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It has been proven by some anonymous social scientists that people would rather give money to a beggar with a few coins in his bowl than to one who has nothing at all. If I want people to help me, I need to work, too! As simple and as complicated as all that!
I have sent out some feelers into the European army surplus vehicle market and found quite a lot of dealers who have Unimog U1300Ls in stock. Most are in excellent condition and with low mileage. After all, Europe was relatively peaceful for many years before now. The average price of those vehicles is 20k €. That said, I can probably take off the price of the back half, as the box would be mounted directly onto the chassis. So that might make the initial expense a bit less, but not by much.
The box costs about 15k € for the “light” version, but I was told that the final cost would run to about 35-40k € with all the windows, doors, and hatches cut out and installed properly, and all the creature comforts installed, even if I do most of the work myself. Admittedly, that particular company is in Germany, which – while the work would be perfect – is bound to be pricy. I have looked at other companies in Europe as well, most notably in the Netherlands. I shall probably support one of them in the end, at least for the initial box build. I hope.
What’s stopping me from jumping in with both feet, cashing in all my possessions, and going after this dream? Is it a really complicated issue? It’s not as if I won’t be able to find the money at all. People throw money after passion. That’s how it works. And I am not jobless. In fact, I earn a decent salary, by local standards.
My problem is that I don’t feel worthy enough to even ask others for money. With everything else going on in the world and so many people in real need, it seems rather selfish to want money to be able to afford a dream. Yes, I know I won’t be going around with a begging bowl in my hands, and I will be working damned hard and contributing bucketloads of sweat equity, but that still doesn’t make me feel better.
So what will make me feel better?
I need to contribute something, even if it’s only the very first Euro/Dollar. It’s not much, in the greater scheme of things, but it would make me feel less helpless. And maybe I can earn that extra money on the side, by doing something that needs to be done.
The sidewalk next to the library where I work is a mess. It looks like a rubbish dump on a good day. But part of that mess is that there are literally dozens of glass beer bottles lying around as well. These bottles are dumped because they don’t have a trade-in value at the bottle stores, but they are glass, and glass has a trade-in value at recycling centers. So…
If I take some bags to work over the next few days, pick up as many of those bottles as I can, and sell the glass, I might be able to raise enough money to at least show people that I am serious about my goal. It won’t be much. Just enough to prime the proverbial pump. People don’t need to know that the initial contributions towards my goal were raised by me being a waste picker.
My boss once told me that the women who picked up bottles to sell in the black community were the neighborhood drunks, looking for beer money. He said it in an extremely derogatory tone as if my doing that would make me a less worthy person. I am ashamed to say that I listened to him, and I stopped, even though my glass money at the time gave me a lot of relief from heavy financial stress.
Not good enough… That’s a very tough nut to crack, isn’t it? That’s the kind of negativity that leads to “nobody cares”, and then you jump off a bridge.
I won’t. I have a fear of heights. And there is too much that I still want to do. So I am going to be a bag lady with lots of bags and bag every single empty beer bottle I see. I have worked out that I need to pick up about 40 tons of glass to earn my first 1000 €. That’s a helluva lot of weightlifting. And I have no intention of doing it slowly. But every Euro that I can raise myself would encourage another Euro from somewhere else. And that matters. A lot.
I don’t need a massive amount of money by anyone’s standard but my own. Americans pay $10 for coffee and a muffin on a daily basis. Europeans are no different, even if their currency is. And raising the money for this expedition truck is not a selfish ask. It’s literally going to be a dream vehicle – and I plan to use it to spread hope to others.
I can’t afford to let this dream go. I’ve sacrificed too much already on the altar of other people’s opinions. It’s time for me to take a stand for what I want. Or in this case, to bend down and pick up. I shall achieve this goal, one empty beer bottle at a time.
And if you – dear reader – have some loose change to contribute to my Expedition Truck Fund, please pop it into my money tin, here! I have a party to attend in Ukraine next summer, and I need wheels to take me there. I shall be where I am appreciated, and I absolutely refuse to give in to despair.
