I was visiting my dermatologist last week, and during small talk about our summer plans I told her about the upcoming adventure.

Given that our drive promises to be hotter than hot and the fact that we will be blasted with sun and sand for days on end, I fully expected her to give me some lecture on sun protection. That being said, I was shocked at her advice …

With a straight face, she urgently recommended that I stock up on UV blocking sun-protective clothes and Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch Sunblock SPF 85. As a pale person with a high risk of skin cancer I am all about taking precautionary measures, BUT SPF 85??? Who knew that even existed?! What happened to the days when I was teased for SPF 45?

In shock, I promptly went out and bought my first -tiny- tube of SPF 85 sunblock. At $10.99 a pop, I’m going to need to take out a loan if I hope to buy enough of this super sunscreen to cover me the entire 5 weeks we are away …

As my inaugural post I am pleased to announce that we have come to a final decision on how we will be worming our way around West Africa to our final destination Kribi, Cameroon

Yesterday I took the the China Town bus up to Boston so that us three could lock ourselves in a room till we had a plan. With our Michelin Map spread out on the floor and the state department warnings close at hand we hammered out the countries and major points of civilization we will be passing along the way (keeping in mind it all looks SO much easier on paper!).

At least as far as the Africa leg is concerned and we have a firm plan. Drum roll please… and the countries that made the cut are:

Ferry from Spain->

• MOROCCO: Tangier, Dar-el-Beida (Casablanca), Marrakech, Agadir, to-

• WESTERN SAHARA: Laayoune, Boujdour, Dakhala, to-

• MAURITANIA: Nouadhibou, Nouakchott, Aleg, Sangrafa, Magta Lahjar, Kiffa, Ayoun el Atrous to-

• MALI: Gogui, Diadioume, diema, Metanbougou, Didieni, Bamako, Segou, Koutial, to-

• BURKINA FASO: Bobo-Dioulasso, Ouagadougou, Kantchari, to-

• NIGER: Fottyango, Niamey, Birni Nkonni

• NIGERIA: Kano, Kaduna, Abuja, Bissula

• CAMEROON!: Bamenda, Nkongsamba, Doulala… KRIBI!

Phew. let me tell you this was no easy task. Ruling out other countries was very difficult. thinking about what we are missing, I am sure we are going to encourage all of you to come back with us. We Probably will not be staying in any of the major cities on this list and will only get close enough to get gas and water when needed. (Note: We are do not have any firm plans for Nigeria yet, but we do have multiple contacts that we are consulting with to find the best route from Niger to Cameroon. If you have any insight into this leg please drop any of us a line)

Google maps does not have all of the roads marked in all of these countries (or even some of the smaller towns) but we will compile a map from Google earth and other resources to give a good sense of the what will be the actual route. Hope you are as Excited as we are! Imagining the landscapes and the Architecture of these places is making our minds spin with fantasy. Needless to say my dreams have been fun as of late.

We are still keeping our feet on the ground and we are closing in on a proper vehicle. We have decided on a Suzuki Samurai or Vitara. Check out the Vehicle page to see a sample picture. We have not found the exact model but we have been talking to our friends in the UK and scouring the auctions.

As the summer approaches things are coming together. If you are in the New York City area keep your eyes open for a fund raising event that should not be missed.

Everyone!

We are pleased to announce that last night’s fundraiser for our charity, Send A Cow, was a huge success! We packed The Druid FULL and really had a blast spending time with our friends and the curiosity-stricken strangers who dropped by. We are thrilled to report that in just 2 short hours, we raised a ridiculously awesome $955! This means we met our original goal of $2,000 AND THEN SURPASSED IT! Together, we’ve now raised $2,124 for Send A Cow!

Does this mean our work is done? Of course not. We would love to raise even more money for Send A Cow. If you were or are inclined to contribute to this great cause, do it! And if you are interested in donating to our trip directly, you can still do that as well from our donate page. We really appreciate every bit of support each of you has shown. It is incredibly touching, and the three of us are really, truly impacted by your kindness and enthusiasm for our cause and our adventure.

Thank you to every person who showed up last night. We are trying to compile a list of attendees, so check our Sponsors page for the shout out list soon. We’d also like to thank, in particular:

• Mikey, the really incredible owner of the Druid, for donating his space, some yummy snacks and a great prize for our giveaway. His support was essential to last night’s success and he has an amazing personality to boot.
• George Pechman and Jessica Alexander for staffing the donation table. These two tremendous kids helped us pass out prize tickets, hustled folks into giving more money and at the end of the night, counted it all so that we could announce our grand total. Thank you!
• Evan Wilson, who won the grand prize Red Sox tickets, for his impromptu generosity. Immediately upon winning the tickets, Evan auctioned them off for $175 and donated the proceeds to Send A Cow! Without Evan’s generosity, we would not have met our goal! Also … thanks to Will, for forking over the cash for said Red Sox Tickets … Will, we still owe you lots more beers for that!

