Well I think me being 13 being picked on it you don't want me to start fighting people at school and different stuff and so just a precaution but he told my mom he's gonna do that one day if we let him keep that stuff and I was like no I won't but in my head I'm like yeah I will.

[925] I remember looking at the VHS tape, and when I turned it over and saw the jujitsu and sumo and boxing and wrestling and all these different things, like, it came alive to me. It's like, oh, my goodness, like, these guys, well, I think I originally connected with it because I'm like, well, these guys aren't anything like me. They could stick up for themselves.

[926] They're an athlete.

[927] They're popular probably.

[928] Instead of being the laughing stock at the party, they might be invited to the party or it might be their party and so i mean i like that aspect but um then i just fell in love with the the sport of it you know watching it and seeing how everything and now being a fan and watching how it's evolved and everything else it's just it's not seeing the guy like dan henderson that's been fighting i think isn't it 20 years straight 20 yeah 20 straight i was there when he was fighting in 97 and i wasn't there for his first fights he fought in 96 i think in brazil yeah i think that was his first fight i actually i that first fight in the last couple weeks.

[929] Really?

[930] Yeah, because, dude, I love Dan.

[931] Dan's awesome.

[932] Yeah, and see him even, I mean, because whenever he stepped in, he was just a wrestler.

[933] I had heavy hands, but then he's just...

[934] Well, he didn't even have heavy hands in the beginning.

[935] Yeah, you're right.

[936] You're right.

[937] In the beginning, he was just a wrestler.

[938] Lay down and take him down and pound on him and...

[939] Yeah, he figured out over time how to utilize his power.

[940] That's what I want to get.

[941] Maybe I could bribe Dan or Big Country or someone to teach me that big right hand.

[942] Do you think you can teach someone that?

[943] I mean, Dan's one of the few guys that have sort of developed it.

[944] But Big Country always had power.

[945] Big Country was known way back in the day as being a jiu -jitsu guy.

[946] He was one of Mark Lehman's guys.

[947] And he was, you know, like really respected as a grappler.

[948] Yeah, Black Belt.

[949] Yeah.

[950] But to go from that to being this crazy knockout brawler, it's like people rarely see Big Country.

[951] You never see him submit anybody.

[952] I mean, the closest thing was, when he took Kimbo down and got him into the Mount of Crucifix and just elbowed him until the referee stopped the fight.

[953] Oh, man, and since I was on that season, I think he threw a couple elbows, but when they finally stopped it, we were all counting every single punch.

[954] And then, but he was just, just tapping his forehead like this.

[955] Because it wasn't intelligently defending himself, but he didn't even have to hurt him to stop the fighters.

[956] Yeah, just tapping his forehead.

[957] Well, he was, it's almost like, you know, when you, what is that called in wrestling, when you have so many points.

[958] It's a technical...

[959] Tech fall.

[960] Yeah, tech fall.

[961] Almost like that.

[962] It's like, you're never coming back from this.

[963] Yeah, it's like a 10 -run rule and Little League Baseball.

[964] Yeah.

[965] Ten points up, you just call it.

[966] And...

[967] The big country's got very good submissions.

[968] But everybody expected that from him when he started fighting.

[969] Like, if you remember back when he was fighting for elite X -E, which was like the most corrupt organization in the early days of MMA, he had Andrea Olavski down inside control, working for a Camor.

[970] Side -mount, right?

[971] Had that, yep, had side control and had that double -reporting.

[972] Slok position and he was working for the Camor and they stood them right up and I remember watching TV going it's corrupt it's cool we're screaming at the TV it's corrupt yeah they had a 15 second rule like if you went if it went to the ground if nothing happened in 15 seconds I think Jake Shield submitted Paul Daly it was one of the few submissions in Elite XC but it's just he just mounted them and just immediately went to an arm bar and locked it in well yeah I was I think it's Paul Daley I might be wrong I was actually, well, I mean, now with the Kimbo stuff happening, it's pretty, really, it's very, very sad.

[973] Yeah, man, I mean, apparently he had a doctor telling him, you know, for people don't know what we're talking about.

[974] Kimbo died really recently of heart disease, and he had a doctor telling him recently that he needed a heart transplant.

[975] I guess he had some sort of congenital heart disease that, I mean, how could that be, you know, you look at him, you look at guys of stud, he's in great shape.

[976] I mean, how could you imagine that?

[977] He, his heart was so bad that they were telling him he needed a heart transplant.

[978] And this, yeah, this could probably sound cliche again too, but because knowing him, being an ultimate fighter and him cooking the best steak I've ever had, sorry, big Josh.

[979] But he, I don't know, even though he had a bad heart, I think, I don't know, emotionally had a good heart.

[980] He was always a good guy, always a very friendly guy.

[981] Yeah, even with, I mean, technically we were supposed to fight, I think, three times before, or two times.

[982] Elite X, my name was in the hat for that.

[983] And then because I was like a 19 or 20 -year -old kid, had a decent record.

[984] And then, but it was a bad matchup.

[985] So they scrapped it, I get it, wasn't smart.

[986] Then on the Ultimate Fighter, I was actually matched up with them.

[987] And then Roy got it.

[988] And then we were talking about it in Bellator, where at our last fight, February 19th, I think, Houston Toyota Center and backstage, oh, actually, that was, this will be good in a way that the dude just loved on Ben, my brother and translator from Congo.

[989] He got to actually come from Congo for my second fight.

[990] And so the first fight, actually, if you can pull up that video, it's, Uh, it's called, um, fight day, uh, talking to my Congo guys.

[991] But, um, it's just a, it's less than a minute, I think.

[992] And it's, they, they surprised me for my first fight back.

[993] Um, they surprised, Josh woke me up and it was a guy that's like with my father figure, guy that's like my brother.

[994] And, uh, it was just awesome, fight day.

