DECISIONS...Decisions...decisions

Here are some thoughts I have had as of late about putting this together.

• We have a price quote on land, just under $4000/acre. There are 5 acres that are in close proximity to Hopewell and a nice and safe positioning for a guest house. Total cost than just for land is just under $20,000 USD. 5 acres, assuming it is a square piece of land...however that is very unlikely...but for this case lets go with a square piece of land that is 466.7' on all four sides. Our drawing with fences is 120' x 140'. That leaves a lot of extra space for growth.
• Here is a question out there for you: What makes a quality community? When we bring more clean water to this area of Barut will more people come? What if we brought more jobs would more people come? What if we brought high quality and reasonably priced food would more people come? When we use the money to invest in the area by adding more clean water, more food, more jobs, micro-loans, etc...will people trust more than they question? As we add jobs, improve the community, and the Hopewellian students are investing their time to learn these skills and taking these job skills, experiences, and work ethics to other parts of the country/world? What about education? With an increase in international visitors...how fast can the Hopewell school infrastructure grow? Can we get a full school building with a school farm, computer labs with internet, Jr Academy with age appropriate toys, games, and experiences, a technical school for high school graduates that are not going university where students can learn trade skills, a high school job program to help students pull their families out of poverty while learning life skills?
• How do we pull in more international travelers with an emphasis on charity and volunteering while highlighting the natural beauties of the Kenyan lands and the Kenyan people? This week I will be making a list of travel magazines, websites, and blogs. In addition to this we are going to need to find a huge group of travelers for this coming summer...wouldnt it be sweet to see IV-Hopewell open up and be booked for the entire months of June and July and parts of August? Lets say 100 people stay at IV-Hopewell during the first few months. Now take those 100 and their positive experiences and multiply it...what can happen next?
• My vision still is to have International Villages across the world. People can rest assured their money from their stay supports locals through jobs, charity, infrastructure, and promoting more international exposure...all while saving money from traditional hotel stays and tour brookers. How about the beach in Unawatuna Sri Lanka? Ravished by civil war, tsunami, and poverty...the people of Sri Lanka are amazing. Can you see it WTW's IV-Unawatuna.

Dear friends...we can do this...think big, pull it all together and lets change the world!

IV-Hopewell 5-29-08 Email

We have global communication rolling! I have received emails from Vitalice and from Alice so our connection is good and now comes the fun part: picking a project! You can read Vitalice's reply here about his project "Clean City" and about his response to the scanned project phillklamm.blogspot.com WTW's International Village-Hopewell.

Vision/Dreambuilding-Picture a constant flow of international visitors, think of the money that comes in, think of the connections that are made, think of the global synergy that would happen at Hopewell/Barut/Nakuru/Kenya/World etc. Think of the job skills that could be learned and improved at the IV-Hopewell and students could transition to other places around Kenya...think Nairobi, Mombasa, etc.

Now take the learning experiences we have with IV-Hopewell and transition that to IV-South America (Brazil?), IV-SE ASIA, IV-Eastern Europe, etc. Can you imagine a network of WTW IV's around the world where visitors could travel to and have real experiences while helping the local areas?

I love the "Clean City" proposal...cant wait to see more details!

What if? What if we did a new well for IV-Hopewell with water purification, supplemented the water supply with rain water harvesting from the roof, used solar energy, bio-gas, and was able to set up a completely "green" location to stay at? Add this with local food such as Noma Choma, Kale, Ugali, etc

One more thing and than Ill hit send...I promise! What if we were able to nail this down soon, start the fundraising process get our group solidified and was able to cut the ribbon on this deal next June...completed by June...we could stay there...train staff, plant trees, work on "Clean City" initiative, set standards for visitors, take pictures and videos to promote it...can you see us sitting in the courtyard of our new IV-Hopewell having a fire, enjoying Noma Choma, and writing personal letters to celebrities, travel magazines, journalists, friends, and family...would this be after collecting tons of garbage off the streets? Getting home from Masai Mara Game Drive and seeing the "Big 5"? How about after sitting down with some of the village elders and praising them for their leadership? Or visiting the children in the village and playing soccer, handing out books, and sitting down together with some sweets? What is it for you?

You are not normal...you are far from ordinary...what makes you want to do this? How do you see this in your head? How will this change the rest of your life? What will be the story you tell the most when you come back and talk to the people who found excuses not to go? What picture will you show your grandchildren or nieces and nephews when they ask you how you started this global village?

I believe in you...you can do this!