Finally, thanks to all of the following local businesses who donated the heavily sought after prizes of the night:

• The Druid
• East Coast Grill
• Inman Oasis
• Harvest Co-op
• Olé Mexican Grill
• Boutique Fabulous
• David Merson, donor of the Red Sox Tickets!

Gotta say, Inman Square businesses ROCK!

It was really great to see our friends and meet new ones, so thanks again for showing up! To those of you who have been asking questions about our route and car, we will have more on that in the imminent future, so check back soon!

Dear Bostonians, Cambridge Folk (Cambridgers? Cambridgians?) and other neighbors,

You are cordially invited to a happy hour at The Druid, wherein you will have the opportunity to drink, donate to Send A Cow, and win prizes!! I know all of these are far more interesting to you than my idle chatter, so I’ll get right to the deets:

Who: You
What: Drinking and Donating Cash to Send A Cow, our official charity!
When: Thursday, May 8, 2008, 6 - 8 pm, although we’ll still be there well after it is “officially” over
Where: The Druid, 1357 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
Why: The reasons are boundless, among them are:

• Karmic payback
• The satisfaction of donating to a good cause
• Yummy food
• The opportunity to bask in the awesomeness of me and Jessie
• And the chance to WIN…

RED SOX TICKETS
GIFT CERTIFICATES TO LOCAL HOT SPOTS
AND MORE!!! 

How: You can’t be serious…you’re an adult, you can figure it out.

I would totally rock the socks off your middle school newspaper with my mad journalism skills, don’t you think?

Hope to see you there!

… and because I care about you and your characters, dear Sandbox fans, I absolutely insist you peruse my two recommendations:

1. Those of you in Boston may have noticed Skirt! magazine, a hip women’s mag found in pretty green newspaper boxes around Boston. Jessie and I were lucky enough to be featured in the May issue, with a picture to boot.

   Be sure to pick up a copy or check it out on their website.

   I have no segue to this next bit so please just indulge me while I talk about myself for a bit. Our photo was taken on a windy, drizzly day, also known as a bad hair day. I, the perpetually cold one, shivered throughout the entire photo shoot. When the wind wasn’t whipping my hair into a frenzy, it was reducing my eyes and nose to runny messes. In sum, I was a shivering, sniveling, tear-soaked frizzy hair ball. Jessie looked pretty comfortable inside the car, don’t you think? Props to the photog, though, for making me look like a human being.

   

2. Jessie and I were also mentioned in the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy admissions blog. Thanks for the shout out, Jessica! Jessie and I can’t wait to meet our fellow future Fletchies.

Finally, to those of you moseying on over from Skirt!, Fletcher or elsewhere, welcome! Feel free to poke around the site and make yourselves at home.

A friend of the team, Randy Beem, dropped me an e-mail a few weeks ago to to share information about Betty Lou’s Inc., the awesome health food company where he works as a Sales Associate. He knew our team would be needing extra nourishment for the sparsely populated regions of our journey, especially as Aparna and I are vegetarians, so he proposed a fix: Betty Lou’s Nut Butter Balls. High in protein, as well as fiber, and other important things like calcium and iron, their snacks are jam packed full of great tasting, health wise ingredients. For all you vegans out there, they have a whole line of yummy snacks just for you!

Last Friday I received the samples, and my goodness they are good! I think my favorite is the almond butter ball, although the coconut macadamia balls are a close second. I encourage you to check out their products and find out more about these delicious, healthy snack alternatives. Besides, their company is generously supporting us with our journey, so we encourage you to return the favor and support them!

Time Crunch

Wow. Someone just pointed out to me that the rally launch is on July 18th, which means it is only three months until we literally hit the road. This means it is LESS than three months before we depart the US for London and we have EVEN LESS time than that to get all the logistics sorted before we go. Phew. Over the next few weeks, we will be posting more about where we are in our planning process, so check back often. For easy updates, subscribe to our RSS feed!

What keeps us from becoming totally overwhelmed? Every day we are receiving individual donations and letters of support from friends, family and strangers alike. While we are working hard to secure business sponsors, we are incredibly impressed with the amount of money and knowledge accumulated from individuals. Day by day we are building a virtual pit crew, and although you folks may not be able to help us change a tire in the middle of the Sahara, you are the core of our support both now and once we hit the road.

Petrol, Anyone?

