Adventures Within Reach is listed in The 100 Best Worldwide Vacations to Enrich Your Life by Pam Grout. The trip that is highlighted is our Tanzania volunteer trip, which includes
Get a group together, and you can do this tour any day of the year!
Categories: Kilimanjaro · Safari · Sustainable Tourism · Tanzania
The children of Tanzania made such an impression on Lara and Joshua Wachs that they have started a Facebook page, called Pencils for Africa, to donate ONE MILLION PENCILS to schoolchildren in Tanzania.
Word on Facebook spread quickly. Donations of pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpeners have started to arrive from all over the United States. One school had a “hat day” where kids could wear a hat at school if they brought in three pencils to donate. In just a few months, Pencils for Africa has already received donations of over 6000 pencils!
Children with Pencils
“Believe it or not, the children in Tanzania are desperately in need of pencils, more than toys, pens, candy, or anything else,” says Lara Wachs. “Their faces lit up when they received pencils from us. And, I’ve heard this from so many travelers who go to Africa and third world countries, if I had only known that it was pencils they cared about most, I would have brought an entire extra bag with me full of them.”
Pencils for Africa need help in two ways:
The costs of mailing the pencils to Tanzania are very high. One simple way to get the pencils to the children is by having travelers deliver them personally while on holiday in the country. Pencils for Africa can bundle the pencils for travelers and deliver them to New York City or mail them within the U.S. if shipping costs are paid.
Adventures Within Reach (AWR) arranged the trip for the Wachs in 2008 including a Kilimanjaro climb, Tanzania safari, and Zanzibar holiday. AWR will be working with Pencils for Africa to encourage travelers to make donations, take over pencils, and spread the word.
“It is very easy for any traveler to stick a bag of pencils in their suitcase, and their efforts will be greatly rewarded as they hand out the pencils to the children. The look on the children’s faces when they get things they need is an amazing experience,” says Robin Paschall of Adventures Within Reach.
For more information about Pencils for Africa and to help out, visit their Facebook page:
Galapagos Diving aboard the Alta
The luxury M/S ALTA is now offering diving cruises to Wolf and Darwin Islands starting select Saturdays June-September 2009.
For all diving departures there will be 2 dive masters / naturalists onboard the ALTA to take the group out to the dive sites in two dinghies. Crew members on-board the vessel during these weeks are trained for diving cruises and there will also be first aid equipment and emergency equipment on-board. Nitrox will be available in limited quantities.
Day 1: Saturday
Morning: Arrive San Cristobal Island:
Afternoon: San Cristobal: Isla Lobos (check dive)
Day 2: Sunday
Morning: North Seymour Island (diving)
Afternoon: Cousins Rock (diving)
Day 3: Monday
Morning: Wolf Island (diving)
Afternoon: Wolf Island (diving)
Day 4: Tuesday
Morning: Darwin Island (diving)
Afternoon: Darwin Island (diving)
Day 5: Wednesday
Morning: Wolf Island (diving)
Afternoon: Wolf Island (diving)
Day 6: Thursday
Morning: Isabela Island: Cape Marshall (diving)
Afternoon: Santiago Island: James Bay
Day 7: Friday
Morning: Santa Cruz: Gordon Rocks (diving)
Afternoon: Santa Cruz: Charles Darwin Research Station
Day 8: Saturday
Morning: San Cristobal: Depart for Mainland Ecuador
Diving Galapagos aboard the Sky Dancer
There is still availability on the Sky Dancer for these 2009 departures:
Categories: Galapagos
