I had stayed up until 4am the night before, putting the finishing touches on my presentation video for SANA, a Sindhi conference where I was to present on my puppet film, Risalo, based on the poetry of Shah Latif. It is difficult to boil down a huge undertaking with so many facets to connect just those key points that you think will not only interest your audience, but mobilize them to help.I finally figured out how I wanted to present my project and what might be of interest to SANA attendees. I ended up making some small additional changes in the morning thanks to my wife's suggestions and a couple of things I saw in addition to that. It felt good though, to feel that, while not perfect, the video would tell the story I needed to tell, in just over 8 minutes.I arrived at the conference and sat at the registration table for a while. I met the daughter of a Sindhi scholar who had written an english translation of Shah Latif's book of poetry, Shah Jo Risalo. The daughter had shipped the books from Pakistan at significant expense, to sell them to raise funds for SANA and spread the poet's words to people.I met some more volunteers and waited for a session to let out. I met the scholar's daughter's grandchildren and her daughter. That was a joy. They were incredibly sweet children, helping with book sales, walking around letting people know about the book. Talking to children can often brighten my day.My talk was listed in the program guide and several people were interested in it, for which I was grateful. I walked around a bit, after the session let out, tested the video and audio on the projector thanks to Arshad Ali who single handedly set up sound for the evening performance.I walked around a bit aimlessly after that and really had no idea what to do with myself during the break between the last session and the dinner program. I'll add another post about the photography experiments I did in between. After that, I made my way back to the conference and was greeted by Aziz Narejo, whom I met last year. He took me under his wing and I joined at a dinner table with the present and several past presidents (chairpersons) of SANA. Some people remembered me from last year and Aziz was kind enough to take an interest in my efforts on 'Risalo' and I really appreciated the thoughts and connections he helped me with.I ended up going on a bit earlier, but I was ready and really it was perfect timing as the room was packed after we had a delicious dinner with adults and children. It was the perfect time to share my project. There was a lot of talking going on in all the sessions, but hopefully I connected my journey and plea for help on 'Risalo' to some interested people. It is hard to really know. My table mates were kind and congratulatory of my efforts and presentation. I sat and enjoyed a skit, some songs, poetry and took some photos.At a bit before midnight, I felt quite tired and unsure of my ability to gain the support I need to finish the film. I did my best, I decided I needed to go home and rest. As I walked out, and down the hall, two young women, Kiffa and Rebecca stopped me. They appreciated what I shared and told me about their own interests. We brainstormed and shared common experiences of how we connected to culture through music by different bands and how that lead to an interest in more. I got some good suggestions for how to engage their age group with what I was doing, and I appreciated the confidence boost, before I thanked them again and made my way home to sleep, with mixed feelings at how I did and how much longer I could keep pushing with so little outside momentum and yet I am grateful.