UP | uncultured project

One month and a day ago, I was standing by myself by the road outside of an unfamiliar airport in an unfamiliar town. I had just come to San Francisco for the first time in my life. The goal? To sustain this project.

At first glance, it looks like this trip was a bust. I’ve spent much of the past month hearing various foundations say the phrase “we love what you’re doing – but we’re not going to help or support you”.

You can call me a changemaker – but I’m not the right kind of changemaker for changemaker-centric foundations. You can say I’m using social media – but I’m not using it in the right way to get support from charitable social media-centric foundations. I just don’t fit into their funding/support box.

But I wouldn’t call this trip a loss.

In Bangladesh, I would often get tweets, emails, and YouTube comments from people telling me how I’ve touched their lives from so far away. But it was only by coming to the States and to San Francisco I was finally able to see this first hand.

From the moment I arrived in San Francisco, I was surrounded by friends. Many invited me into their homes and gave me a place to stay by lending their couches, air mattresses, or sofa beds. Everyone I met had opened their hearts – even though all were seeing me in person for the first time.

It’s taken a while for me to digest just how far some of my friends in San Francisco have gone to help me find a way to sustain this project. One friend even designed, printed, and paid for business cards for me to use for networking purposes.

The extreme kindness I’ve encountered here has almost bordered on being pampered. Knowing that it’s gonna be tough for me to pay for much of anything – friends have got together to provide me with a free bus pass, free internet, free places to stay, and more free meals (and great cooking) than I can count.

In fact, the only reason you’re able to see this blog post is because one of my friends – upon hearing that uncultured.com was down because I couldn’t afford to pay for hosting – grabbed a laptop, pulled out his credit card, and paid for hosting right then and there!

Left: A friend (and employee at YouTube) grabs a laptop and pays for a year of uncultured.com web hosting after the site was taken down because I couldn't pay the bill. Right: Paul (who just heard about my project 30 minutes prior) decides to chip in as well.

If the videos, tweets, and blog post I can make in Bangladesh can cause such gigantic acts of kindness in people halfway around the world (whom I had never met until just now) – than I’m convinced it’s only a question of when (not if) this journey can keep on going.

When it happens, it will be because of friends like the ones I’ve met here in San Francisco.

Thank you.

I Give a Talk to YouTube & Google Staff in San Bruno, California

“Years from now, I’m going to be looking back at this point in my life and laugh,” I told my friend whom I’m staying with in San Francisco. “I’m doing something successful enough that people are inviting me to meet them and give talks… yet unsuccessful enough that I can’t afford to buy myself some new clothes,” I said with a wry laugh.

Right now I’m in San Francisco – home of Silicon Valley. It’s home to where all this technology that has made this project possible exists. There’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google and so much more. Heck, I got to meet one of the guys that designed the MacBook Pro I’m typing this blog post on! As awesome as this place is… I’d rather be back in Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, I’m the guy that helps others. I’m the guy that comes out of nowhere and - if I’m lucky – make a difference in someone’s life. In San Francisco, I’m the guy looking for help. In a city with such a disproportionate amount of well connected and successful people, I’m hoping someone comes out of nowhere and – if I’m lucky – makes a difference in my life by helping me sustain my work.

I’m taking it one day at a time.

One of the biggest days for me happened not to long ago. I was invited to speak at YouTube Headquarters. People have told me that the talk I gave was really well received and that the turn-out for this talk (which went for an hour) was much higher than expected. But, in all honestly, I don’t remember much because I was nervous as could be.

The question of why I'm doing this is easy. How to sustain this? Not so much.

The one thing I do remember is that I stressed at the talk is the fact that my work would not be possible without YouTube. Whether it was John Green & the Nerdfighters convincing me to accept donations, teachers at the American International School in Dhaka helping with room, board, and contacts with charities, or people around the world reaching out to me – none of this would be possible if it was not for YouTube & it’s community.

Although in a completely different way, the same is also true for Twitter. When I think about how I’ve been able to use Twitter, it’s only now sinking in how much of what I’ve done have been Twitter “firsts”. I was, for example, the first person to use Twitter as a means of providing real-time donation receipts. People donated to Cyclone Aila relief – and many got a tweet with a photo of the exact person they helped in real-time from the disaster area.

One thing that people who are seeing me in real life often comment is how excited I get when I talk about my work. I love what I do – and I don’t want to stop. As much as I love the sights, sounds, and food of this place – the only reason I’m here is because I want to find a way to get back to Bangladesh and to keep doing this project.

Wish me luck. One day at a time.