The Kauai JUMP members are leaving for Kenya today: 11 high school students (Andrew, Juli, Carly, Rory, Isabelle, Alec, Erik, Kelli-Rose, Kelsey, Aria, Bailey) + Allie (7), and three chaperones (Robin, Ernie and Eric). The student blogs will be up here soon...all our Kauai and Kenya jumpers will have one and you'll be able to access them all from here.

We've still got a lot of packing to do, at least around my house. The tech/media equipment is spread out all over the floor...I'm trying to make an inventory list before it gets all packed up. We just heard that our video equipment made it to LA from NYC. And thanks to my sister, a couple of boxes of MS Office will be waiting there for us too. We'll pick it up tomorrow during our 12 layover in LA. Seems one of the boxes if 4 feet tall. I have no idea how we're going to get that on the plane. Everyone's carryons are already full of cameras, video equipment, laptops, etc...traveling light seems more impossible than ever in the digital age.

Tip for the traveler, don't take your doxycycline malaria med on an empty stomach. Just tried it. Not a good idea.

After our 12 hour layover in LA, we'll hop on board a Virgin Atlantic airbus bound for London. We'll spend a few hours there, then we'll hop on a Kenya Air flight and step off the plane in Nairobi on the morning of July 3. Maybe we'll get a chance to stop at a cyber cafe to say 'jambo' to our friends/family back home before getting on our bus and driving another 5 or so hours to Nakuru. Good thing they have great coffee in Kenya, we're going to need it.

Nakuru JUMPers, if you're reading this, we can't wait to meet you all soon!

Kwaheri for now,
Robin

We're almost ready to jump on the plane and head for Kenya. Only 11 more days. After a year of planning, fundraising, and collecting tech/media equipment to leave with our Kenyan partners, we finally made it to the departure date.

Our local JUMP group consists of 11 teens from Kauai, Hawaii. We'll be meeting and collaborating with three teen groups in Kenya to make media projects that will give Kenyan teens a voice to share their personal experiences with the AIDS pandemic and increase awareness and prevention of this deadly disease.

We'll be producing podcasts, a documentary, digital stories, and taking lots of pictures. We'll also be posting to our blogs here at tig on a regular basis.

See you back here in 2 weeks.
Aloha,
Robin