Hello to anyone who still checks this,
I apologize sincerely for neglecting this after I got back. To be honest, I had the busiest summer of my life but there really is no excuse for just disconnecting everything like that so I am sorry for leaving my study abroad story without an end.
I am back in Eugene now for my senior year at the University of Oregon and my life continues to be busier than ever. Fortunately, my time has been filled with more fun and exciting things than ever so this is a change that I welcome freely. I am already midway through the third week of the Fall term here and am currently camped out in the library where I am kind of doing homework.
I am thinking that maybe I would like to keep this blog updated in the coming months and see what that leads to as I continue my journey as a student. Like I said, I have been occupied with a lot of fun and exciting things, but my purpose for writing would not be simply to share my life with anyone reading but rather to share what I am learning and think other people would find enlightening.
My study abroad experience and internship have been officially completed for quite some time and all of my credits transferred nicely with astonishingly little headache. I still continue to be involved with my internship site (ECOLI) and that is actually the reason that I decided to come on here and write again.
First and foremost, thank you to everyone for your support throughout the duration of the time that I was gone. Both emotionally and financially, I really appreciated all of it. We were able to donate that projector to ECOLI and that could not have been done without the help and support of my family, friends and church who all donated to help make it a reality. I thank you all sincerely and cannot express my gratitude enough within the confines of the English language (or Kiswahili, for that matter).
I am proud to say that the organization has made an important step since I left and decided to move the premises of the school. The alcoholic landlord had been abusing his position of power by raising the rent because of the presence of white volunteers who he stereotyped as having a lot of money, charging far more than any property in that poor area of town is worth with full knowledge of our lack of any other adequate spaces within the community we served. This is a complete abuse of the good intentions of myself and fellow volunteers and unfortunately he has been getting away with it for quite some time. This saps the funds of the organization including those raised by myself and other volunteers who had hoped that any funds we raised could be used for different projects and purposes. Truly, this is an injustice and by far a greater robbery than the one I had inflicted upon me during my time there.
Alas, I have been charged with the task of trying to do a little more fundraising to make this migration a possibility and this is the point I am trying to make with this whole blog post. The new location is nearby and Juhudi (my old boss, if you remember) sounds very excited about it through his emails. The new landlord is asking for six months rent up front to rent out the space and the amount I have been asked to raise is $500 or more if I am able before the new year.
I want to clarify right this instant that I am not asking anyone for money personally but instead am asking for anyone reading to help me by coming up with some creative ideas for how I can do some fundraising here in Eugene. My education as a nonprofit management minor and multiple conversations/discussions with people in the nonprofit sector has lead me to believe that the ability to fundraise is a very valuable skill; one which is needed and sought after. I don't want to just hit up friends and family forever. In fact, I want to stop that with the projector thing and never have to do that again (Not because it was a terrible experience, but just that I want to be on a more sustainable path for future fundraising opportunities).
Drawing on the old biblical parable, I would like to thank all of those who fed me a fish when I needed it all those months ago, but now I seek to learn how to fish myself. The front-running idea at this point in time is to ask a local bar to help do a fundraiser where I bring in people and they donate the tips or have special drinks where a portion of the profit will be donated. It seems like a good idea though I worry that it may fall short of the target and leave me a little empty handed. Please feel free to offer any input and insight you might have so that we can reach this goal and thank you all very much for reading once again.