[995] My first thing you to see and hear is this.

[996] This was so awesome.

[997] Hey, Presa.

[998] Who is this that's laying, Down, it's you?

[999] Is that your voice?

[1000] Yeah.

[1001] You're going to watch it?

[1002] Yeah, you can't follow in from there, but we'll record it.

[1003] The shittiest angle ever.

[1004] I couldn't even tell it's you.

[1005] It's a beard.

[1006] You got a talking beard.

[1007] Yeah.

[1008] I miss you guys.

[1009] My heart's happy now.

[1010] I think you can stop it at a minute.

[1011] Yeah.

[1012] Yes, sir.

[1013] The battle's already won.

[1014] Before the fight.

[1015] Hey.

[1016] You go back to Costco today?

[1017] You can stop it now.

[1018] And then it was really cool.

[1019] I mean, Josh was filming it because he didn't want, I guess it was a surprise.

[1020] They were going to call me and anything else.

[1021] But they were in Uganda getting more well drilling supplies.

[1022] And because you can't Skype from Congo or anything.

[1023] So they were at a decent enough hotel that had Wi -Fi.

[1024] And they were able to Skype with me the day of my first fight back.

[1025] And, man, it was awesome.

[1026] That was so much motivation seeing them, hearing them, and then having them come for the second fight.

[1027] was just and be there he was actually in my corner what you're doing is helping them by building wells is there once you do that like say if you establish a series of wells and well building and everybody has fresh water do you want to take it another step did you did you want to try to give them safer housing or cleaner housing do you want to try to teach them how to build houses are you are you planning on escalating it from where you're at right now Yeah.

[1028] In fact, I went about it, and it was a learning lesson.

[1029] I don't regret it because it got some great training here in California.

[1030] I think is it called Hesperia, California?

[1031] And there's something called Cal Earth, and they build ecodomes or earthbag homes.

[1032] And they call them Super Adobe, the technical term.

[1033] But they make, it looks like Pygmy Huts out of sand bags that they fill up with sand, do it in a circle.

[1034] And supposedly, they're earthquake -proof, tornado -proof, all this different stuff.

[1035] This is it?

[1036] Yeah, right there.

[1037] And a dome is the strongest structure known to man. The arch is after that, or a vault, then arch.

[1038] But, yeah, I was in these exact buildings.

[1039] That's like a Hobbit House.

[1040] What a cool -looking little house.

[1041] House Quetzel -Quaddle.

[1042] Back up?

[1043] But I went there because...

[1044] Why they call it Quetzel -Quaddle?

[1045] That's an Aztec god, right?

[1046] That's that Aztec snake -feathered plume serpent god.

[1047] Costa Rica, it might be...

[1048] Oh, okay.

[1049] That makes sense.

[1050] Cal, Earth, Greenbelt.

[1051] I actually love all those guys there.

[1052] We have a lot of like -minded beliefs of how to help people.

[1053] And, but yeah, I loved it because housing what, because I slept in the huts the first two times I went and got rained on and literally one time woke up in the mud like sunk halfway because it just rained and rained and rained and just lying in mud.

[1054] Yeah, to where it just kept coming through.

[1055] It was just washing down the hill.

[1056] Wow.

[1057] When my wife was there was doing it again and all the pygmies get up And they came out, and I didn't know what they were doing.

[1058] I thought something was going on because everyone was around our hut in a circle, digging this trench so it wouldn't come in and get Emily wet.

[1059] Wow.

[1060] They're just so caring, so awesome.

[1061] And, but when I saw the huts, those ecodomes, earthbag homes, I was like, man, that's something culturally sound.

[1062] Yeah.

[1063] That is something that they would want to live in because it looks like that.

[1064] It looks like their huts, similar.

[1065] And so this is something that you want to try to implement.

[1066] Without a doubt, but it has to be the right timing because what happened was I knew Papua and the school was working on land and I was going to help with that too.

[1067] I had no clue how to how to get clean water.

[1068] I was looking for it.

[1069] I was in my backyard.

[1070] I bought everything from Lowe's in my backyard and it was like a website, I think it's literally something like how to drill your own well .org or something.

[1071] And it's this guy standing on the back of his pickup truck and he's, he's drilling a well but what I didn't know is that's not drinkable water the way he's doing it and everything else and so I'm in the backyard like five six hundred dollars of low stuff with PVC trying to drill my own well by myself um and uh trying to learn but I'm like man this is so hard how there's got to be an easier way and so I kind of stepped around that because I'm like you know what I can't help them with housing if I go here get trained sandbags are cheap get a couple shovels make some mud and get some cement and make a plaster to go around it to waterproof it better and that's going to work but then what kind of plaster um just make it make it out of a mix of a cement and um soil and uh if if it's got the right mixture which i'm forgetting right now um it can be just as strong as uh or waterproof as like concrete or yeah so it's uh it's a it's a really great thing but when i get there and all of a sudden i see you know hey uh first if they don't have any land of their own then build building these things are going to be worthless.

[1072] Someone else can move into them.

[1073] And so they got to have land first.

[1074] There's a process.

[1075] Like the most important things, land in the water, because water's next, then food.

[1076] And after that, yes.

[1077] If you can be housing, I want to stay in a sweet spot and in a lane and not spread ourselves too thin because we are not focused.

[1078] But if you thought about these people that you dealt with in California, trying to bring them in and have them take over that aspect of it?

[1079] Yes, that would be cool.

[1080] The only thing that we are is we try to be really protective of the pygmies.

[1081] And because, I don't know, bringing in a lot of outsiders, most outsiders that visit them, it's not a good experience.

[1082] And so just bringing in a lot of random people.

[1083] If it was a couple of people that were really highly skilled, had the right hearts, their vision lined up with our vision of how we kind of do the community development because we want to, I think there's a great book.

[1084] I think it's called Helping Without Hurting or How to Help Without Hurting.

