A Website, A Job, and An Opportunity

Since I've last written, quite a bit has happened. It started when I found out the gallery is closing. Turns out, this is great because I need something more challenging and stimulating anyway. Perfect motivator.

First I got S to teach me how to build a website using just HTML and Notepad. I know there are programs like Dreamweaver and FrontPage, but I like to know how things work and it turns out it's not so difficult. I spent the next few days creating a website that employers can use to see some of my clips and my CV. If you care to see, it's live now at http://www.abowlofcherries.co.uk/.

I also tossed my CV up on Gumtree, which turned out to be a great move. First, I found out that Marc, the editor of Seven Magazine is looking for some help. I wrote about Seven a while back and Marc found the entry and left me a comment. Since then, we've been in touch on and off through email.

Well, I met with him a few days ago and he offered me a position as Sub-Editor for the magazine, something I can do from home on nights and weekends. I love this because Seven is something I really believe in. It's a magazine/website that looks seriously at issues on all seven continents (hence the name) and also at the culture, arts, fashion, music aspect of countries around the world.

If you know me, you know this is right up my alley.

Then I got a message from another man called Sean. We met for about 2.5 hours this morning.

He is from Ireland, has family in England and lives in Slovakia for work. He works for a blind charity in Britain. He had a friend, Brian Faul, who died of cancer who was also seriously involved with the blind charity. Apparently, this man gave up all of his appointments but the ones he had with them.

And so Sean wanted to do something in his memory. The Brian Faul Foundation is what resulted. It is almost ready to be “launched”, so to speak. As in everything is in place, it just needs to be finalized, which will happen in in the next few months.

Last week, he was browsing Gumtree and found my resume. He said he read it and then had to go make a coffee and come back and read it again. He was amused by the fact that I was American and interested in all this international stuff. What struck him were my projects – Jammin' for Jamaica and my new Traveling Mag Project, funny enough. Then he read this blog. He had asked me to send him the last entry so he could use for his English classes he teaches in Slovakia.

He works with street kids in the Ukraine among other less fortunate people in other places all over the world. What he wants this charity to do is to give people a chance who wouldn't have otherwise been given one. And he wants to do it by letting people use their talents/creativity to raise money for these projects that will benefit them.

His idea for me is to be a project manager/co-ordinator. I would come up with ideas like the Traveling Mag Project and Jammin' for Jamaica (which you can read about on my website if you're interested), ways to reach out to groups of people around the world, to connect them so they can better understand each other and to give them opportunities. I would set up and manage projects around the world, promote them, travel to the countries where they are occurring on occasion to check things out. There would be basic admin as well as I would be the link to Britain for the charity so I would answer a phone and deal with queries.

He said when he heard my ideas about the Traveling Mag Project, he asked if I would be willing to start similar projects in these different countries and he could then publish those under the name of the charity. He was very keen on the idea of asking the street kids he works with in the Ukraine to draw or write poetry in a book and then publish it and sell it and use the money to build them a shelter because, sadly, they live inhumanely in the sewers under the streets. I love that idea of redoing my project for something like that.

He couldn't offer me an official position yet until he speaks to the trustees, but he said he wants to go back to them with some ideas from me. I have a million ideas. If the trustees approve and want to meet me, I will have another inteview with one of them.

If they don't offer me a job, Sean said there's still opportunity to freelance for the Foundation.

I've also had a few emails in the past few days from different companies asking what my freelance rates are for writing marketing articles.

Now that my website is up, I'm going to use it in my applications so it will be much easier and I'm going to apply to lots more places, but I'm hoping this international projects one follows though because I think it would be awesome. And creative and stimulating and rewarding, etc.