With Kili being just about only 2 weeks out and that hilarious video that the amazing people of Team Twende (but Dan and Will in particular) set up, I tried to focus on fundraising. This topic has been further down my priorites list after endless kit buying to compensate panic, visa and other preps. Fundraising has not only been treated stepmotherly by me because I was preoccupied with other preparation, but also because it’s one thing I’m feeling quite uncomfortable with. I’m not used to asking for money – luckily I never had to really. My naive process of thought was if I’m sharing my planned adventure and the good cause within my social networks, people would simply contribute something. It turns out it’s not as easy as that. Even sharing the Outdoor Types video directly with my contacts via messengers didn’t really get masses of them to donate, and this keeps me thinking.

I must admit up to this undertaking I never really did serious fundraising or charitable things – I was always thinking of myself as being a good person, and I wouldn’t say that isn’t the case, but I could have been a lot better person in terms of contributing to justice to the world. After starting to send out or post textes about every little amount making a difference for people being in need, I realised that I myself never really followed that dogma, although I easily could. I started supporting a NGO on a regular basis with an amount that I could easily spare without even noticing, although I am a little embarrassed I haven’t engaged in such activity earlier, it could as well still be expanded. For my social networks not being as responsive to my calls as I expected, this might very well be due to the fact that I haven’t been doing such things before which might now seem unauthentic to them that I suddenly do. I don’t want to accuse anyone for not donating since I’m not in the place to do so because if it weren’t for this challenge, I probably wouldn’t be dealing with charity either, but having said this, I am incredibly grateful for this whole project to put me in that situation that feels uncomfortable to me because it’s unfamiliar, but wraps my mind around my own actions regarding being a giving person and taking a step in making me a better, more considerate and proactive person when it comes to caring for seemingly far off abstract problems of other people while I am privileged enough that I easily could.