[1085] or something like that and I have it I should know it I have two of them and it's really great about how you can go about helping people in a way that helps them more than helps you in a way of like a lot of people help because it's going to make them feel all warm and fuzzy and yeah and you just do that enough for random people but what if you can make a difference that that lasted longer and it's great to do both right it's great to do both I actually love when I see some someone else do some random act of kindness like it warms my heart love it but how can we help in a way that that really changes the game of of things there i think you're definitely already doing that i mean you're certainly spreading it i think you feel like it's a long job and your job's not nearly done but no i don't think it ever ever will be well for water i i have definitely hope for that but then i don't know i think i just feel i don't know whenever you how is it when you have that heart connection it's kind of like well i i want to see these people if they have everything i got too like i still still want to hang out with them all i can of course but um no you know what though it's been really cool to see um so there's these guys from uganda that came in and helped train us and they're called young men drillers and there are these guys that were you've heard of the lRA and joseph coney and different stuff like that one of the guys was, he told me around a campfire that he was one of two, it might have been three survivors out of a three, four, five hundred person village.

[1086] The revelers came in, killed everybody.

[1087] He barely escaped.

[1088] And then another kid, another kid, and it's so cool to see these young guys all of a sudden stand up and water four got involved with them and train them up on how to drill wells in their own country.

[1089] And these are, when I say young men drillers, like, I think someone were 16, 17, 18 when they started.

[1090] Well, then they'll and they cranked out over 100 water wells.

[1091] Over 100 water wells.

[1092] They've been doing it longer than we have.

[1093] We haven't done any.

[1094] I'm in the Congo.

[1095] We try to get them out to us to help.

[1096] Matt comes in to train us and to continue training with them.

[1097] And then they were going to leave that team.

[1098] You got the main three guys from Youngman drillers behind to train us, to invest and impart their knowledge in us.

[1099] Matt was doing real intensive training.

[1100] And then these guys are going to stick around for the next three months.

[1101] Make sure we could bust out, you know, a few wells and do it the right.

[1102] way and so it's so cool they came and stayed with us and so cool to see that they've gone through all that where one of the guys it was probably every other night or every three nights he's waking up in night terrors where he is just screaming and i've never been around that before but the things he saw the things he's been through are just so tough but then to see he chose that he's going to take a different path he's going to he's going to he's going to find something that he can help people with and then he's going to give it to others in a different country in Congo so they came and lived with the pygmies for three years or three months it was awesome now uh ben and a couple of our other drillers are in Cameroon um and i i kind of had this thing that i haven't really spoken out but i would love to see the pygmies in Congo all have water but then after that you know the other pygmies are suffering in very similar ways to the pygmies in Congo and so it's so cool is that Okay, the young men drillers comes out, invest in us, pours their hearts and lives.

[1103] They almost died coming to us.

[1104] Their car flipped, ran over a lady, a taxi driver was driving, he ran away, she died.

[1105] Oh, fuck.

[1106] They ran over a lady?

[1107] No, they didn't.

[1108] The cab driver did?

[1109] The cab driver did, and he bailed.

[1110] He was from Congo, and they were from Uganda, and at the border, they had to get in with a Congolese taxi driver.

[1111] Well, they do that, and they couldn't even speak the same language.

[1112] And he gets in a wreck.

[1113] He knows Congo.

[1114] he does that drive all the time to the border and so he just bales and literally the people in a place called a noka which means a snake um it was a place of a rebel group that used to be there and everything and this was a very very bad uh part of town there's gold mines on both sides of them luckily this lady took them in and held them in there and called uh the military because people literally had an at whenever the not the military but the cops and it was just a little shack i mean it was like people going to kill them because they thought that she killed they They killed the woman.

[1115] And there, it doesn't matter if, you know, you're guilty and we'll ask questions later.

[1116] And someone, it's mob justice.

[1117] Someone's got to pay.

[1118] If this person just hurt somebody, even if you weren't driving, even if you were, one of our guys was thrown from the vehicle of the car when it rolled.

[1119] And running away, fearing for their lives, they had, I think, $15 ,000 of well drilling equipment in the trunk.

[1120] plus they had a solar pump solar filter and it did like 400 gallons of water a day and or 400 liters 100 gallons and anyways they loot it they I think they set the car in fire I know they looted it but then at the police station little shack people outside had machetes literal torches they had like those hose that for farming and what else they have oh tires they were going to put tires around them and set them on fire Oh, God.

[1121] And so luckily, man, I, yeah, very luckily, it was a miracle that, that Papa Y is such a great, like, I don't know, he's a peacekeeper.

[1122] Like, he can go somewhere and talk with anyone that's having to dispute and bring him to some sort of agreement.

[1123] And he was able to go out there on behalf of our Uganda guys, doesn't even really know him yet, gets them out.

[1124] And while they're leaving, Papa Y is really respected because of, you know, he's actually helping people in their country.

[1125] Like, people know him when he's walking around because he's like, oh, those are the, that's the crew that's actually putting what they're learning into action.

[1126] And so he went up there and as they were getting ready to leave, someone came up to him and whispered to him and says, we know where all your stuff is.

[1127] And he's like, what?

[1128] Like everything that was stolen.

[1129] He's like, I think it was something like he said it to him there or later why they didn't keep it and why they gave it back.

[1130] But whenever they got there, it was the case, they broke.

[1131] in the lock, opened it up, and was, oh, one of there, they opened up that solar pump.

[1132] It's got these two different, oh, man, I'm losing my words, but canisters on it, and they left it because they thought it was a bomb.

[1133] Oh, God.

[1134] And so they left that and all are well -drawn equipment, and we were able to reclaim everything, get them to us.

[1135] They lived with us for three months.

[1136] Then there are supply chain from Uganda to Congo, and I'll wrap this up where it's so cool to see where now, no joke, the guys that came out to learn.

