Trip Dates

Trip Costs

Where will I sleep?

What will I eat?

Who Can Go?

How Can I Sign Up?

In late summer and fall of 2008, two teams of volunteers from the U.S. will be traveling to rural South Africa to complete the second phase of a church building project in the village of Silindile in South Africa's Mpumalanga Province. The teams will add a multi-purpose annex to this new sanctuary building built by Many Hands volunteers in 2006 to replace a small wooden building the congregation had outgrown.

As in 2006, volunteers from the U.S. will work side-by-side with local volunteers from the Silindile congregation of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, in collaboration with SAMVIM, to raise a brick building from the ground up.

We will also find ways to get involved with the local community - it's not all bricklaying. For example, in 2006 team members:

• visited local schools and child care facilities
• taught music
• helped local women shop and cook for the group (on a wood-burning stove!)
• shared computer and business skills
• taught Spanish & learned Zulu
• helped organize (and performed in) a community talent show to raise funds for a local library.

You will make new friends, experience a completely different culture, do a lot of good work while having a lot of good fun, and return home knowing that you have made a difference in many people's lives, including your own.

Trip Dates

Because of the amount of work to be done, and because so many former team members want to return to South Africa, we are scheduling two teams for Silindile in 2008.

We will schedule the two teams back to back, for logistics. There is a ten week time frame available to us, from July 23 to October 10. We will choose a six-week block within that time frame to run the two trips.

We have a survey online to determine which dates are most convenient. If you are even considering going with us to South Africa in 2008, please take a minute to complete our trip dates survey, to let us know which dates work for you. We'll schedule the dates that work out best for the most people.

The scheduled dates will include two days of travel time each way between the US and South Africa, two full weeks of work on the project, and four days for recuperating and sightseeing in the Kruger National Park wildlife reserve before returning home.

We spend our work weeks at the project site Monday through Friday. Saturdays are for resting weary bodies, and Sundays you have the option of attending one of "our" churches for worship services.

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Trip Costs

We estimate the trip cost to be approximately $4,500 per person, including air fare to and from South Africa, local transportation, lodging, food, and Kruger Park visit.

We can only estimate the cost at this time because we can't lock in air fares until 300 days before departure.

In addition to paying their own way, we encourage team members to help raise the money needed for the project itself. Our target is to raise $1,000 per team member, which will cover the costs of materials and local labor. Fundraising for the project is only an opportunity, not a requirement.

Don't be discouraged by the expense. If you make the commitment to a work team you will find a way to come up with the money, with the help of family, friends, and the Many Hands community.

Visit the Fundraising page for more information, ideas, and encouragement.

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Lodgings

As on previous trips, we will be staying at the Aventura Badplaas resort and traveling to the work site each day (about 40 minutes away) in mini vans. The Badplaas facility is comfortable and secure. We stay in four-person thatched roof rondavels, complete with fully equipped kitchens and full bathrooms with tub and shower.

There is a restaurant, a small grocery store, a chemist (pharmacy), and a laundry on the premises. There are also swimming pools and hot mineral baths, very welcome after a long day of laying bricks!

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Meals

We have meals together as a team. We prepare our own breakfasts and most of our own dinners - we occasionally have dinner at the restaurant at Badplaas. We rotate the responsibility for cooking and hosting meals from cabin to cabin, so everybody gets a chance to cook for the team. The groceries available at the local store are an interesting mix of familiar and unfamiliar brands, but the selection is similar to what we are used to at home. The quality is good and we eat just fine.

Our lunch at the work site is prepared by the women of the local church "society" (congregation). Get ready to eat some of the freshest, tastiest vegetables ever, along with a variety of meats, chicken, rice, and of course "mealie pap" (polenta? grits?) at every meal. You will also get used to breaking for tea at midmorning - a civilized custom we really should adopt back home.

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Who Can Go?

Anyone who:

• sincerely wants to serve as a volunteer to help others
• is willing to participate fully as a team member
• is at least 18 years old (unless accompanied)
• is in relatively good mental, physical and spiritual health
• completes an application form
• is willing to pay her/his own way
• has a sense of humor
• is flexible and open to other cultures and new experiences

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How Do I Sign Up?

We are still working on our ability to sign people up online. Until then, you can download and print out our application form and either mail it or fax it to us along with a $250 deposit. Our address and fax number are on the form.

You may either enter your credit card information on the form or write a check payable to Many Hands Foundation.

If you have any questions or need assistance with the form, please email us at info@many-hands.org or call Bill McKinney at (619)224-3273 or Linnea Blair at (619)223-8297. We look forward to hearing from you!

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