Karsten Logbook Week II

WEEK II, 16th of MARCH 2012

No one said it would be easy. One thing is for sure: It is fucking exciting. It is even so damn fucking exciting that I'm loosing hair. Can't say if its natural or because of the stress. I barely sleep. Sometimes, I feel like a dead fox in a ditch. Bad dreams are chasing me. Anyway and what a weird wonder it appears to be: From time to time it is fun. Otherwise I would have canceled the whole quest already. 

But: It feels right! I know, it is the right thing to do! I can use my abilities to do something good. It might be just a small step. We don’t know yet. But doing nothing, just because you think the impact of your might be just too small... Well, I guess thinking like THAT is not just lazy. Imagine the big picture...

Klara and I are fighting everyday. I’ve got an allday job. I work between 8am and 18pm. After work I work on our project. Every day we get to know people who’d like to make a difference. We've met the great guys of Changers. These awesome people have built a solar panel for everyone's use - a beautifully designed object of a modern society and one important and motivating part of the preproduction.

We talked to organizations in Madagascar, talked to people who have been there. We startet to make a detailed plan. We stressed ourselves a lot. We argued often, but it always was an inspiration. Again, Klara is a great person. She can turn your doubts into your personal drive.

I wrote a facebook mail to most of my facebook friends, asking politely - later on urgently - to throw some coins in the hat.  Two or three euros. We are not beggars. We are democratic filmmakers. If all of my 600 facebook friends just give three euros each, we could already be done with financing and make the plan. PayPal is soo simple. For god sake, if it feels too unsafe or too complicated, you could simply send it in an envelope. But sometimes, asking your friends for help is like swimming in icey water. You really want it, but it hurts. And if they help you, the water gets warm and swimming becomes fun and easy and effective...

We decided to rethink our plans - again. Not substantially, but in a flexible manner. We lowered the level of crowdfunding money and set everything on the sponsor card. Than the shock: Vaccinations for Madagascar, including malaria, makes 600 bugs each. Geez!! How the...



We've got to count every penny! Weekends? Not for us. We need to contact people over and over again and doing so is very time consuming. We need more time to make plans. How can we ever precisely plan our journey, if we spent most of the time on creating attention? We want to face deforestation and overexploitation. We want to find out, whom to speak to and where to go and where to sneak in.