[1137] from Cameroon that work with the Pygmies in Cameroon are named Willie and Turbo.

[1138] Those are there.

[1139] Their names from Cameroon.

[1140] And actually that big heavyweight, what is his name?

[1141] He's in the UFC now.

[1142] Francis and Gongu.

[1143] Yeah, Francis, yeah.

[1144] Now, he's him in Czech Congo, both.

[1145] Czech Congo is from Congo.

[1146] I believe I'm not sure which one he's from.

[1147] Gano is huge.

[1148] Yeah, dude.

[1149] He is fucking huge.

[1150] Beast.

[1151] He's a scary guy, man. And both those guys ended up in France because they're French -speaking countries, both Congo and Cameroon.

[1152] And so it's just cool to see how the trickle effect comes from these guys that are lucky to be alive.

[1153] Then from growing up, then they're lucky to be alive coming to help us.

[1154] Then they decide to stay in the country that they were almost murdered in for an extra three months so that we get it down to where we really know what we're doing.

[1155] then they can go back and we have this great relationship but now another can come and learn from us and now we're sending our team out to different parts of the continent to rwanda to kenya to cameroon to um i think rwanda yaganda and training up these other teams of that are wanting they have a desire to uh to do the same thing that's such a crazy story man they're so lucky they'll stick them in tires and light them on fire yeah i saw a guy be fuck man ben and i both saw a guy beat to death um uh because they called him a thief and then rumors were that uh we were kind of far away i tried to get up kind of kind of too scary close ben's literally pulling my shirt away because i'm seeing this i don't know who he is and he's getting beaten kicked and all this other stuff but ben's like effa we got to go we got to go and so he pulled me away and then when we came back later, I couldn't even bend my body like that.

[1156] Like, it's like a contortionist kind of thing where he's like bent up like a pretzel and just laying there.

[1157] And supposedly the rumor was that just some drunk guys started a rumor, called him a thief.

[1158] Called him a thief.

[1159] And when someone says thief, they pounce on the on the thief.

[1160] And so sometimes it's really a thief or whatever, but other times it's some innocent guy and, you know, crazy stuff can happen.

[1161] Yeah, I can only imagine.

[1162] Yeah.

[1163] And but it's you've seen some shit dude man it's been uh it's been different but i wouldn't change it's it's beyond it literally is is wild like i couldn't i couldn't uh i couldn't have dreamed it up for myself and what's what's kind of funny is um i i think not funny it's actually have you ever heard of i think it's a book called what they don't teach you at harvard what they don't teach you at harvard business or something like that no I think the author's name is Mark.

[1164] Well, he did something pretty incredible, and I heard about it when I was in high school, but Kenny Monday, which he got to, it came full circle.

[1165] He coached me in high school, then for my comeback fight, and he coached me a little bit in MMA at the beginning, but then for my comeback fight in this last one, he was in my corner.

[1166] But anyways, he told me, you know, hey, if you want to wrestle, go home, write down your goals.

[1167] Like, write them down.

[1168] And this book talks about how if they pulled, some class, some senior class in, at Harvard, and asked who has goals that are, um, who, who knows their goals?

[1169] And so I'm like 87 % didn't know.

[1170] Like, besides, I'll get my college degree from Harvard and then I'll figure it out.

[1171] Then they asked who knows your, um, I think it was 87 % of them or something like that.

[1172] And then, uh, or 83 % something.

[1173] And, um, then it was, it was a 13 % or something like that where they had um i'm sorry i'm screwing this up but it was uh they it's an incredible stat it's so 87 or 83 % didn't know their goals 13 or 17 % did know their goals but they didn't have them written down and then only 3 % of the class had written concise direct goals of what they wanted to do in their life i think they went back 10 years later and the ones that had goals but didn't have them written down were making twice as much on average than all the other 83 or 87 % that didn't have goals.

[1174] And then the people that had written down goals, they're making 10 times, yeah, 10 times as all the other 97 combined.

[1175] Here it was why 3 % of Harvard MBAs make 10 times as much as the other 97 % combined.

[1176] Harvard MBA program is extremely competitive.

[1177] And today admits approximately 15 % of the applicants in 1960s acceptance rate was about 30 % down to 25 % in the 1970s, fluctuated between 10 % and 15 % ever since.

[1178] students who make it pass the application process are typically standouts and already fairly successful by most traditional definitions.

[1179] They have an undergraduate degree, typically three to five years of work experience.

[1180] Hold on.

[1181] And when considered suitable for acceptance into the Harvard Business School, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[1182] So, okay, so it's explaining about writing your goals down.

[1183] Yeah.

[1184] And having a clear direction.

[1185] Right.

[1186] Makes sense.

[1187] And for me and seeing that, hearing that, and then having Coach Monday tell me that, honestly, wrestling, MMA, having a goal to focus on, having a goal to write down, I think that really helped me escape the depression for a while for a few years because now I found something that I could focus on and I was passionate about.

[1188] I could, you know, that was my outlet.

[1189] And, but he also told me, he went a step further.

[1190] I don't think I've said this publicly, but he told me write down, be it that you, what's your goal?

[1191] I'm like, I want to be a state champion.

[1192] And he said, okay, go home, write that down, and put it somewhere you can see it either on your, you know, your bathroom mirror or somewhere.

[1193] I put it above my bed, but I didn't never write down a state champion.

[1194] I wrote down national champion.

[1195] Start working towards it with state champion that year.

[1196] And you're having a great, great training partner.

[1197] And I'm kind of jazzed up that the Olympic, is coming up.

[1198] I know some guys that are going.

[1199] Robbie Smith.

[1200] He's a heavyweight.

[1201] He was my roommate at the Olympic training center.

[1202] And Treveld de Lagniv, we wrestled together in high school and then after.

[1203] And so I'm pumped about it.

