After the briefing in Copenhagen I had set myself a clear agenda: I wanted to raise all the technical equipment needed for the mission by myself and bring it to Kenya. Since I knew I would quit my job at university, I started with an event for my working colleagues, baking cakes and selling a few of my books I no longer needed. My colleagues liked TaC and the project so much, that they suggested to throw money together for a laptop. Nine colleagues from the faculty of humanities eventually joined and raised 400 Swiss Francs. With that money I purchased a very smart notebook that will serve me as mobile office during the field mission. Because I was in a very good mood that day, I told the sellers of the notebook, a nice Swiss couple, where their notebook would travel and which task it would fulfill. And then the unbelievable thing happened: they gave me a second notebook for free! Just like that! I will gladly hand it over to the project coordinator in Kisumu, who urgently needs a computer in order to write all his documents for TaC.
After the successfull funding of the computers, the word about TaC spread: two friends and their mother enabled me to purchase a camcorder, which means that I can actually document on site the work TaC has done - and I will also interview the sponsored students during my visit! Four friends gave me their mobile phones they no longer needed, others gave money for laptop cases, surge protectors and even a solar charger - surely a smart thing to have in such a remote province like Nyanza! The cutest action though was carried out by my 74 year old dad. I told him that some of the children are so poor, that they don't even have a pen to fill out the form and apply for TaC's sponsorhip. He frowned and said: "No pen??!" Then he walked straight into his bank, told them about TaC and walked out with a hundred pens. With the biggest smile on his face. That was really the most heartwarming thing ever.
Four days before take-off I had everything together I needed for my mission. Dear friends and family - you were great!
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