Uganda Update

Sure it's after 1:00 a.m. and I have to get up in less than five hours to meet friends for breakfast, but I was so excited about some news I had to post it RIGHT NOW. Otherwise I'd be lying awake in bed like a child with too much Ritalin, tapping my fingers and tossing and turning, all atwitter with what I wanted to share "tomorrow".

So here's the story: I have a friend, I like to call her LeahPeah, and not because I was witty enough to come up with this name, but because this is what she is called. You might remember her from such performances as "Girls Gone Wild: Palm Desert", "Girls Gone Wild 2: Gorden Birsch", and "BonProns: A Gift for the Whole Family Indeed!".

While in Palm Desert together, we were talking about my dreams for my upcoming trip to Uganda.

Background story: I've had this crazy pipe dream for a few years to put cameras in the hands of kids who were living in places that would probably never afford the chance to experience photography (or at least be the photographers themselves). I wanted to be able to give them the opportunity to use this medium for healing and restoration and hope, kind of a form of "art therapy", especially in parts of Africa where so much trauma has been experienced by so many people. And not only that, but I wanted to use their photography to tell their stories in the States. Low and behold, this opportunity to go to Uganda comes along and the venue to make this dream a reality is dumped right in my lap.

Where were we? Oh yes, awesome friend Leah . . . since the weekend in Palm Desert was a conduit for kindred spirit-ness between all us girls, Leah decided to come home and jump on the "Give the kids some cameras and see what they do in Uganda" idea.

I would love for you to go read her post here so you can see how lucky I am to have people way cooler than me supporting my endeavors. Truly, when I saw that Heather (like the "OMG, Heather Powazek Champ, the girl who inspired me to figure out what photoblogs were in the first place, the one who was the catalyst for my taking so many pictures my eyeballs will most certainly pop right out some day - THAT Heather!) donated money, and that Tracey was using her connection HP to get us free stuff and possibly highlight these pictures on both hers and HP's websites . . . well, I just figured I was entering some sort of alternate universe of awesomeness. And check out all the time and effort KristyK put into not only sending, but also DECORATING Polaroid cameras with her kids for us to take. My faith in the human race to do good and give beyond themselves is continually being restored in the photography community, especially through Flickr.

If you would like to donate to what we'll be doing over there, or have any questions, please let me know. We're still in need of digital cameras, photo paper, Polaroids, cold hard cash, and now I'm realizing a scanner to document the Polaroids we leave behind. Thanks for taking the time to read, and thank you to all who have given so much thus far. I'm going to be creating another blog soon devoted solely to this purpose, so I'll let you know when it's up and running.

Can't wait to see where this journey takes us.