On September 16th, 2019 I saw a Facebook post from a former colleague of mine who I hadn’t spoken to in over a decade. She was looking for instructors to join her team teaching basic life support (BLS) aka CPR, to a medical school and hospital in Bangladesh. It sounded interesting (and my wife was onboard). Sooooo… Since I’m a CPR instructor I sent her a message, kicking off a month’s long process of emails, texts, and phone calls planning a trip to Bangladesh for January 2020.
But before I could commit to flying halfway around the world, I needed to secure a few things. First, could I afford this? Flying there is pricey and we weren’t receiving financial support from some Daddy Warbucks type; this needed to be completely self-funded. Second, I had to get the time off from work. The second part was the easiest. I went to my boss and asked if I could get the time off, he said, “sure.” Perfect. Now, how was I going to pay for it?
Crowdfunding was not something I had ever done before, and I felt a little awkward asking for money (it wasn’t like I had been devastated by disease or a natural disaster). I went on GoFundMe and looked over the things people were raising money for. Certainly, there were people devastated by illness or unforeseen events, the recent hurricane in the Bahamas was prominent. But, there were folks raising money for self-funded projects like mine. I thought about how much I would need and began prepping a budget. Average flights were around $1400 on some no-name airline, $1600 on good airlines (but it would take me 40+ hours to travel) and slightly more for the shortest (still around 30 hours), and most reputable airlines. As I’ve got a family to think about, I didn’t want to fly on “cheapo air” just save a few bucks but end up on some disaster flight. Efficiency was also a consideration as I wanted to limit my time away from home, so I needed to fly as direct as possible. I also needed to coordinate my arrival with the rest of the team. As I was flying from the Cayman Islands and everyone else was flying out of Chicago, I needed to ensure I was on a flight that got me to Bangladesh near the same time. I found a British Airways flight out of Cayman which departed in the evening enabling me to spend time with my family before my flight, and fly when they were mostly asleep. It also put me in Doha, Qatar some 24 hours later where I would meet the rest of the team and fly with them to Bangladesh. Perfect, I’ve got the flight I need. I figured to make it all work, $2500 should cover the bulk of my expenses (I figured I probably know 100 people who would be willing to give me $25 to make this work). It was (and is) important to me to be transparent about how this money is being spent so anything left over I could use to bring over training supplies.
I went about setting up the GoFundMe account but then spent another few weeks just staring at it. I never published it. Am I really going to ask my friends for money so I can go travel? That awkwardness took some time to get over. Asking for handouts is not something I’m comfortable doing. At the same time, I don’t have the cash to just willy-nilly throw around to go on a trip like this. Finally, I realized this is not an adventure trip. I’m going to work. I’m using my vacation time and leaving my family to help another community. Maybe I can find a way to involve my benefactors in this experience? Maybe their donation is more than just funding my travel, but somehow I can take them along and share it with them? I went back to the GoFundMe page and published my trip.
So that’s what this is. This is the start of me sharing this experience with all of you. By doing so I hope to take you on this adventure and show you what your donation has done. I’ll be bringing a GoPro with me to document this experience. I will be sharing videos and photos with you and by doing so will try to thank you for enabling me to share a skill I believe is so important.
I’m going to be posting these experiences for my donors through my GoFundMe page. For those looking to get in on the action to be the first to learn what I’m up to, click here and just make a donation of a dollar or more. To those who have already donated, thank you so much. Your love and support are appreciated. I’ll be posting regular updates before, during and after the trip, so keep a lookout.
