In a little more than 12 hours, I’ll fly to Atlanta. Then to Paris. Then to Conakry, Gunea. Then to Freetown, Sierra Leone. I leave home on Saturday and arrive in another time, another place, another dimension. Excited, to be sure, but also a little nervous. Not about the travel so much– I’ve traveled internationally a fair bit before. But more about the technological luggage I’m bringing with me.
My team’s job is to spread the word for Heifer, by all means. Typically, I do that in traditional media– print, audio, video. While technology has certainly changed those mediums over the last few years, THIS medium is a new one for me. Sure, I facebook (like my kids), and e-mail and upload and download. But this is serious. So I hope you’ll indulge me while I practice on you a little. Think of it as a small investment. The payoff (I hope) will be much better, more worthy and thought-provoking posts from the field. I will be blogging in this space and tweeting (or “twitting,” as I like to call it), taking photos and video, and collecting information for longer-format pieces later on.
I will first inflict upon you a very short video taken at my desk.
My final dry run will be to upload a photo of some Heifer water bottles. I had hoped to take them with me to the field, but just couldn’t fit them. Well, that’s how I’m attempting to make this relevant, at least.
Thanks for your patience with me. I’m fortunate to be able to work in a place that embraces technology in our efforts to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth.
Bill Fitzgerald is Heifer International’s creative director. You can read his previous posts about project visits in Sierra Leone here.