The Launch
Any large expedition surely needs an appropriate farewell and for an expedition of this proportions it would not suffice to have a quiet farewell with friends and family. During the preparations it soon became evident that a lot of attention had to be paid to our departure. A great amount of ideas were suggested amongst which a party with a well known DJ provided by DanceForLife, a performance by a well-known artist from Warchild, flying in a real-life rapper from Liberia who in fact himself was a war child, a parade of a hundred motorcycles and much more.
In any case in was clear that the Launch of this expedition was to be big and that on that same day we would be driving off and therefore needed external help. The “Launch Committee” was born. The Launch Committee consisted of four external members, Eric Haardt (Chairman), Stanley Wong (Secretary), Coen Janssen (Day Commissioner) and Cyril Kooymans (treasurer) as well as Doenan Mager (Supervisor). This committee had made it its duty to organize the Launch in every detail.
After creating an overview of the multiple ideas a list was made of items that certainly had to be present at the day of The Launch:
Friends and Family
Audience
Music
Media
High ranked officials
Launch gun
Sustainability
VIP-tent
Certain aspects are of course harder to arrange than others. For example the media will not show up if nothing is going on. Artists that will happily play with no financial compensation, a stage, high ranked officials. The first important decision the Launch committee made is to unite with the TU Delfts’ Jubilee festivities. At the time of the Launch the TU would have their biggest jubilee festival ever. The jubilee festivity of the TU had a large repertoire of activities including an African market, sports, music, cabaret, foods, theater and much more.
By cooperating with the TU our Launch would be bigger and the TU Festivities
would get more ‘body’. We suggested to the TU to extend the
African market with a sustainability market at which all the sustainable
ideas that exist at the TU Delft would be exposed. To give you an idea,
the NUNA solar car (three times consecutive winner of the world solar
challenge in Australia) Formula student lightweight racing car, Formula
Zero ‘zero-emission’ hydrogen kart, Fuel cell car, a man propelled
submarine and many more. Besides the sustainability market a special stage
for the AfricAlive team would be set up wherefrom music would be played,
the Launch would take place and the officials would speak.
After three months of preparation the results was astounding. At the sustainability market the several sustainable initiatives of the TU were represented. Music played by DJ Auke Nouwens sounded from the stage as well as the beats of African drums. Located right across from the stage a luxury tent where sponsors and important relations could witness the show while enjoying a cold refreshment. The morning was spent in full on the various media photographers and television interviews.
In the afternoon the real program kicked of when the AfricAlive team was presented to the audience that was present in great numbers. Happy and praising words of farewell were spoken by Prof. B.A.C. Droste (former chief of the Royal Dutch Air force, Chairman of the TU Delft Jubilee Committee and by now former Dean of the Aerospace Engineering faculty of the TU Delft), Lianne Merkx (Public Administrator of the Delft Municipality responsible for Nature and Environment) and MSc. G.J. van Luijk (Chairman of the Board of Governance of the TU Delft at the time of the Launch). Hereafter there was only little time to bid our loved ones farewell and after this short break all the team members came back on stage for a short word from our team Captain Bogdan. The Bike were started and the team was ‘shot away’ by MSc. G.J. van Luijk. In a cloud of smoke accompanied by loud cheering the bikes roared off stage closely followed by the Nissan Pathfinder. The sounds of the engines had not yet faded and the final act started playing already. A twenty-five people band from the Township of Mamelodi, South-Africa. Mamelodi is the sister town of Delft and the band came to play especially for our Launch. An amazing end to a very successful day!
