I’ve been an asshole.

unintentional, but an asshole nontheless.

and am a bit embarrassed, but never mind.

last night, I hopped on an overnight train down south,

taking with me my little bag,

and initial thoughts on this project.

someone commented on the first post and, while cowardly as posting anonymously is,

it did get me thinking.

‘why am I doing this?’ – well, to meet some folks, and let them tell me their story. plenty of charities/NGO’s/individuals doing good things and could use some help getting the word out.

and, while not a pro, I can get a decent story out.

that’s when it hit me.

I was going about this selfishly.

very selfishly.

I’ve been given on the the most blessed lives and yet, here I am, still asking for things.

buy my photos?

help me meet people in Africa?

I’ve been handed so, so much yet found myself still asking.

and then, something else hit me.

an idea.

so, scratch the ‘help me meet people’ thing.

and sorry about that.

here’s what I’m going to do – even if it means losing the platform of Nat Geo, who emailed yesterday to say ‘they’re still super interested’.

[bear with me, it's only a day old, this idea, so might be klunky in the explanation part.]

…

charity.

we all like charity, and have most likely given to a few. but, fair-or-not, we always walk away hoping that our money actually gets to the people in need.

take Haiti, for example, it’s become a bit of a mess.

and that $20 you give, well, by the time it gets to the place you want it to, it’s more like $7.

and I understand that – a little.

but, what if, what if, there was a way to, almost instantaneously, see a need, give and see your offering in use.

well, I think there is, and I got no sleep in my moving bunk last night coming up with this idea.

tell me what you think of this:

I would head to a place, a village or whathaveyou, and through the local contact find out what they are in need of – let’s say that there’s 20 kids in the area, none of which have shoes, but they all want to play football without cutting up their feet. they run about $20 a pair in the nearest city.

this would be filmed, edited and uploaded within 3-4 days of arriving; a 2-3 minute short. here’s the place, here’s the problem, here’s how much the shoes cost.

still with me?

cool.

ok – here’s the fun part.

I’d have a phone with me, internet capable. we release the link on Twitter/Facebook/etc and for 24 hours, accept donations via PayPal. on the 25th hour we’d take the money donated, run back into town [all of this being filmed], buy however many shoes we got money for [hopefully all], head back into town, hand ‘em out to the kids and turn ‘em loose. I’d take the footage and edit another short within 24 hours or so, meaning that within 2-3 days of releasing the original video, people who donated would be able to see exactly where their $20 went.

that’s it.

I really, really don’t see how this wouldn’t work.

I really don’t.

that was written ['I really don't'] about 12 times in my diary last night – not all at once, but intermittently…if I’m using that word right.

so, let me know what you think about this idea.

I’m going to go after finding a corporate sponsor for the back-end of things…

and to be totally transparent, here’s what I’m asking for:

- my expenses [transport, food, visas, internet connection, a roof, etc] would be around $1000 or so a month.

- web design and constant support – am guessing about $1000.

- any equipment we might need [for now, I could film it on the little Leica and use my portable mic for sound, but eventually would want a real cameracorder] – $2000 to be safe.

- salary for the local guide/translator – [no idea]

…which would bring it to around 8-10k for a 4-month project.

while that might seem like a lot to you [me as well], I can tell you that for a corporation, this is shrapnel.

…

give me your thoughts, friend. advice? what am I not thinking of? what could go wrong?

anything you got.