Vitalice's reply:
Thanks for that swift response. And Alice came over to see me yester evening with this grand idea of a project proposed from your end. That is a sure blockbuster of a project! I don’t know why nobody else has ever thought of a project like that! Centres around Hopewell, involving the entire Barut community and basically serving as the nucleus for economic development of this underdeveloped section of Nakuru. The idea is cool, viable and doable. The scan of the diagram you sent Alice didn’t print out ok but I get the general idea. I asked Alice to spare time this coming Saturday so that together with James, another graduate of Hopewell who serves as a project assistant in school and Nelly or Rashid and brainstorm further on this. I believe after that session, we could provide you with an approximate financial outlook of this project.

Yes, the dorm is located 20 meters from the borehole along the fence. It is those two tin classrooms adjoining the library that we pulled down and replaced with a large hall portioned into two to serve as a girls’ dorm. We currently have 135 girls boarding. The rest will come in slowly as space is created by provision of beds.

The environmental project I was proposing is not the one sent to Steve. This will be somewhat an education campaign but with a major one-day town clean-up operation to launch the ‘Clean City” campaign. We expect the momentum to build slowly as we get schools involved, colleges, businesses and other organizations. Funds will be needed in mobilizing cleaning equipment, advertisements and general administrative expenses in coordinating the whole exercise expected to have 5000 participants in the 18 residential estates of Nakuru. I will still send you this project proposal but it definitely doesn’t come any closer to the one you hatched already.

WTW's International Village-Hopewell

Here are some initial drawings of an idea for a project for the WTW Summer 2009 Africa trip.

You can see one is done completely by hand and the other has been modified in photoshop.

While this is a completely new idea and one that needs to be researched extensively. There are some uique thoughts on why this would be a good idea.

To build a "green" International Village (IV) in the area of Hopewell in Barut, Nakuru, Kenya would cost a lot. To justify this cost for this project in an area where there is limited water, very limited clean water, substandard sanitation in regards to both human excrement and garbage, lack of food, lack of free education, and more; the positives of this project would need to be clear and substantial.

To create a 10 bedroom, 2 shared bathroom, 1 large kitchen, 1 large dining room, and a Great Room, with fenced in security, a secured gate, parking, a courtyard, and a flag plaza is going to cost a lot of money...we shall see what the total is later.

Lets first look at uses. First and foremost in my mind is the international traveler looking to get a "real" view at Africa. An international traveler would be able to stay at the IV-Hopewell for much cheaper than the local hotels. Agreed, the accomodations will not be as nice, however, it will offer a better chance at getting to know the locals, eating the local cuisine, and putting the extra funds towards the development of the Hopewell Community (Hopewell HS, Hopewell Technical College, Hopewell Jr Academy, & Barut Primary). Other uses could be to highlight the area with a local Rotary luncheon, meetings such as community get togethers, awards banquets and much more.

Now lets look at employment. A fulltime manager, a driver, cooks, security guards, housekeeping, and possibly more. These people would be trained and be top notch in serving the needs of their guests. Also, it would be great experience for Hopewell HS students to be trained in these areas to be placed in other parts of the country in the tourism industry.

Eco/Green. Rainwater harvesting and solar energy would be a must to promote the best way to use the earth's resources in a sustainable way. In addition, approved pit toilets and showers would be used to minimize the effect of the environment.

Parking would be allowed for up to 6 vehicles. It would be awesome if the IV-Hopewell had a smaller vehicle and a large touring vehicle for guests to use with IV-Hopewell's own driver(s) that have been trained after graduating from Hopewell HS. It would make this a very attractive spot for international travelers if there were drivers and vehicles for nominal travel in town and for game drives at Nakuru National Park and Masai Mara.

It would be great to surround the IV-Hopewell with a nursery. I know there has been some talk of this at Hopewell for a long time. If you take the dimensions from the picture in this post and place young trees on 40' of each side of the secured gate...lets say 10' deep all the way around leaving only the secured gate without trees in front of it.

With the IV-Hopewell, the main idea is to keep fundraising internationally while building connections to other large groups from around the world. If you look at what happened in one instance starting with Darleen and Johnny and HOPE INC out of California, than to Matt Werner and Wrestling the World in Wisconsin, than to Steve and Pat Werner, Walworth/Fontana Rotary and more, than to SOAR-Kenya and Don and Mary Hoffman. It is amazing what has been done and what continues to be done at Hopewell. What if we entice people to come and stay, meet new people, and help, by offering them a clean, safe place to stay for a fraction of the cost of a hotel...knowing all the money earned pays the staff and works toward the next project. Which brings me to...the next project.

The next project would be a IV-Hopewell initiative where there would be a place in the Great Hall promoting what the money has already built, is currently being used for, and will be used for in the future. Always following the rule of SIBKIS "See it Big Keep it Simple"

Some possible projects include:more classrooms for Hopewell HS, classrooms for Hopewell Tech, another clean water well station placed in Barut, micro-loans, etc.