A few bumps in road: Brokeback Trailer

The 2009 Wake Up Trip is officially underway! We will be reporting to you over the next several days, hopefully capturing some of the inspiring sights, sounds and activities here in Newington Village with Pride ‘n Purpose.

Our group gathered Saturday night in London’s Heathrow airport and after checking in mounds of baggage set off on our adventure.

It was an uneventful flight (though there was a bit of drama with more than one of our group tearing up at the end of Marley and Me, one of the in-flight movies!) and we were soon piling in to our 16 seater mini bus for the eight hour journey to Ulusaba.

Everything was going swimmingly until in the last 15km, after entering the Sabi Sands reserve, one of our trailer’s back wheels jumped off its axis, leaving us stranded in the road.

Help was soon on the way, with Lindsay, her husband Johan and ranger Trevor coming to our rescue. The mechanically inclined amongst us were soon identified (former Army man Mark and airplane engineer Tobi), and a crack team quickly formed to sort things out.

After nearly 24 hours travelling, our group finally arrived at Ulusaba, where after a quick clean up we regrouped for a massive braai (aka barbeque) and some stargazing. Then it was off to bed, as we had a very long day ahead of us at the build site.

Submit your question to the Bhubezi clinic

While we are in South Africa next week, we'll have the opportunity to visit the Bhubezi Community Healthcare Centre, a rural clinic established with support from Virgin Unite and others. It’s a very inspiring project, providing critical primary healthcare and HIV/AIDS treatment in an area with high HIV infection rates and little access to medical treatment.

As part of the visit, we'll be producing a video Q&A feature with Dr. Gilbert Khoza, Bhubezi’s medical director, for virginunite.com. We're hoping to collect questions from a wide variety of people around the world so please feel free to post a question with your name and where you are from in the comments section before our visit on Tuesday April 21.

You can also read interview with Dr. Khoza here.

Eco-build under way

Here's another short video from Lindsay at Pride 'n Purpose taken in Newington Village, where our team will be arriving shortly for a week of volunteering. Meet some of the local people who'll be working with us to construct the eco-creche, as well as some of the teachers and students eagerly awaiting the new school!

Newington Village Video!

Thanks to Lindsay at Pride 'n Purpose for sending this video of the lovely Newington community we'll be visiting later this month. Be sure to catch the last few seconds showing the site where the eco-creche build is already underway. And kudos to the local Ringatani Marimba Band whose music features in the background!

Win a super reggae gift basket

Many thanks to Rita & Ziggy Marley who have generously donated a beautiful gift basket to help us fundraise for the building of our eco-friendly nursery school.

Everyone who makes an online donation to the project before April 30, 2009, will be entered into a prize draw to receive this great prize.

Straight from Jamaica, the basket is brimming with Marley CDs, DVDs, books, badges, as well as a t-shirt, mobile phone cover, wall hanging, calendar, alarm clock and a very cool Bob Marley throw fleece!
So visit the online donation page for your chance to win! Any size donation makes you eligible!*



*Terms and Conditions apply—please see www.virginunite.com for details.

Before...

In just a few short weeks our group will be transforming this site into a brand new nursery school for the children of Newington D! Stay tuned...

Thank you!

As mentioned in previous posts, our group has been busy fundraising from all quarters to help support our school build project.

With a little more than a month to go before our departure, we've managed to raise £1500! It is heart warming to see contributions from so many supporters, so a massive thank you to everyone who has made a donation.

Anyone wishing to help can do so on our online donation page. Every little helps and your donation will be put to good use straight away!