Intermission II
The Last Straw…
Dear Friends,
If you’re reading this, I need your help. It’s been 241 days since I last posted on here and in those seven months the situation I was trying to salvage turned into the worst case scenario. Though I posted a piece called ‘Intermission’ in February earlier this year, I wasn’t able to raise enough to sort out the internet situation and with most of my income coming from writing work I’ve been doing online over the years, I lost access to my main means of income, writing projects and a lot of other opportunities that could’ve helped me at that time.
All this happened while I was trying to raise money to salvage the situation and I fell behind on rent, this led to an eviction that I wasn’t prepared for by any means. With emergency funds depleted and all my things tossed out, I had to sell off some things and find the cheapest housing possible, it was either that or end up homeless at some point. Between squatting with old friends and moving around I was able to find a place with the only catch being that it was in an area known for gang violence. Most of the money that was raised via my Ko-Fi (through your support) went to making attempts to secure the place against robbers and also to sorting out the rent.
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I’m still holed up in the area trying to raise what I will need to get my old place back and get back to safety but with the Internet situation becoming even more limited, I’ve done the best that I can to reach out to the ones I could reach out to between friends and even within the community here but it has remained a struggle and I don’t know at this point if I’ll make it to the end of the year.
I feel ashamed to put the whole thing out in this type of manner and I was really hoping that I would be able to come back with a positive update but as hard as I’ve tried, that hasn’t been the case. I was robbed in May, a situation that nearly cost me my life and between then and now they’ve been even more attempts as the area has continued to heat up with these violent exchanges and sadder news came when PayPal permanently limited my account last month, everything I had left in there was for survival, for food and for other personal needs, now I have no access to the account.
I’m grateful for all the support that has come in one way or the other especially since this all began back in February, your support has kept me going even on days when I’ve felt it would be better to simply end myself, I’ve been able to claw through. I do not know how bad the issues will get in the area but I don’t want to stick around long enough to find out, I have to make it to the end of the year.
A friend from the community here helped me set up a GoFundMe to help raise awareness and get support for the situation, if you’ve read this far and you would like to help, I’ve linked the page here. I no longer have access to my PayPal but if you would like to support any further, that can be done here, it would mean the world to me.
I’m hoping to be able to make it back to a safer area before the year closes out, I’ve been able to raise a bit for the down payment I need to make to leave this area but it won’t be near enough, it’s been a tiring round of weeks and months and I’m actually surprised I’ve made it this far, I have to say thank you to Bob Metivier - poet, singer/songwriter, composer and Kera Hollow for the support,
Thank you too for taking time out to read this and for being here, It means a lot to me 🙏🏾🤍
