One Shot, One Opportunity

 I developed a close, yet distance relationship with this girl over the past several months, after meeting her through a political writer, Hussein Ibish. I have began real relationships from a distance before, so I know what the transition from phones and email to real life is really like, and how to judge whether there is any real potential in it. I truly see this relationship as something that could become serious - I am not only infatuated, but perhaps for the first time see traits in her that would allow this to grow and last. 

The first problem is that she is in Toronto, where she is taking college courses for the year, and I am in South Carolina on a completely strapped budget as I try to get a house repaired and ready to be sold (here's proof, in the form of me tilling dirt in the front yard: http://tinyurl.com/cnc2tq9).

The second problem is that she leaves Toronto to return to Pakistan at the end of December.

My only possible window for meeting her is, thus, around November and December. 

If the meeting goes well, there is a chance she could return to the United States in the near future. Otherwise, my chance very may well be gone forever - of course it would be too much to expect that she commit to staying an extended period of time here when we haven't even yet met in person. 

Ideally, I would like to stay for an entire month, from mid-November to mid-December. If I don't manage to find enough funding for that, I would be happy with at least a week. But I am going to create a second project for that funding. The $500 on this project would allow me two things.

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First, it would allow the $350 I would need for the bus trips there and back. Second, it would allow me to afford the $150 on-sale price of a camera for her as a gift (she loves photography, but doesn't have her own camera). We've already discussed the possibility of us meeting, and I know without any doubt she is more than willing. But she thinks I'm going to be unable to make it there before she leaves - and at least for now, she's right. So if I manage to do this, I'm going to surprise her: I'm going to tell her I'm sending her a gift, and that she has to come to a certain P.O. Box at a certain hour to get it. When she gets there, I plan to be there (with the camera) - where she'll recognize me. 

For any donations over $125, I will keep in touch with you and seriously plan on paying you back as a sign of my continuing gratitude, next year as soon as my budget is not so strapped as it is right now. And if you want to follow the story and hear updates about what happens, just let me know.