Dear Friends and Family,

Hello to you all!   We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

This is the first of many newsletters focused on our 2009 volunteer trip to Malawi, Africa.  You are receiving this letter because at some point you expressed interest in joining us on our journey to Malawi.  We would like to share with you the details of the trip thus far.  We have created a tentative itinerary and we would like to share it with each of you.

This year we will only be able to take 24 volunteers with us.  Since there is limited space it will fill up fast.  We will be leaving the U.S. in the end of May, tentatively May 29^th, for a two week journey to Malawi.  Our itinerary will include visits to the Africa Bags villages including a two night stay in Kamweko Village in the new Africa Bags Community Development Center.  We will be submersed in the every day life of the village.  Other volunteer work will include time at an infant crisis nursery care center, helping at an orphanage, and building school desks at our villages’ schools.  This trip will include a couple nights at a lodge on the shore of Lake Malawi and a safari adventure at Mvuu Lodge in southern Malawi.  Our beginning estimate for the cost of this trip is $3000 to $3500 per person for two weeks.  This does include all airfare, lodging, transportation around Malawi, entertainment, and food. 

Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested as space is limited.  An initial deposit of $100 will be required to reserve your space on this trip.  This $100 will be fully refundable up to 90 days prior to our departure date.  Any cancellations within those 90 days will result in a forfeit of the initial $100.00.  We will need to finalize our list of volunteers so we are placing a sign-up and initial deposit deadline by December 31^st, 2008.

We are asking that anyone considering joining us on this journey drop us a quick email with all your contact information.  Please provide us with your name, address, phone number, and email address for yourself and anyone else planning to travel with you.

We are currently working on the creation of an Africa Bags Malawi Trip 2009 online Chat Page.  This online site will provide a location to gather updated information about our trip, information about Malawi, and an opportunity to chat with others joining us on this trip.  We will provide each of you with more details on this shortly.

Thank you all for your support of the Africa Bags project!  Africa Bags wouldn’t be the same with out each and everyone one of you!  We are looking forward to sharing this Malawian adventure together!

Best wishes,

Todd and Holly