This project wouldn't have happened had it not been for the materials and parts that were donated by all of you generous folks here at the OLF. Anyone who builds for a "living" knows that there are very few people getting rich doing so. It's enough of an expense to just work the materials needed for commissioned guitars into a fair price while still hoping to maintain some sort of reasonable profit margin that will feed the family and pay the bills for the house and shop to continue to run.
Vacations are not a regular thing for us, especially since an injury slowed me a few years ago and nearly sent me into bankruptcy and cost me my home. I've worked hard to recover from the setback against the obvious physical obstacles, but I've been happy to be back to completing and delivering guitars consistently again. I'm actually gaining nicely on my backlog and look forward to it being a reasonable depth again.
I say all that to reveal the true depth of help that was offered by the OLF members who donated woods to the project when other forums mocked the cause, ignored the project or even pulled my post regarding it after commenting that it was an effort in self service or promotion for me.
Every major publication has ignored it so far. A few people have emailed me saying that they've emailed folks at a few with no reply. it's not about the guitar or about the fact that it's an Omega Guitar, but about trying to raise a little awareness of the project and cause it was conceived and created to benefit....and we need to rememeber that young kids that are AIDS infected are the underlying reason for the existence for the cause.
One of the people who were on the research trip to select a project that we would work on for this trip to Africa has done loads of similar construction trips to South America as have thousands of others. In light of the fact that young ones stay in the orphanages of South America until a specified age or until they are adopted from outside, he asked how long the children were ble to live in this orphanage in Nairobi.
The worker there looked at him with a puzzled expression in their face and said, "These children are very ill...They will stay until they die and their little bed will be filled within that same hour by another very ill child." It was then that he truly realized the urgency of the need for the project to be completed and for 50 or more new children to be able to be givin the loving and caring environment that those already ther are given. Onr of the children that they had a chance to meet and get to know during their first visit there has since passed away and another has only a few days to live now. If that doesn't continue to drive home the sense of urgency for a work like this, I don't know what could.
The goal of those running the orphanage is to give the children a little time in a place as close to Heaven as possible as they approach the doorway between this life and actually going there. The poverty there is unimaginable and unspeakable and few have ever seen it let alone experienced it. Anyone who has seen the film "The Constant Gardener" will have a very slight idea of the conditions in the region. It was filmed just a mile from where we will be working and two miles from where we will be staying while in Kenya. I hadn't seen it until a friend recommend that I do to get a peek at the community that I will visiting.
They told our trip coordinators during that first visit that the fifty beds in the new building will be filled before the end of the day that we complete the construction for them. It's funny that they cannot receive any government funding to build the structure, but will qualify for a small subsidy to help it operate after it complete.
The guitar will be donated for auction for after we return from the trip. I'm now making arrangements to get it into the hands of a few artists to play it and be photographed with it in order to offer those photos and a short review of the guitar's tone and playability from each artist along with a series of more than 150 photos of the guitar from its design stages to its completion for the new owner to have.
Thanks to all here who helped and to all who have been so encouraging and supportive as the guitar has travelled its road of creation. It really is a beautiful guitar...not because I built it by any means, but because the woods and materials are just breathtaking in their quality. My part was just time and energy and I was inspired not only by the cause for its creation, but by the fact that I was a member of a group of people willing to do something unique and special for these kids who have so little now and so little to look forward to. It's really had an impact on my relationship with my kids and I haven;t even gone to meet these children yet.
Thanks again and all the best to you,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars
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