Youth Leadership Expedition 2012
The dates of the expedition are approximately July 6-22. The actual dates may be a day or two in either direction. Just depends on the airline price and availability. The cost is $4400 per person, including airfare. There is an optional Mt Kilimanjaro hike that will cost an additional $1900 per person and add another 7 days to the trip.However, before the trip we are planning to have twice monthly get togethers with the participants, starting in January. In these meetings, the group will: decide together on a project that they will work on once they get to Kenya; plan fundraising and other details associated with the project; learn some survival skills; plan a leadership seminar that they will teach at the village secondary school; and learn about Kenyan language and culture. For the kids that decide to go on the hike, there will probably be a few group hikes once the weather improves in the spring. There will be some outside reading involved, too.
Youth that live too distant for the meetings will join us through video conferencing.
Once in Kenya, the group will stay overnight in Mombasa, relaxing on the beach for a day, then head out to Mnyenzeni - the headquarters of Koins for Kenya. They will stay in the main village for a couple of nights where they will teach their seminar and get accustomed to the time change, etc. Then they will move out to a more remote village for the rest of their stay, working side by side with local villagers on their chosen project. They will be staying in sleeping bags and tents, will be doing some of their own cooking, and all of their own laundry. Kind of like girls' or boy scout camp. Midway through the trip they will go on a 2 day, 1 night safari at Tsavo National Park. At the end of their trip, they will have the opportunity to stay overnight with a village family. Depending on how the flights work out, there may be the chance of spending a day in our hub city in Europe - usually Amsterdam.
I will be personally heavily involved in the pre-expedition meetings, as will the mentors I've chosen to work with the group. One of these mentors is Emery Blanchard. She went on our expedition last summer and was an inspiration to all involved. She is an occupational therapist, was in the Army for several years, and has a wonderful, accepting, fun, and caring attitude. The other mentor is Dallin Frampton, a young man who lived and worked in Dzivani, Kenya, for 4 months in 2010, building a school in honor of his younger brother, and just recently returned from Kenya after raising funds and building a second school in Dzendereni, which was funded by Crossfit.
We will have a regular expedition going on at the same time as the youth expedition. So, there will be lots of back up and help if needed.
The Mount Kilimanjaro hike will be 5 days, 6 nights. We have made arrangements with a reputable and experienced local guide. The cost covers transportation to the base camp, all food, and lodging.
We would like each person considering going to fill out an expedition application (available on our website), and send that in to me, along with a $100 deposit in the form of a check made out to Koins for Kenya. We would also like each youth to write a 300 word essay detailing why they would like to go on this expedition. All of this needs to be in to me by January 15. We will do a phone interview with each participant, too. Nothing scary! Just in an effort to get a feel for each participant's personality and expectations.
We are capping the number of participants at 10. If we get more applications than that, there will be a selection process (which I hope doesn't happen!) based on the essays and interviews with a decision made by the end of December. The deposit will be returned to whomever is not selected.
Feel free to tell as many people as possible about this. It will really be a life changing experience!
Jami Quesenberry
Expedition Leader, Koins for Kenya
jami@koinsforkenya.org
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