[1204] But see these guys obtaining their goals, their dreams and writing them down.

[1205] Well, then with Coach Monday, he's like, hey, get some of your favorite wrestling moves, some pictures, like, so you can visualize it.

[1206] And I just see the words, but see the actual thing that you want to do.

[1207] Like, see it.

[1208] And so I went and I put one wrestling move on the left and another on the right and uh and man i just would go to sleep dreaming about it basically and wake up motivated to to attain that goal national champion and having a guy that's Olympic gold medalist teaching you the basics like you you'll get good quick that way but um also having the goals like i the first national championship i won was with the move on the left and the second national championship was with the move on the right Um, and it was just, it was nuts to see how all that works out and looking back on this book and seeing like, man, you gotta write down and I need to update that now.

[1209] I've been working on it and everything else, but, uh, I think a lot of us do.

[1210] Yeah, I think focusing on one individual goal like that or writing something down, having a very clear thing that you're working towards, it takes a lot of the ambiguity about, that people have about wanting to be successful, you know, just wanting to be successful, just wanting to do well that's not enough you have to have like a real like something that you're looking towards something you're moving and working towards a plan and initiative yeah well that's probably one of the biggest um strengths that our team has has had the 18 employees we have um and at water four we write down what we want to do and it's so cool when i came on the show the first time um i had gone and i'd only experienced the terrible stuff like nothing good had happened yet um only corruption and me holding the little guy that died and and all this just brutal stuff um but it came back and like finally was like okay I can't say no anymore I got to do something and so let's just write it down and do it and start speaking about it and throwing it out there um and then to see the other team like they're coming in with uh with the real like here's the big vision stuff but here's filling in all the details how we're going to get it done and man my my first The first time to write things down was one water well on 300 acres of land and maybe we could build a school and get a teacher and they would help them with education because the pygmies don't have any representation in the government because nobody is educated and that's their excuse at least in Congo what I hear and so it's like school that would be great one water well and 300 acres and now it's by the end of this year it'll be 3 ,000 acres of land that's incredible they literally own there'll be 10 times more 45 wells.

[1211] 45 wells that's amazing 18 employees um we've got three working farms right now over how long how many years you've been doing this now uh five um that's pretty incredible man over five for sure that's an incredible commitment well thanks it it's been a yeah it's been an awesome watch even even like being able to go back and had all these pictures to show you about uh leoma growing papaya trees and standing in front of banana trees and um all the different stuff and And they're growing them with the water that they're getting from the wells.

[1212] Well, it's the rainforest and everything.

[1213] So it's pretty...

[1214] Fertile.

[1215] Yeah, you can spit a seed on the ground and it's going to sprout up something in the rainforest.

[1216] Well, that's great, too.

[1217] Are you bringing seeds over there for these people?

[1218] And is that a big part of...

[1219] They have pretty good seeds there.

[1220] And a lot of those trees, we're doing seedlings, and they take them up on plant.

[1221] And they know how to garden and farm and all that stuff?

[1222] Yeah, especially at the university because they have a whole agriculture department that teams up with the community development.

[1223] So they come and teach the picnies how to do it?

[1224] Mm -hmm.

[1225] Yeah, they come in and teach them, and then they start learning how to do it for themselves.

[1226] And this was, okay, I think I can tell you two moments real quick where going back and seeing Leo May and walking in and seeing all those banana trees blew me away.

[1227] And then now there is just so cool because I was leaving and there's a little guy named Jippy and I've seen him grow up, of watch him grow up.

[1228] And I saw whenever his, his water source was absolutely disgusting.

[1229] Like you could not ever imagine a human being drinking, drinking it.

[1230] And that was their, that was their water source where they got water.

[1231] What is that?

[1232] It's this little stagnant pond kind of thing with all this moss over it.

[1233] That's a pond?

[1234] Yeah.

[1235] Now, what's so cool is this picture.

[1236] That looks like green.

[1237] Yeah, no, it's, there's no, it doesn't look like water at all.

[1238] There's definitely it's a big thick thing So they'll get a stick and they'll push all the moths Did you send this to Jamie this photo?

[1239] That's what I had And then it all lost What happened?

[1240] I got on the screen camera Oh do you?

[1241] Not on the man Oh the people could see Oh I see oh I see Oh how's that working That's ridiculous What is it what is wrong with the Connection to you?

[1242] It didn't know I don't have that photo Oh no I didn't have the photo because everything like crashed on me I had dude I didn't even sleep last night at all Zero because I was trying to send videos uh to water for um an update video and it was at my hotel it was it's a little roach motel but it took like two hours to send one video and then i have to do another oh jesus and then all a sudden it uh it just i've lost the powerpoint that went back to well speaking of videos let's watch the video that you said bellator did for you yeah yeah that'd be great let's watch that i want to see that what is this one i'm looking at right here that's uh where we where we drilled one of the new wells What is those things in their hands?

[1243] Jerrykins.

[1244] They're filling out.

[1245] Oh, I see.

[1246] Okay.

[1247] Yeah.

[1248] In fact.

[1249] Okay, so let's play this.

[1250] Foundations.

[1251] Justin Wren versus Josh Burns.

[1252] The story of that fight was the time off of a very talented fighter.

[1253] It'd been away from a sport for years.

[1254] One of those guys, when he was active, when he was at his peak, was considered one of the hottest prospects in the heavyweight division.

[1255] Talented, talented, well -coached.

[1256] Roll -up!

[1257] But the time off, the ring rust, the time away from the sport against Josh Burns, a guy who traditionally wasn't a very fast starter, we thought he'd have time to warm up and he didn't.

[1258] Burns came right after him.

[1259] A guy, I think, was trying to take advantage of the fact that Ren had been off for so long.

[1260] Wren handled it extremely well.

[1261] Wren had been away from her a long time, so you could see the surprise, you could see the fatigue, you could see the questioning of himself.

