The Cone Issue #8 Winter 2016 | Page 60

As the Team Leader how did you come to be involved with BuildOn? Last May 2015, I was asked as a cinematographer to follow another buildOn team from Los Angeles to southern Malawi as a part of a documentary their team leader (Travis Van Winkle) was putting together along with Wayfarer Entertainment on service work with buildOn. it aligned with the work I love to be a part of and was very excited to be a part of the adventure. With your first experience being in Malawi, why aren’t you building there with this team? Malawi was unbelievable. I’m not even exaggerating that. I went into it thinking I had a good idea of what I was Scott Simock going to experience. TK, the director of the film has been there before. Travis was there too. I had a good group of Team Leader people around me that had their own badass experience. My experience there was a opening to a part of myself I didn’t know existed. It will always be special to my heart. “Team NepALLin" I really wanted to build a school there. That’s where I fell in love with Africa – or ‘Africa light’ as some of the locals joke about. I made some new friends that I still keep in touch with from Malawi and I know it will be really good to see them again. When you make a bond like that, you know you’re going to have to go back someday. It will happen – just not now. If you really think about it – it’s pretty damn amazing. When I I didn’t want my previous connection to Malawi decide brought my concerns with the weather with the team, they where we were going to build as a team. From the very first meeting I expressed to our team that I wanted them were all on board. We knew that ALL of the regions buildOn works in needs their su pport. To us, we didn’t find it to have the fullest experience possible. I knew we were going to be putting the next year of our lives into this. To necessary to judge who needs it the most. Maybe there’s someone out there with the job that is responsible for pulling break that down further, buildOn gave me an average in the information necessary to get to an educated conclusion estimate of 8-12 months for a team to complete fundraising. Using my very below average math skills, for ‘who needs it most’ – but it’s not our place to do so. So – we stuck to just what made the most sense and decided as a counting with my fingers in front of our team at our first meeting, I saw that would place us somewhere between team that Nepal would be the best fit to go after their monsoon season. May and September. Then I looked deeper into how certain season’s effect each of the regions build On is working in, and we narrowed it down…. Malawi and What will be your personal motto for this trip? Nepal made the most sense. The weather would be right in either place. Attraction to a region is naturally a part “Darling, I am here for you.” I’ll be fully present for Carlie, for our team, for the villagers, and myself. of this process. It’s also totally a privilege we have as Americans to choose where to build a school. 60 THE CONE - ISSUE #8 - WINTER 2016