Books for the Olympic Primary School!

Hey guys!

It is really great that we have been able to ship books to the Starehe Boys Centre, Starehe Girls Centre, and Red Rose School. It's nice to see some concrete results come from our recent community service. However, we cannot forget about the Olymic Primary School in Kibera. We have five boxes of books for this school, but not enough funds to ship the books.

Mr. Okoth already emailed a representative for the Call to Action Symposia at the World Bank about funds for shipping these books. However, we should meet to discuss further fundraising. We were fairly successful in raising funds last week at the attendance tables. I think bake sales this week (the last week of classes!) would also be really helpful. Can we meet briefly during break tomorrow in Mr. Okoth's classroom? Spread the word!

Allison

Potomac Students Give New Classroom for Red Rose School

The Lower School Community Service and Arts and Artifacts Committees at the Potomac School led a three week fundraising project in May 2007, collecting more than $2,000 to help fund the construction of a new classroom, furnishings, and salary for one teacher for a year at the Red Rose School for orphans and vulnerable children in the Kibera slums of Nairobi.

"This fundraising project has helped our children connect to children in need as well as global issues," said Ms. Donna Lewis, head of the Lower School division at Potomac. "On Friday, June 1 we will present our contribution to Mr. Okoth, Ms. O'Hara, and students who will be traveling to Nairobi to help see this project through to completion."

Click here to see the pictures of the Potomac Classroom Project already under construction at the Red Rose, and due to be opened for official use next month by the team of students, teachers, and parents from the Potomac School who will be doing their community service in Nairobi in June.

Daniel and Paul - Our Drivers and Guides in Kenya

Hello Kenya 07 Crew --

here is the message I got this morning from Mary, our manager in Nairobi.

" Hi Ken,
Attached find the photographs of the 2 drivers/guides I have assigned for Potomac Kenya 2007. They are experienced and professional and I trust them very much.
Regards, Mary."

KO

Our Private Transportation in Kenya with Njewa Safaris

Our travel agent in Nairobi is Njewa Safaris Travel and Car Hire Ltd. This is a local family-owned business that specializes in providing affordable personalized safaris for individuals, missionary and educational groups. Mary Njema is our experienced travel specialist and contact at Njewa Safaris, taking care of all our transportation, lodging, meals, visits and other appointments on our itinerary.

The first time I met and worked with Mary was in the summer of 2004 when she organized an unforgetable honeymoon safari and beach vacation for Monica and I. Based on that positive experience, the highlights of which were her personal attentiveness to our needs and her staff's professionalism in delivering to us great service, I decided I would always recommend Njewa Safaris to all my friends. I have sent two other couples on safari and beach vacation in Kenya and they found great service through Njewa too. This will be my first school-based community service and adventure group that I lead to Kenya, and I am very excited to be able to have the Njewa team on the ground working for us.

Over the weekend, Mary sent me these photos of the safari land-cruiser vehicles she has reserved for our ground transportation in Kenya. Both vehicles are equipped with first aid kits, watercoolers, and HF (high frequency) radios for communication. Each vehicle sits six or seven passengers comfortably as shown in this image to the left. We will all be guaranteed window seats since our group is only 11 people. At the back of the land-cruisers is some space for luggage. Do not pack very large or bulky pieces of luggage since that will be a problem with the limited space on the vehicles. We can leave some of our stuff in Nairobi at the Methodist Guest House for safekeeping and only bring the bare necessities when we travel away from Nairobi. If you have questions you would like me to forward to Mary at Njewa Safaris beforehand, let me know.

Cities, markets, schools, churches, daily life in Kenya

View these photos by an American visitor to Kenya. It is a nice visual journal of daily life around the country, including places in Nairobi where we will spend about half of our trip.

Photo Safari through Masai Mara National Park

These pictures are from a family that visited Kenya in February 2007. The slide show on Flickr.com provides a preview of the adventure and fun part of our trip. See the morning hot air balloon safari on the Masai Mara (mid-way through the show/album).