Back in August we put on an event called Banquäla 2009. If you’ve been following us or this blog for very long you know a lot about it already. It featured a night of conversation, food, and some great thoughts on media from some great folks we know. If you missed out and have been wondering what was said, now’s your chance. Visit the Banquäla page to check out videos of the night’s speakers. If you were there please feel free to listen again or share it with your friends. Here’s an intro to get you started:

I updated the main website over the weekend with some new content for you guys. Check out the “Partnerships” section to find projects we’ve recently completed for Time Square Church, Benei Aor, Casa Hoga MAMI and HIPH. We’ve also updated the “Purpose” section with some more current stuff. Go Check it out.
Also, check out the Caribbean Gold site to find out what’s going currently with that project. We now have 10 photos available for purchase in limited editions. Check it out, maybe even buy one of those beautiful prints.
So that’s a little taste for you of the exciting things going on in the world that is Bedouins International.

So I used to be afraid, and maybe even slightly ashamed, to ask for free stuff. But now I am so not ashamed. It is a new year, and we have big dreams for 2009. However, with big dreams come big needs. In any case, working with a non-profit design firm that hopes to help out at least 15 different causes and organizations this year for free (working with a volunteer staff), we are pretty much guaranteed big needs.

So here I shall post our 2009 wish list. Anyone with the capacity to fill one or more of these needs, please feel free to do so.

1) Man would we love a new iMac for the office. It doesn’t even have to be brand new. Just new enough to be compatible and usable with what we have now.

2) Stephen needs Final Cut Express 4 (for Mac) (video editing software) for both his and Paul’s sakes. It is too much to put on Paul’s plate to have him doing every bit of video editing. This way, at least for the photo and multimedia presentations, Stephen could help out.

3) We just moved into a new office space, and some new furniture sure would be pimpin. We have a couch and loveseat, but could really use a couple of nice armchairs, an end table or two and a long wooden table for the entranceway. (Or you could send money for furniture…it’s totally tax deductible and we could make sure we got stuff that matched what we already have.)

4) Ok. For those of you who may not be able to help with any of the above merch, here is something you can certainly help us out with. Dry erase markers. Yes, you read correctly. We have worn ours out. Ooooh and an eraser would be nice too.

5) Every once in  while we like to record some sweet sounds to go along with our tubular visuals (I can say this because I have nothing to do with their creation). Trying to recreate the sounds of Haiti ourselves over the laptop mic just isn’t cutting it. A portable audio recorder (like this one: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/H4/) would make our lives so much easier.

5) $100,000 so we can hire everybody.     Nuff said.

Ok I think that about sums it up. Here’s a cute pic of me that Stephen took. It’s my “Hey, you wanna help me out with something?” face. I thought it would be appropriate.

I hope everyone has a blessed Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Holiday!

-Jessi