Rosebud family planning trip of a lifetime

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

At the time of year when the Snider family of Rosebud usually sets off to school – parents David and Jeany as instructors at Rosebud School of the Arts, and sons Weston and Donovan as middle-school and high-school students – this year they’ll set off for two months of travel in six countries, touring, visiting, lecturing, discussing, resting and helping others in need.
In early September, the family will fly to Milan, Italy, then on to the Swiss Alps, where they’ll take two weeks to “retreat and foster discussion” in L’Abri, Switzerland, Jeany Snider wrote in an email from the family.
Filderstadt, Germany will be their next stop, visiting the family of a friend Jeany Snider has known since high school. From Germany, they’ll fly to Uganda, where they’ll reconnect with a former Rosebud student and visit the child they sponsor through World Vision.
In Nairobi, Kenya, they’ll meet Julisa Rowe, who teaches indigenous drama and music at Daystar University and does international drama and music ministry.
Their last stop is nine days in Tabora, Tanzania. With an organization called Juma’s World, they’ll visit Juma’s Worlds’s arts-based school, visit school families, and help the village of Inala establish solar light-ing and obtain permanent clean water.
“I’m really excited! I think it will be great experience for everyone,” said Weston in the email. He may miss his friends, he said, but he looks forward to learning new traditions and customs, and more about the world. He’s especially excited about being in a small mountain town in Switzerland.
“It’s going to be an incredible experience,” said his older brother, Donovan, “a chance for us to learn, grow, explore and experience things together as a family.
“I’m most excited about spending time in Africa,” Donovan added, though he said it may be challenging to cope with the heat. “I trust that it will be amazing, and I will get a real, first-hand view of what life is like for people who live in a variety of lifestyles in Africa.”
The idea for the trip started four years ago, when the family felt “the need to bust out and expand,” Jeany Snider said. They explored enlarging their home, or building a new one, but instead, she said, “we invested in this idea of traveling and spending time in a new culture, and learning more about our world and ourselves by dwelling in a new land with new people and a new language.”
“This is the kind of cultural adventure that makes a person more dynamically aware of the world around them,” Donovan Snider said. “Something that is becoming increasingly important in a world connected in so many ways.”
The Sniders invite others to share in their Juma’s World project, by hosting a fundraiser Aug. 24, 8 to 10 pm in Rosebud’s Akokiniskway Gallery. They’ll perform music and theatre that they’ll also perform on the trip, including a Swahili song that the audience can sing along with, wrote David Snider in the e-mail. Guest artists will also perform. Jeany’s paintings, homemade cookies and artisan bread will be for sale.
To learn more about the fundraiser or donate sale items, contact David or Jeany Snider at Rosebud School of the Arts. To learn about Juma’s World or donate online, see jumasworld.org.