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Invitation for 2008 AVP International Gathering

September 14 to 20, 2008
Bishop Stam Centre, Kakamega, Kenya

Dates: Sunday supper, September 14 to Saturday breakfast, September 20, 2008

Organizing sponsors: Friends for Peace and Community Development and the African Great
Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams.

Venue: Bishop Nicholas Stam Pastoral and Animation Centre, Kakamega, Kenya.
This Catholic conference center has one large hall (800 people), one medium hall (90 people)
(which can be divided into two rooms), and two small rooms (35 people) and has 120 beds. The dining hall has seating for 160 people. It was built between 1997 and 2003. It has its own borehole for water which has been tested for safety. Therefore there will be no shortage of water and it is safe to drink. Sixty of the bedrooms are self-contained with their own bathroom. The other sixty have a sink in the room but a shared toilet and shower. There is only one room with a double bed, but they have indicated that they might put in more double beds by September 2008. If there are more than 120 people, another twenty can sleep at the Friends Peace Centre-Lubao which is a short distance away. Some of the local AVP facilitators will stay in their own homes in Kakamega. If this is not sufficient, then more space can be obtained in Kakamega itself. If you arrive early or stay later (perhaps to co-facilitate an AVP workshop in Kenya), with prior notice, you can stay at Bishop Stam for $23 per day (room and board) for a self-contained room. So can also stay the more spartan Friends Peace Centre-Lubao for $15 per day for room and board.

Each participant will have to find out the Kenyan visa requirements for their home country
because the rules and cost vary enormously.

Travel: Kakamega is about six to eight hours by bus from Nairobi. It is about an hour by minibus from Kisumu. If you arrive early on Sunday morning, you can take the bus directly to
Kakamega. If you arrive later, you can take a plane to Kisumu ($136 round trip) and then come north to Kakamega. Otherwise you will have to spend the night in Nairobi, meaning you need to arrive on Saturday. If you return on Saturday night, you can leave from Kakamega and go directly to the airport. Again otherwise you will have to spend the night in Nairobi. Bed and breakfast in Nairobi is around $50 for a night. (You will be responsible for any hotel expense while in Nairobi.) We will pick you at the airport and take you to the bus or hotel. Virgin Atlantic has a daily flight from London which arrives early in the morning. Delta Airlines in February will be flying directly to Nairobi from New York City (schedule unknown). This is the low travel season so you should be able to find an economical flight.

Cost: Self-contained room is $200 plus $50 registration fee. Non-self contained room is $170
plus $50 registration fee. Non-self contained rooms cannot be guaranteed as we need to have 30 females and 30 males. This cost includes room and board between Sunday supper and Saturday breakfast, transportation to and from Nairobi. These costs are calculated at 65 Kenya shillings to the US dollar. If the dollar continues to weaken via the Kenyan shilling by September 2008, these costs could increase to accommodate this decline in the value of the dollar.

Contact person: David Zarembka, email: dave@aglionline.org, phone: 254 726 590 783,
address: P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50421 Kenya

AVP Workshops: The AVP organizations in Kenya will be arranging AVP workshops both for
the week before and the week after the AVP-International Gathering. In each workshop we
would like to have one or two foreign AVP facilitators paired with two Kenyan AVP facilitators.

We ask that anyone who would like to do this contribute $100 to $500 (the more the better)
towards these AVP workshops.

Pre-registration: If you plan on attending the AVP-International Gathering in Kenya in
September 2008, we would appreciate it if you would let us know. Please email
dave@aglionline.org. Please also let us know if you would like to facilitate an AVP workshop
before or after the Gathering.

Please let us know if you are able to send one or two representatives for your program. We will be looking for assistance but may not be able to meet all needs. Likewise, if you think your program can help sponsor others please let us know.