Sandbox Global Summit Scholarship
Dear fellow Sandboxers,
I wasn't planning to start this campaign. But a series of encounters convinced me to do so. Here's the story of these encounters:
I did not apply for a scholarship for this year's Sandbox Global Summit. The reason I didn't was because I felt it would have been selfish to do so given I got one last year.
As the dates were approaching a number of Sandbox members started asking whether they would be seeing me in Kenya. I explained to them that I really couldn't afford it and why I didn't apply for a scholarship.
All of them thought I should have applied anyway, but one of them had a particularly interesting response. While they could see the idea behind me saying "I got it last time, so I won't apply this year", it striked them as a paternalistic and egotistical response, both saying "I don't trust other people to make this judgment, or be able to include in their calculation the fact that I got it last year" and also "I'm likely to get this, that I should take myself out of the running."
I had never thought about it that way, how a judgment I believed to be coming from a place of nobility of soul may have contained within it distrust to my community and even egotistical pride.
So I reached out to the organizers of the Sandbox Global Summit, and given the date for the scholarships had passed, one of them suggested I place my trust in the community and start a crowdfunding campaign. He reminded me that a few weeks ago when I was certain I wasn't going to Burning Man, a Sandboxer out of nowhere called me up and told me he was going to gift me an extra ticket he had, I could borrow gear from another friend who wasn't coming, plus I could hitch a ride with them all the way to Black Rock City and back. The universe works in mysterious ways I suppose, especially given I may have met the love of my life in Burning Man...
Could the universe have a reason and purpose for me in Kenya? I don't know, but there's one way to find out.
It is with great humility and trust towards the Sandbox Community that I begin this crowdfunding campaign.
I did my research and found the cheapest tickets available for Kenya from Los Angeles. I submit screenshots of them to show they won't be the paragons of comfort but at least they will get them there:
The first is a $880 roundtrip flight leaving from LAX Oct. 2nd and arriving in Nairobi Oct. 3rd 8:10 p.m. (screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ow37s8b3c7l912o/Screenshot%202018-09-18%2014.15.58.png?dl=0)
The second is a $883 roundtrip flight leaving from LAX Oct. 1st and arriving in Nairobi Oct. 2nd 8:10 p.m. (screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/eo126659edbzfgs/Screenshot%202018-09-18%2014.12.59.png?dl=0)
The Kenyan Visa costs $51 and the ticket to the Summit costs $760.
The total is $1691-$1694 but I've added an extra ~$100 just in case the ticket prices fluctuate in the time it takes to raise the funds. As you can see in one of the screenshots there is only 1 seat remaining, so I am hoping the funds will be raised before that cheap ticket is gone.