[1262] You could see those times when things started working out and it started coming back to him.

[1263] The story of all his time off was on his face and was in his performance.

[1264] That's a guy making up for time off in one fight.

[1265] What's easy to forget with Justin Wren's story, with him helping out the pygeneas, with all he's done socially, with all he's done politically for that tribe, they can't go in there with him.

[1266] And the pressure of having a big story on your shoulders.

[1267] Everybody rooting for you, everybody reading your books, everybody reading your brain.

[1268] book, that's not an easy thing to carry into a fight.

[1269] And we talked about how great the story is and what it does for a fighter and what it does for their career.

[1270] It's also a gigantic burden.

[1271] You're not just fighting for yourself anymore.

[1272] You're fighting for everyone who looks up to you.

[1273] Winning that night was a big deal for him.

[1274] People don't understand what he was carrying.

[1275] He was carrying ring rust.

[1276] And he was carrying the hopes and dreams of everybody he was fighting for.

[1277] And he managed it.

[1278] Could you go back to that?

[1279] the 127 real quick and pause it just one minute 27 seconds because i just uh it's not it's great it's right there so uh the girls on the left through the cage this is the only time this ever happened that's my wife this is her first fight of mind ever go to her see and we've been together for four or five years and um it's so funny because i was throwing the knees right here and this is the ring russ dominant cruise can say it's uh it's there's not ring rust he's just way too mentally tough and stubborn and he's a way awesome competitor but uh dude I well one I didn't train like I really should have yeah I'm sure that had a big factor yeah and two it was uh man but one of the ring rust kind of things was um I could hear the commentators and I could um I looked out first person I see is my wife and I see her make eye contact with her like we stared into each other's eyes and I know this is going to sound goofy but she had a new outfit on and I'm just like, she's beautiful.

[1280] And then all of a sudden I see her and she's like, go!

[1281] And I'll say, I'm in a fight.

[1282] And he's like punching me and I'm just like, ah, crap.

[1283] So, no, it was in actually right there was the closest part where I almost finished them there with some knees or coulda, shoulda, woulda.

[1284] And then I stop, look out at my wife, see her in Grace, which she came to Congo with us too.

[1285] And I see them and I'm like, what am I doing?

[1286] After the fight, I instantly thought, what was I doing in the fight looking out seeing my wife and thinking she's beautiful so uh i don't know why i brought that up except for this really yeah i mean it was it was unique and um it was a it was a blessing and in that video actually was uh i'm glad to show it because of that but then um i meant to show you the one that came first which um we don't we need to play that but what happened for the first fight back which just kind of nuts that um those guys The guy surprised me and called me in the morning and I was able to see them and they were able to encourage me for the fight and say, we know you're fighting for us, all that.

[1287] It's really great.

[1288] Then Emily sent me a picture of her with, it's so awesome.

[1289] Her with like 10 or 12 kids around her and they all have the biggest smiles.

[1290] She says, remember who you fight for and why you fight.

[1291] And so there's a lot of pressure.

[1292] It is, but at the same time, she's so awesome and loves me. I have some reason I like pressure I like to be under the gun something like that what's next for you man man I think um I think I just we just got pretty much settled into Colorado um and joining them and they seen up there kind of a team takedown was great kind of dissolved and um team takedown dissolved uh yes sort of yeah yeah and when johnny hendricks left is that what happened he's not on there right but once he left is that Yeah, the coaches are gone that came in from out of state.

[1293] Now, team takedown was a weird situation, right?

[1294] It was like some wealthy guy was financing the entire thing, right?

[1295] One, and he's a great dude, and then he brought in a bunch of other people.

[1296] But I think for them it was just, I don't know, I think they might have got burned.

[1297] Well, they had a deal, right, where they would pay guys a salary and then when you won.

[1298] Your rent, your groceries.

[1299] But when you won, you were supposed to give them a percentage of your...

[1300] I think it was 50 % 50 % but you get your house payment your car your insurance and the health insurance you get your that's great until fighters started making making 10 million bucks and then they're like what yeah yeah that's very true because if you're they're only spending 50 or 70 years well who agreed to that did johnny hendricks agree to that yeah so he was giving 50 % of his purse yeah i think most every team takedown guy was johnny might have been a little i think his might have been a little different than everybody seems like a crazy deal and um how much were they paying them i love i love all the guys right they're awesome dudes uh i'm i wouldn't even want to quote right i know i know over 50 maybe under a hundred but a year yeah huh but uh well that's a good investment if you get five million bucks back that's that's true and but it was it didn't work out because when johnny started making real money that's when he is that when he left or was there other issues yeah i think it was it was that and then i think uh i think internally there was some some budding of heads between a few different people, between maybe coaches, maybe management, maybe fighters too.

[1301] So now you're in Colorado?

[1302] Now I'm in Colorado.

[1303] And where are you training in Colorado?

[1304] Well, my home gym will be Grudge Training Center, which is actually pretty cool.

[1305] There's an instructor named Drew.

[1306] That's pretty great.

[1307] Came in, he opened, I think he opened up.

[1308] Maybe I'm wrong on that one, but 10th Planet Jiu -Jitsu and I think Boulder, but now he has one in Norvada, which is in, side of grudge and so now we got a 10th planet in there and he's actually showing some slick darts chokes and uh and uh and yeah that's awesome arms and some stuff does bellator have a fight lined up for you maybe um maybe november december we're we're looking at that and the thing that i want to do is getting a real i haven't given myself time to settle to really train to really focus and i know that now um it's a time crunch you know 29 i know that the young youngest heavyweight, I think, is still JDS and Junior DeS Santos in the top 10.

[1309] He's 32.

[1310] I mean, Barnett's, I think, 38 and Brock's 39 to mature later in life.

[1311] Well, Brock is pretty much done now.

