May « 2010 « Hackers For Charity

Well, I’m back from Jordan. What an amazing country, filled with amazing people. Hospitable to a fault, genuine and hard-working, they were not as they appeared on the news stations. The more I travel, the more I get frustrated with the one-sided negativity of the press. It’s really oppressive and overwhelming.

But I want to share a picture from Jordan before I catch you up with what’s going on in Uganda.

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Yes, yes. It’s PETRA, one of the seven wonder of the world. A really amazing place. But the one thing that stuck with me was the horse ride and (especially) the camel ride. My perspective changed the moment I legged up onto that camel. When he stood up, I was instantly seven feet taller than everyone around me. It was literally a different perspective on the world. Instantly, (other) tourists wanted my picture. EVERY SINGLE tourist I passed either took my picture or gawked at me. Maybe they were gawking at the T-Shirt, but I don’t think so. I think it was a normal reaction to the seven-foot-high, three quarter ton spitting, barking, flea-bitten, irritable dessert monster itself, or possible to the (probably) half-insane, snack-sized human that thought sitting on top of it was a good idea.

I was in an elevated position. I had the high ground. I was the man. None of the (other) tourists knew that I had zero clue about how to ride a camel, but that was beside he point. I looked and felt quite natural on the thing. Yes, I was wearing shorts and an “I hack charities” T-Shirt, but that wasn’t readily obvious. What stood out was the perfectly-tied keffiyeh (head scarf) and (I think) the fact that I did, in fact look and feel quite natural. As if me and my ancestors before me were real-honest to goodness dessert-dwellers. True Bedouins. It all came together, in one pivotal moment when I understood. I got an unexpected glimpse into history and world culture.

People riding animals were people of means. IT was simple thing that somehow I had missed all the years of my life.

There are those pictures of Lawrence of Arabia on camel-back and George Washington on horseback and they’re nice. But after less than an hour on a horse and a camel, I’ll never see those pictures the same way again.

So yes, Petra was pretty amazing. It was the place Indiana Jones should have ended his career (because that fourth movie wasn’t that great). But for me, that camel ride opened my eyes. It was an experience I’ll never forget.

Shame I couldn’t fit it in my luggage.

Enjoy the pic. =)

Seems I’ve ticked off some very nice people.

Our T-Shirts are conversation pieces. They generate a lot of questions about what we do, and they have become a steady stream of income for us. But lately, people have been ordering T-Shirts and they haven’t received them.

We lost our T-Shirt volunteer a while back (she did a great job, but with a toddler around, the work became overwhelming) and it’s been over a year since I had to process T-Shirts. I honestly didn’t know what I was doing since our volunteer handled all of this.

So I went in search of another volunteer, and several people offered to help. I chose Ralph, who not only had a home office but had a wife and daughter who were willing to help balance the workload.

Right at the time I was transferring the responsibility to Ralph, I started traveling pretty extensively (visited home for a while, bounced to Jordan for a bit of work, etc) and the transfer wasn’t as clean as it could have been. I didn’t send him the shirts very quickly, and the orders kept coming in (and backing up).

Then, we ran into our most recent problem with PayPal. I wanted to create a new account so the volunteer could have their own account for T-Shirt income, shipping, etc as opposed to the old method whereby the volunteer had access to the entire HFC account. The problem is that the PayPal account must be verified.

This happens one of two ways. We can either link it to a bank account or we can set up a PayPal Credit card. I don’t want a credit card because it would have to be in my name, and I’m unemployed and don’t need any more credit hassles. That leaves us with the bank account option. The problem is that the HFC bank account is already linked to the HFC PayPal account. So I’m out of bank accounts.

We can’t “accept” money in PayPal until we verify the account.

So anyhow, I’m sorry for the delays and the mixup. It looks absolutely awful when someone pays money to a .org run by hackers and then the goods don’t arrive. But please know that despite the problems, we are now shipping shirts, and working on getting the PayPal thing straightened out. From a higher perspective, I’m sorry for how this must have looked. Customers were getting zero response (thanks to my perpetual mountain of email, and my inability to keep up with it all) and that made things worse. Personally, I pride myself in stretching every single donated dollar to the max. We have almost ZERO overhead, meaning that nearly all of the donated money goes right into our programs.

Know that I appreciate your continued support and understanding. I, for one, have a LOT to learn about running a program this big. HFC is certainly bigger than I can handle, and thankfully that’s more often a blessing than a curse.

Johnny

My website has seen a lot of evolutions. For many years, http://johnny.ihackstuff.com was all about me. The GHDB took the center stage for a lot of years (I’d like to see it updated but I haven’t had any serious offers to help upgrade it), and finally we saw the merge between Hackers For Charity and “Ihackstuff.com”. This mirrors my own journey. But HFC’s beginning to outgrow me. We have hundreds of volunteers all over the world that we’re constantly trying to plug in (we need ideas there), we have 10+ employees and volunteers on the ground in Uganda, and we’re starting to create international HFC branches all over the world (we’re talking with Brazil and Colombia right now for starters).

I’ve tried to cram as much as possible into the current web site, but the result is a bit disjointed. To figure out what we’re about, a visitor need only read the front page blurbs. But once they decide to dig in, there’s only a tangle of disjointed WordPress Pages and Posts to navigate. The result is distinctly blog-ish, and it doesn’t really showcase the work we’re doing.

It had been suggested by members of our board (thanks, Rob!) that we consider country-based web presences. With all we’re doing in Africa, HFC-Uganda was a natural first choice.

Why HFC-Uganda.org?

