Joined the Peace Corps. BRB.: April 2007

Numbers

Friday, April 20, 2007

There's only one thing that I think of these days: funding for Man Camp. It consumes my every thought, making it impossible to think about other things: school's good, the weather's warm, I'm reading a good book.

We need $2959. That means we've received a total of $2375. Once we hit $2667, the halfway mark, then I'll rest a little easier. Actually, no I won't; I'll probably just get even more antsy as we get closer to the $0 mark. The numbers are always bouncing around in my head, so much so that I use them in class activities now:

"Mark went to the store. At the store he bought 2375 eggs."
"2375?!"
"Yes. Mark was very hungry, so he drove home at 2959 kph."
"What!"

The project members, you met them last post, and I keep in touch via periodic emails. Since I have the most readily available email access, I keep up on the numbers game more than them. I update them with the most recent numbers about once a week, most of the time like this:

The numbers game is so all-encompassing these days that I pay attention to other volunteers' projects (in other countries!). Some of the ideas are awesome, here are a few of my favorites: a butcher shop in Togo, a baseball league in Moldova, and chicken raising in South Africa. But, hands down, my favorite project is this MASSIVE project in Vanuatu for windmill power. The project total is $289,548! The guy's asking for $24,794, a fraction of the overall cost, but still...! Isn't it a great idea? It almost out-MAN's the Man in Man Camp. How cool is that? I almost feel like changing our camp to be a weather balloon project or an ark just to compete.

Once again, thanks for your continued donations to our camp. You're helping those you've never met, but the project will be a rousing success - one that I anticipate positively affecting these boys' lives. We're going to have a watermelon eating contest!

Oh, and if we get funded quickly enough, let's toss some cash at that guy in Vanuatu as well.

Meeting

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

We had a meeting in Toktogul to discuss Man Camp stuff.

Basically it boiled down to delegating responsibility to team members for certain tasks we need to accomplish before the camp in June. There's a lot of details that need to be addressed before then, and this is made difficult by the distance between each of us. We met in Toktogul primarily because it is central to all of us. It took me 10 hours on a bus to get there.

We've been talking about Man Camp ever since our PST, so it's a strange feeling to watch the camp slowly shift from idea to reality. It won't be exactly as we originally imagined it, but we're working hard to make it close. Dancing bears, elephant races, and a dunk-tank with pirahhnas are just not going to happen unfortunately.

The ideas are rolling in at a good clip though, so I'm confident in the camp's success. Honestly, the most difficult part so far was sending out that mass email asking for money. I believe that Man Camp will be a special event, but it's difficult to convery its importance, its potential, to folks in words that sift out to say, "We need money!" We're down to $3644 left (out of $5334). My greatest fear is that we'll get down to a few hundred dollars left and the money flow will dry up. I hate asking for money.

By the way, don't forget the website: link to Peace Corps donation site.

I've got expensive tastes, but I'm not too interested in being rich. That sounds awfully idealistic. I guess what I'm saying is that in my future, I want enough money to be able to be on the donating end, not the receiving end. The ability to give before another has a chance to ask would be immensely satisfying.

Let's conclude with a few pictures. Two pictures from Toktogul, and a mini-introduction to the guys heading up Man Camp (minus Matt Grandmason - no picture!).