[1312] I think that last positive test, two positive tests in a row.

[1313] Yeah.

[1314] You got one before the fight, one after the fight.

[1315] It's most likely one and done.

[1316] Yeah.

[1317] Yeah.

[1318] So I got some time.

[1319] Are you thinking about going to the UFC?

[1320] So you have this Bellator deal.

[1321] Are you enjoying competing for Bellator?

[1322] I have thoroughly appreciated how they've been treating me. They've been...

[1323] But you're mentioning all these MMA fighters from the UFC.

[1324] So are you thinking about going over there?

[1325] Is that what's going on?

[1326] I mean, I would never be against that because I love...

[1327] The UFC, love MMA and that's a big, big platform.

[1328] How long is your deal at Bellator for?

[1329] I have two more fights.

[1330] And um so i'll i'll i'll fight two more and for me i mean reason we're in colorado first is i'm wanting to get my wrestling back because i'm pretty disappointed in my first two per i'm honestly winning this was the first two times winning felt really good because i did it i didn't do it for me right but then the same time right away the competitor comes in and it's like messed up here here here here here and i think pretty much every guy i've taken the ground finished it's like why am I trying to outbox the boxers whenever I need to, I need to wrestle.

[1331] I need to take them down.

[1332] Is it difficult for you to balance the two worlds?

[1333] Because, you know, you have one that demands incredible attention, your fighting career, demands incredible attention.

[1334] And then you have the other that also demands incredible attention.

[1335] You have an amazing commitment to these pygmy people and this incredible passion, love for it.

[1336] But then you also have, you're in the most dangerous combat sport in the world.

[1337] I mean, it requires massive attention.

[1338] Like, we were talking about Francis Ganoe.

[1339] Like, if you're going to fight Francis Ganoe, you've got to fucking batten down the hatchets.

[1340] You've got to be in an incredible shape.

[1341] And for being consistent and dedicated and no excuses.

[1342] And that's what left a pretty sour taste in my mouth after these last two fights because I knew I hate doing that, like rushing it or getting in whenever I'm not prepared.

[1343] And, um, are you training at all when you're in the Congo?

[1344] And how often are you in the Congo?

[1345] Uh, now I'm, now I'm going to start going back just after every fight.

[1346] When I fight, go back for a couple weeks.

[1347] Um, I tried to be real safe this time.

[1348] I took my own food.

[1349] Um, like all of it, like a entire check bag was just kind bars and Lara bars and all these different green smoothies and different stuff.

[1350] So I was, I wasn't even eating any food there still got sick.

[1351] And so had malaria.

[1352] Then after that, I got shingles.

[1353] Which is crazy.

[1354] It was completely across my forehead and over here.

[1355] So that was like the middle of the trip.

[1356] That's like a -herpies, right?

[1357] Isn't that like kind of a herpes?

[1358] Singles?

[1359] Yeah, I believe so, but it's in that.

[1360] It's the adult form of the chicken pox.

[1361] Oh, God.

[1362] And it's, uh, it's brutal.

[1363] Like, it was, it was a different pain than I've ever felt because it's a nerve pain.

[1364] And I was out in the forest and there was a couple, two, three days where we were there, you know, for the documentary, for the water wells, everything else and we got a team that came and so we got to get it done so i kind of stayed back a couple days but then while we're out there in different stuff like a rebel group actually came like i believe it was three miles from us and only about a mile away from our truck and so i'm sick i can't get back to the hospital that i just came out of from getting treatment for malaria to get treatment for shingles um and then uh so that was tough but for me to answer your question And like, I want to be, I want to be realistic, but at the same time, a quote, my mom taught me, I forget who it was, but she says something like, an optimist is someone who goes after Moby Dick in a row boat and takes the tartar sauce with him.

[1365] And an optimist goes after Moby Dick and a row boat and takes the tartar sauce with him.

[1366] So for me, I want to be, I want to swing for the fences, make the biggest impact.

[1367] possible but the same time like we're restructuring stuff we had meetings at water four and I think just getting everyone on the same page well me too because I was spreading myself too thin the biggest the biggest thing possible is the UFC heavyweight championship yeah without a doubt is that first bell at war than UFC yeah is that a thought that you have in your mind with well yeah the we'll be on one of those goals okay at UFC 200 uh this could sound goofy to anybody else I think a lot of athletes would probably get it.

[1368] Some might not, but, you know, I bought a UFC replica belt because I want to, I'm not going to hang it or anything, but I want to have times where I set that down on a table or a desk and look at it, think about it, dream about it, and know that before I go out the door training, you know, that's a goal of mine.

[1369] You know, if I could get there, then I know this fight for the Forgotten can be set up for, you know, the maybe the rest of of my life there you know it could keep going on and on further than it would if I didn't but realistically to try to attain that sort of a goal like it's going to require more than just staring at a belt or writing something down you're gonna you're gonna need to go on a rampage yeah we've we've surrounded well water force surrounded fight for the forgotten with like a team of like eight people from media to my sports agent to lawyers and I mean just all these all these people are incredible and I'm sitting in the room with them at a conference table like this and I'm like, what am I doing in a room with these incredible people?

[1370] All focused on you?

[1371] Yeah, they're all focused on me and them in the story and like look how I don't know if you'd call it raw or pure or like and they're getting behind it which has been incredible but then they've just overwhelmed me saying we want to free you up in a way we're kind of talking a little earlier I was alluding to it but you know I really got to readjust everything in my life of how I'm training because now that I'm getting settled into Denver, I'll go up to Denver one to three times a week and then I'll also be going to the Olympic Training Center.

[1372] I've been talking with Brandon Slay, the old freestyle coach, which he actually just moved to Penn State, but talking with, and I have access there at the Olympic Training Center and hopefully I can get in touch with Matt Linland.

[1373] He's the new head coach for the Greco team there.

