We're about to go to Kenya!

Hello, friends! Liz here. HumanKind Media is about to go to Kenya. I'm landing there tomorrow morning, right smack in the middle of Nairobi. I'll be there a week, meeting up with nonprofits like the Green Belt Movement, and talking to students and journalists about how they use the Web for global connection and communication.

I brought with me a laptop from One Laptop Per Child, and I have to admit, I'm struggling to learn how to use it! I think it's because I'm not a kid ;) It seems like one of those things that would be intuitive for a child to use, but for a thirtysomething ... Let's just say that now I know how my parents felt about setting the clock on their VCR.

After a few days in Nairobi, I'm moving on to a rural village in western Tanzania, where I'll be volunteering with Project Zawadi, a nonprofit founded by a former Peace Corps volunteer, Brian Singer. Project Zawadi raises money to put kids through school. It pays for tuition, uniforms, notebooks, and pens and pencils. I'm going to help distribute school supplies and pitch in on other projects, some through the local NGO, Zinduka, which was founded by residents of the rural village of Nyamuswa. (They're amazing -- they raise money in their own communities for local projects.) Project Zawadi reminds me a lot of Camfed -- both organizations commit to supporting a student as far as they want to go in school, even to university and beyond. A kid can start envisioning and planning an ambitious future with support like that! Speaking of Camfed, I'm hoping to meet with some of their students and alumni, too, since they operate in Tanzania.

That's enough for now -- except for one small detail: Remember way back to our first HumanKind Media challenge, when we all raised a bunch of money to buy bed nets, thanks in part to a matching donation from a Midwestern entrepreneur named Paul? Well, Paul's traveling with me! Wish us luck. We're thinking of you. And if you have any questions you'd like answered while we're here, let us know and we'll do our best.

Peace!