My husband and I along with our 3 young sons aged 9,11&13 embark on an "Around the World 3 year trip" by road in December 2011. Still a considerable amount of planning left to do if we are to meet our intended goals - but we are winning! We aim to visit every Country on the planet over a period of 3 years. We begin our trip at the Southern most tip of Africa and will be visiting every Country on the African Continent, prior to moving on to the next Continent - Europe.We hope to be conducting "Slide Shows", Talk Shows, Awareness Campaigns etc. etc. at hundreds of Schools when we arrive in Europe, USA, Australia and the Middle and Far East. Our 3 Sons will also be talking,describing and sharing their side of the story and what they have seen and experienced during their journey around Africa.
The objective of this trip remains two-fold. Apart from offering our boys a true hands on experience as to what the world is all about, what makes it all tick, as well as visiting places and thus gaining first hand experience about them as opposed to learning about it on a board in a class room - it should be thoroughly educational.Imagine us seeing all the major rivers including the Zambezi, Nile,Amazon,Congo, climbing Kilimanjaro,Game viewing in the Serengeti,Kruger National Park, Selous National Park,Zambezi, visiting the Chimps and Gorillas in Uganda and the DRC
seeing the Pyramids in Egypt, meeting all the different tribes and ethnic groups along the way. To introduce them to the scourge of 3rd world poverty and then to broaden their horizons by touring through the First World Countries and reintroduce them again to the way of living which we are all accustomed to.This is a very brief description pertaining to our trip.
Secondly, and just as importantly,our aim is to combine the relevance of "Academics and Sport at the Grassroots Level", by offering the poorer "RURAL" communities options that we all take for granted in our everyday lives. I have no hesitation in justifying the fact that as a family, we have the necessary qualifications amongst us to "spread that word", and spread it effectively!Being a Grassroots initiative and aimed at the children of Africa I would therefore like to begin with the contribution that my 3 young sons are capable of being able to offer... Apart from being way above average Academically, including being fully computer literate, good public speakers and great little ambassadors, all 3 are avid sportsmen. Having represented their respective schools in the "A" Teams in numerous sporting disciplines including Rugby, Cricket, Hockey,Soccer,Tennis and Swimming as well as at Provincial and National Level, makes us both truly proud parents.We believe they are all the right age to take it all in, which will obviously benefit them, not only during their exams in years to come but also later on in life.
Africa is all about Soccer, so we will be concentrating on this particular sport while on the Continent. With the boys help and experience at this junior level I believe there to be no better way of explaining,demonstrating, teaching or motivating a particular concept or idea, whether it be associated with computers or soccer,while we are traveling.
We aim to work closely with a large number of Globally based Multi Nationals to achieve our aims. We want to be able to place 250 "Units" comprising a Lap Top Computer including the relevant educational programmes plus soccer training DVD's etc, Solar Panels to power the Computers and Soccer Balls in each and every Country in Africa prior to the next World Cup in Brazil."How can we achieve this", you might be asking yourselves? Well, firstly my husband and sons were all born and raised in Africa, For my sins I was born in Bromley in the UK, but have adapted to the beautiful way of life that Africa has to offer, in the 15 years I have lived here.My husbands family had been farming in Zimbabwe since the early 1920's, up until the much publicized land invasions which took place a few years back, and which gave us the inspiration to travel.The whole family are seasoned travelers, having been to numerous different places in Africa as well as abroad.My husbands passion for fishing, hunting, shooting and wildlife photography has offered him the opportunity of having traveled around the majority of Southern, Central and East Africa over the years and pretty much knows it like the back of his hand.
So going "Rural" for a few years is not new to us.He often says that a number of his travels were unfortunately for all the wrong reasons -"Delivering food aid to the poorer rural communities in Africa". We have seen so many NGO's that have adopted the "Dump aid and run" attitude, during our travels, it is quite scary. Plus, we have also noticed that the urban based folk in these countries benefit far more than the genuine poorer folk who have opted to remain in their villages. We have no intentions of getting mixed up in this controversial topic for now but it's worth thinking about. I'm here to promote our idea and the trip!Unfortunately we are unable to fix Africa on our own but at least we can give something while on our travels, and thus hopefully contributing towards a few "well balanced children" in these remote communities. Given the chance and assuming we have the Organizations and relevant Foundations on board with us we could possibly take it a step further by offering vegetable seeds (ONLY) as part of the "Unit" - but we will have to wait and see what the general response is like. We can't spread our wings too far unfortunately.I am a fully qualified IT Trainer and with 3 sons to deal with, have the obvious experience to round this all off - I hope!. How do we get the "Units" to each and every Country in Africa? Very simple, and an option we have used successfully in the past. By shipping via a reputable "Courier" Organization who has representative offices in each and every Capital City on the Continent. We would collect the consignment on arriving in each country.
Our vehicle of choice for this trip is a large 6 wheel drive Mercedes Benz. We need it for the bad roads in Africa and plus we are towing a large trailer, which includes a mobile workshop, inflatable dinghy, kayaks, fishing and diving gear, sports equipment,our Toyota Land cruiser for driving around the towns, plus all our food and clothes. We are having a mobile home unit designed for the 5 of us, and this will be done in Germany and South Africa. It will include all the mod cons that you would find in a house albeit on a far smaller scale,as well as state of the art satellite and radio link up for our computers, television, phones etc. Our boys will be studying via this set up, no matter where we are in the world. Their education is critical and luckily for me all 3 generally get on with it on their own - with my guidance of course. The fact that they have had an exceptionally good educational grounding, having attended the top Private School in Zimbabwe and a top Private school in South Africa for the last year has its added advantages.More on the topic of educating our boys on our trip will follow...
The entire trip will be documented and I hope to run a daily documentary which I hope to introduce or broadcast to the millions of school children attending schools in the First World. We have some really exciting ideas on this topic which I will be sharing with you all in due course.
Budget - Excluding the cost of our entire "Rig" which includes the Mercedes Truck,Trailer, Boat, Kayaks, Toyota Land Cruiser etc. which is fortunately paid off in full, we estimate our daily operating budget to be +/- US$500-00 per day. This will include food, fuel, visas, unofficial back handers as corruption in Africa is rife, Game Reserve and National Park entry fees,Ferry Crossings, Souvenirs,Medical, 3rd Party Insurance, Museum and Theme Park visits in Europe and the USA etc.
Medical Aid Cover - We have full BUPA Medical Aid cover which includes emergency evacuation by air and much more. We have identified Medicines Sans Frontiers, Doctors without Borders, Private Clinics and Hospitals and DHL or Fedex offices in almost every city around the Globe - Africa being the most important.
You are all welcome to fire away with your questions and or ideas. We haven't even got to the establishment of a website yet, so for now I'm taking advantage of different sites like Mumsnet for example....