[1374] But with, have you ever heard of Adam Wheeler?

[1375] Adam Wheeler is an absolute beast And I wonder if I have that video in there But there's one if you just search Adam Wheeler on YouTube It should be called Isopure But this dude is an Olympic bronze medalist And black belt and jihitsu And he won no -gee worlds Heavyweight And so he's a beast Just an absolute monster And so I was helping him train before the 2008 Olympics and stuff And it was pretty great Oh here it is This guy's beast We're not hearing anything, Jamie?

[1376] I never actually got into wrestling until I was in high school.

[1377] There was a point when I started getting in a little bit of trouble and just hanging out with the wrong crowd.

[1378] My wrestling coach, he's the one that kind of put me back on the right track.

[1379] He taught me what work ethic was.

[1380] I try to be the guy who motivates people, pushes people.

[1381] The most pure moment of my athletic career is 100.

[1382] 100 % the Olympics.

[1383] Even though I didn't win, I still was on that podium representing my country for the sport that I put so many hours into.

[1384] That feeling is undescribable.

[1385] And the point is, this is the guy you're working with or something?

[1386] Yeah, and sorry, I probably should have set that up a little better.

[1387] But this guy is an absolute monster.

[1388] And we're getting together and we're going to start working out.

[1389] And he's at prime jihitsu now in Colorado Springs, but they cross stream with Eastons.

[1390] And anyways, the thing, I'm all over the place, but, you know, He is the only guy at the little bit training center.

[1391] We're all jumping, doing squat jumps, row by row up these bleachers.

[1392] And I promise he's skipping one at least and sometimes two.

[1393] And he's just flying up there.

[1394] People will be halfway three quarters of the way.

[1395] This guy's six foot four, two hundred and thirty five pounds, solid muscle, freakish athlete.

[1396] And he's just.

[1397] So there's a training partner for you.

[1398] Yeah, training partner.

[1399] So I guess what I was trying to allude to is, man, I feel like how water forest surround me was such an incredible team.

[1400] to achieve success that we want to fight for the forgotten.

[1401] And now I'm really trying to do that with fighting because if I don't, then I'm going to fail and I'll be wasting time.

[1402] But if I, because this isn't a, it's not a patty cake, right?

[1403] I mean, we're going in there and we're throwing down and I've got to have my head on straight.

[1404] Yeah, as you move up in competition for sure.

[1405] Oh, without a doubt.

[1406] I mean, when you're looking at the competition you've faced in Bellator, it's good steps.

[1407] It's tough guys to fight against.

[1408] they're good steps but if you for the timing yeah of everything yeah yeah if i i mean it's yeah it's not it's not i guess uh swinging for the fences or taking the tartar sauce with me if i see that uh that it's not going to happen then you know also i hate saying that because i would i want to fight so bad but fight for the forgotten is more important in a way but man i think it's possible i really do and i think i think i think it's possible to be well i think I think you've also brought a lot of people in to help you with Fight for the Forgotten.

[1409] Yeah, it can sort of pick up the slack as well, and you've started a movement.

[1410] I mean, there's a lot going on here besides just your involvement.

[1411] You've started this movement and being involved with Waterford and writing the book and letting people know about it on these podcasts and educating people to what your goal is and what you've been able to accomplish over there.

[1412] You've started a movement, so I think, man, I mean, if you really can do it, it would be absolutely incredible and it certainly would shine even more light if you could really become successful as an mma fighter from here on out i i agree with that with but it's going to require everything it requires everything and i feel like there's there's two parts of this where um man the the fight for the forgotten guy in me wants to be uh wants to be humble and and everything else say you know it's not going to happen unless they do all the right things which is the same on the other side of the coin, but I'm, uh, at the same time, I feel like if, if I can just get the time, I haven't been getting the time, uh, to train.

[1413] And, um, one of the things that, well, you have to make the time.

[1414] Yeah, we have to make the time.

[1415] And it's got to be the priority.

[1416] And it's, I don't think I, it can't be some sort of, yeah, eight hours.

[1417] I mean, like six to eight, whenever I was telling, uh, the guys at Waterford, um, and it's just because they don't know, they've been incredibly supportive.

[1418] But whenever I broke it down, like, when's your training schedule?

[1419] What time do you train a day?

[1420] I mean, they know some NFL guys and stuff like that that might train once a day for four or five times a week or maybe twice a day.

[1421] But with MMA, it's just so different that they're like, oh, wow.

[1422] So that's why they've rallied around me. And I think that through that, it's going to free me up to really go to all the right places, get up to Grudge for my strike and get to the Olympic Training Center for my wrestling, get around these black belts and world champs in Jiu -Jitsu, get around the 10th Planet guys, get around this so that we can we can take this the farthest that we can beautiful yeah all right man listen um again one more time for people at home fight for the forgotten dot org fight for the forgotten dot com what is your the big pygmy on on twitter on twitter and uh instagram it's the big pigmy translate it's mobo there you go yeah so it's the big pigmy fight for the forgotten org oh this is something that I just found out at water for is that I mean $25 some of the people have been so generous some of the donors have given a full water well but even just $25 a month if that's possible it gives water to 15 people per year if you do it the next year it's another 15 people that can save their lives safe kids lives and so I just know it's being used the right way and passionate about it seeing it in action so you're a beautiful soul Justin Wren you really are man what you're doing is absolutely amazing and I'm so happy that we can help you out in any way.

[1423] So thank you very much for coming on again and let's do this again, brother.

[1424] Yeah, I love you, man. Thank you so much.

[1425] You got the best community, best fans, man. Well, I'm honored and I'm honored to be able to help you tell your story.

[1426] It's powerful.

[1427] Thank you so much.

[1428] Thank you, my brother.

[1429] All right, folks, we'll be back tomorrow with Duncan Trussell.

[1430] See you.

[1431] That's going to be a great one.