I wanted to create a presence that would showcase the work to potential investors outside our community, some of whom may be put off by the word “hacker” in our name. I’m not about to sell us out or change who we are but the simple fact is that it’s better for an investor to see our name AFTER seeing our work.

What’s next?

I don’t know exactly. Hackersforcharity.org will remain our main presence as it has the page rank. It will continue to host my blog. But eventually, our projects will have their own presences. The US presence is next on the list once we get our brain wrapped around what exactly we’re doing in the US and who will run it. (Use the Contact form if you have suggestions). Until then, take a look at http://www.hfc-uganda.org. I’d love to know what you think. And if you want to make fun of it’s flashiness, go ahead. I’ve never been accused of being a good web designer. =)

Our first outing in Jordan was so much more than sightseeing for me. I’m still getting my brain wrapped around it. I hope my work doesn’t drown it out.

This was taken in an area that used to be known as Bethany. El-Maghtas is one of the most important recent discoveries in biblical archaeology. Excavations only began here in 1996, following Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel in 1994, but have already uncovered more than 20 churches, caves and baptismal pools dating from the Roman and Byzantine periods. Although the identification is not absolutely certain, archaeology has shown that the area known as Wadi Kharrar has long been believed to be the biblical Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan, where John the Baptist lived. The pool in the background, according to extremely compelling archeological evidence, is the pool where Jesus was baptized. This area is also associated with the ascension of the Prophet Elijah into heaven, which is commemorated at a hill called Tell Mar Elias.

This is a view of the baptism site from the other side.

A typical path along the Jordan.

A Greek Orthodox church near the Jordan, just past Jesus’ baptism site.

At the Jordan River just steps from the Isreali border.

Jericho in the distance. the bridge shows where Elijah ascended into heaven.

This is me fishing at the Dead Sea.

The road less traveled.

A view of the Dead Sea climbing towards the Fortress Mukawar.

We’re not in Israel anymore….

See those pillars in the distance? We’re going to walk over there. You’ll read why in a moment.

This photo shows the fortress of Mukawer. I’ll let you read the sign on this one.

“Mt Nebo is an elevated ridge that is approximately 817 meters (2680 feet) above sea level, in what is now western Jordan. The view from the summit provides a panorama of the Holy Land and, to the north, a more limited one of the valley of the River Jordan. The West Bank city of Jericho is usually visible from the summit, as is Jerusalem and Bethlehem on a clear day.” “According to the final chapter of Deuteronomy, Mount Nebo is where the Hebrew prophet Moses was given a view of the promised land that God was giving to the Israelites. “And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho.” (Deuteronomy 34:1). According to Jewish and Christian tradition, Moses was buried on this mountain by God Himself, and his final resting place is unknown. According to the 2 Maccabees 2:4-7, the Prophet Jeremiah hid the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant here.”

<begin stream of consciousness>

I’m starting to think an awful lot about DEFCON 2010. I really want to be there, but I’m not really considering submitting a talk to Blackhat, which if accepted would get me airfare, a DEFCON pass and partial hotel. Don’t get me wrong. I love Blackhat, but it’s always been a package deal. Even when I was employed, it was tough to sell my company on flight plus hotel and work hours, so the “speaker package” was a really sweet deal. Now, as an unemployed… something (what the heck am I now?) it’s even harder to justify the $2000 + for airfare and the $500 or so for hotel and food, which would come out of personal donations to our family or HFC money. Now, typically DEFCON is a good event for us financially. Last year, we made something like $5,000 BEFORE EXPENSES. But DEFCON is even better from a relational / networking / community standpoint. HFC volunteers get to meet and greet, I get to talk to tons of people, we get lots of exposure and we get our message out there. Now on years that I have a talk the exposure is multiplied, but like I said I really don’t have a talk. I could do an HFC “what we’re up to” talk, but I always thought those were a bit self-aggrandizing, sales-pitchey and awkward. It’s not really me style. Last year’s talk was a transitional talk as I made a bit of an exit from the full-time hacking / pentesting / employment scene. It was fun, but the message was decidedly non-tech. It was about making sure you do something with your skills and your life before you get to the top and (like me) find the view lacking.

So I want to go, I’m just not sure what the best solution is. DEFCON is home for me. I’m surrounded by people just like me, and I’ve always loved hanging out.

I’m just not sure I can swing the money to get there.

I’ll keep you posted. Maybe someone has miles they could donate, or an extra room they could give me for the cause. I feel icky spending so much money when I see how far it goes in our programs.

Thanks to everyone who attended #sploit502, especially all the HFC supporters! Adrian (irongeek) was kind enough to raise quite a bit of money for us through class registration, and he blew up our Donor Cloud! Thank you everyone!

We’re back, safe and sound. I really thought the trip would be sketchier.. I don’t know what I expected exactly, but overall it was a really good trip.

We had a chance to visit some of the farms we’ve started through the food for work program. We slept at the AOET Kenya guesthouse. We went to Lake Nakuru and had our first official safari.

And I was reminded of a few important things. First, even though we live in Uganda, we live a good life. The guesthouse in Kenya reminded us of that. We enjoy running water, decent power, and comfortable beds. Second, we live on an amazing planet. The Giraffes at Lake Nakuru reminded me of that.

I’ll write more later, but for now it’s hello and goodbye for a while. I’m headed to Jordan for a teaching gig. It’s one of those “time to pay the bills” things. As always, I’m anxious, and hoping the time flies by. I can’t wait to get back to work in Uganda, and as always, I’m going to miss my family like crazy.