Eyeglasses for Africa

there's something strange about the wealthy vacationer who visits the slums of another country and paints great paintings of the horrible life. they get INSPIRED by it all. so they transform the suffering citizens into artwork to be sold for thousands of dollars back in america. and they look caring and deep and wonderful. and the sufferers continue to suffer. that's always bothered me as much as it's confused me.

and while running a delivery to one of our biggest clients, i stumbled across this odd charity:


it insta-boggled my mind, so i had to google it.

why is this important? according to the do something website,

Because when I met people in TZ, it was so sad that they had no money to buy glasses. I couldn't imagine not being able to see the sunset, see the blackboard, see the flowers, or your family--just because you had no money.My project is called Eyeglasses for Africa, and it was started to collect used glasses and deliver them to Africa.

i've never been to africa because i've simply never had the money to go on overseas vacations. but despite that, i feel like this red shoebox is not a lot more than a grand mixture of noble and naive.

like when crocs sent 100,000 of pairs of their ridiculous pool-shoes to japan, and japan was like, "wtf, guys. we just had a tsunami, please don't make things worse for us."

sending anything to any country is nice. everyone can use a hand, here and there. but if i were to name five things africa might want sent from america, eyeglasses would not make the list.

in fact, my list would be as follows:

1. money
2. food
3. medicine and/or first aid kits
4. efficient power generators
5. kiera knightley

it is entirely possible there's a serious EYEGLASSES SHORTAGE PANDEMIC that i'm oblivious to. after all, i've never been to africa, and charity stats say 75 entire people have been helped by Eyeglasses for Africa.

i just don't get it. i'm going to start my own charity, and it's going to be way more helpful.

i haven't figured out just what it is. but there's a good chance it'll have to do with poop. because everything does.