i don't often reveal personal details on this blog, but it's necessary this time, in order to set the background. bear with me, as there's a point to telling my story. i've had an idea...
i've been homeless before and i'm almost homeless at the moment, which is making it hard for me to relax
the first time i was homeless was a few years ago: i was living in Glastonbury (which i still do, more or less). i spent the first winter under a tarp (with a big woodburner) in the woods, at a place people call Dragon Hill. after that, i lived in various places around town in a tent, which i'd tatted from the leftovers of Glastonbury Festival. i eventually 'teamed up' with a chap i'll call Billy, who had drifted into town. we were two of the few people living rough near here who didn't have some abuse or mental health problem, who could keep a place tidy and not upset people
some homeless people are really fucking annoying to be around: one of the first places Billy and I lived was near the river. it was ok until a bloke i'll call Bouncearound Bob turned up with his tent and a dazed wreck of a woman, whose was skinny as a rake, and whose name i never learned. Bouncearound Bob was drunken, loud, unpleasant, stupid and had some similarly dodgy mates. he started shitting in the grass right by his tent and smashed the stile into the field to burn on the fire he'd lit in the layby. Billy and i left after a couple of days of that.
[incidentally, there's a way of having a crap when you're living in a tent - but that's another story]
after about a year of tent life, which i enjoyed in many ways (i love sleeping in fresh, cold air), during which time my tent was slashed and broken once by a couple of idiot kids, i eventually found my way into the benefits system and moved into bricks and mortar again. Billy had a quite different story: he stayed living in his tent in the same spot for a few years and began to build a life in town. he started painting and became quite good, and took part in the annual panto. however, his life here came to an abrupt end when the local paper reported that he'd been found guilty of viewing (and collecting) child porn, via a library computer. he's gone now and i feel a bit shocked and sick thinking about that whole business: what else had he lied about? i don't know if his story about why he originally went on the road a few years ago is true...i mean, i knew he had a troubled relationship with his mother (and women in general) but i hadn't imagined that...
and so fast forward to about a year ago. i split up with my then girlfriend Helen, and decided to move out of the house we'd been sharing with 3 others. it was a lovely place but i didn't feel happy living there with her. i went on to house-sit for a couple of months, then volunteering at the local community farm, where i lived in a caravan for a month, then a house-sit, and a bit of sofa-surfing with friends (which was really great, but at some point you have to stop), and then another house-sit...and another...and the last one ended a few days ago, and i'm now staying 30 minutes drive away, with a kind friend whose website i'm working on in return for a place to be. thanks, mate
so that's a bit of my story
anyway, here's the idea
i've messed around as a reporter before, and i've always enjoyed the challenge of telling a story. i enjoy radio most of all
what i would like to do is to travel around for a while and tell people's stories. i would use this blog, and a combination of video, still images, slideshows with soundtracks, and plain old text to tell them. i would like to show what people around the country are going through in these times, and it occurs to me that in that situation, being homeless is a big advantage. call it a modern version of Down and Out in Paris and London (although no way am i in Orwell's league as a writer: but then again he wasn't really homeless) with the internet as the storytelling medium
i'm not talking about pretend homelessness either: you're only homeless when you haven't got a place to go home to. you can't try being a homeless reporter for a week and then go back to your flat. you can do that on road protests and occupy-style actions, but a big part of homelessness is not being able to see a way out of it. believe me, if homeless people could find their way out of it, they would. it's the hopelessness and vulnerability of it that gets to you in the end. it's hard to keep your head together when you've nowhere you can call your own space, and when you never know what small thing might ruin your day. however, it seems to me to be an honest position from which to report on other people in difficult situations: and when you're homeless, you often meet people who are honest, kind and generous, regardless of how much they themselves have
i would like to travel and meet people, stay in with people (or outdoors) for a maximum of three nights, during which time i will do my best to tell any stories they think need to be told. sometimes it might be a portrait of the people i'm staying with, and i am sure that i will be sleeping rough now and then, which i will also report on. i've had plenty of practice :)
i will do my best to tell the positive stories as well as the negative ones: there are lots of kind, decent people who are also using these times of change to create a better life, community, and world
i would need some kind of access to the internet, but i'm confident that i can carry a netbook and a camera with me - and a cheap smartphone. i will try, as far as possible, to do this on no money at all, although i will take a few quid with me, just in case. i'm going to sell some stuff to raise the money for the bits and pieces i need
hopefully, as i tell the stories of ordinary people in our times, others will perhaps invite me to tell theirs. i'll publish them here
i would need a few people to function as 'ground control', to help coordinate. i'd like to work with people like Positive News and Positive TV to show the goodness and kindness that's out there too. the world is still full of wonderful people!
let me know if you want to help in any way, or if you're interested in how i get on: contact me by email rchisnall [at] gmail [dot] com
edited: i neglected to mention that i'll be hitch-hiking and travelling on foot, as far as possible. public transport is a last option - cities can be very big places when you're walking :)