Last week a friend of the Sandbox Savants approached a team member to find out more about the adventure. Questions ranged from our motivations and strategies to our time line and needs. After a few hours of conversation and a delicious pizza dinner, the friend of the team committed to covering the cost of petrol for our entire journey. This being one of the substantial out-of-pocket expenses of the adventure, we went from being in awe to being absolutely thrilled! If this person’s excitement and enthusiasm for our adventure isn’t a motivator to get you all donating, I don’t know what is! From $5 donations to commitments with larger dollar values attached, donations to both our road fund and our charity are the backbone of this adventure. Keep passing the hat and know that we are extremely grateful!

What’s Next?

Currently our most formidable tasks include, but are clearly not limited to:

• Finding two teams to join us in a caravan across the Algerian Sahara. It is against the law to travel is Southern Algeria without a guide, and so to cost share, as well as for safety purposes, we are looking for two other cars to take this section of the route with us.

• Securing a business to sponsor the purchase of our car. Anybody have any ideas? We have been reaching out, but innovative and creative ideas on how to do this are appreciated. Shoot us an e-mail with your ideas!

• Paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork. Vehicle paperwork, insurance paperwork and Rally paperwork … Lots of it …

Check back soon for more detailed posts on the above!

As we try to balance our jobs, personal lives and planning for our fundraising adventure, Aparna, Doug and I have all been feeling a little hectic. However, despite the insanity, there have been lots of reasons for us to celebrate! Every kind word of support, piece of knowledge and donation gives us renewed energy to go forward, so thank you to EVERYONE following our progress and contributing! This is a HUGE challenge and we couldn’t do it without you.

As I said, things are hectic, and having one less logistical detail to worry about is tremendous. Our current route requires us to get visas for Algeria, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon. Some of these countries are more tricky to deal with than others and the cost of consular fees and visa processing is large.

One cause for celebration we want to share with all of you is the recent pledge of support from CIBT, Inc. CIBT is the world’s leading travel document specialist and expediting service - their mission is to help you navigate the passport and visa paperwork bureaucracies. If you ever need any travel document assistance, especially in a crunch, these are the people you call! I’ve had the privilege of working with them as a part of my job at Harvard, and also recently met one of their long time employees Steve D., and I am so thrilled to know their dynamic staff will be assisting with the coordination and cost of our visas!

Check them out at www.us.cibt.com.

We are excited to announce our first business sponsor, The Print House, who graciously donated team business cards for Doug, Aparna and me. They look beautiful, and we have already begun dishing them out to unsuspecting strangers.

Doug was the master behind the design and layout, and our friend Paul D. at The Print House had them do what they do best and slapped our design on some eco-friendly paper (see below) to make the final product we now have in hand.

Check ‘em out:

Jessie’s Business Card (Front)
Team Business Card (Back)

It’s worth noting that The Print House is a strong supporter of the Green Initiative and is highly active in making business decisions that are best for our environment. You can read more on their website about the many steps they take to minimize their impact on the environment, including knowing the origin of the raw materials that go into their paper and inks, as well as becoming certified as a Green company.

We thank The Print House for their donation, and their commitment to the many practices which will help to maintain the integrity of our natural resources and support a responsible forestry management. If you have any printing needs and live in the Boston area, give these guys a call!

We are spinning like whirlwinds here in the Sandbox.

Our trip is more than three months away, but there is a lot to do. On top of getting the word out, we’re working on getting donations, a vehicle, plane tickets, camping gear and vehicular equipment.

Of course, our list of essentials is much larger than camping gear and vehicles. As we draw closer to the start date, we will be worrying more about visas, vaccinations, medical supplies and finalizing our route. Given the changing country conditions, we have to remain flexible with the route. We’ll need not only a good set of maps, but also a good sense of direction.

There are also the non-essential essentials, such as memory sticks and numerous batteries for the camera. Unfortunately, there are no outlets buried in the desert sand (unless the world is way more wired than any one of us ever expected), and I’m sure no one would be pleased if we returned with no pictures to show for it. Thus, we will be stocking up on batteries. If any one of you happens to be sitting on a horde of memory sticks, camera batteries or other useful items you don’t plan to use, we sure wouldn’t mind if you sent them our way. Really though, we will post our wish list and packing list shortly to give you an idea of the planning process.

I could go on and on about our plans, but our list is long, so I’ll talk a little more about one of our immediate concerns: plane tickets. This is particularly tricky as we cannot be sure of the exact time we will arrive in Cameroon. However, we all three have lives to which we need to return, other obligations with which we need to negotiate exit and return dates. Our plan then, is to purchase tickets prior to our trip, picking a date and a city from which to fly out of in West Africa, and hope that we make it in time. Out of all our options, this seems to be the best bet.

Going forward, we will continue to update this site with news of our sponsors, press spots, fundraising events and the planning process. If there’s anything in particular you’d like to hear about, send us a note or leave a comment.

Until next time, my friends!