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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Ajabu Could Use Our Help

Ajabu Could Use Our Help

by | 72 Comments

This post is in: 

I know we’ve had kind of a lot of these lately, but the world isn’t neat, and we try to help when the need is there.

It would be awesome, wouldn’t it, if everybody had a huge support system, and a nest egg?

I am just glad that we all have Balloon Juice.  It was so helpful a week ago to be able to vent about the situation with Mr. Bear, and to have people care, and offer information that was so helpful.

Today, Ajabu could use some help from us.

Guest Post: Ajabu – Making Music

Here’s part of what Ajabu wrote to me:

I really hate to do this, but I have no choice.

This is the worst situation I’ve faced in decades. I can deal with a crisis but this has been a pile on.

I went in the hole over four grand with this car situation, which wiped out all my cushion money.  I finally got my car back last week after nearly 6 months. I also had to add a $400 car payment for a car for my wife. So I upped my overhead as my income diminishes…

And to add to the pile on: my regular steady gig just went on a two month hiatus while they renegotiate the contract with the outside payroll service that pays their musicians. I have to get out of this mess playing casuals, that are very unstable. Bottom line is I’m completely upside down financially. I just paid my September mortgage three days ago and October is breathing down my neck.

If you guys could help me get past this I will be eternally grateful.

These are supposed to be my “golden years” and I’m struggling more than when I was starting out.  Becoming an elderly musician was apparently a poor career choice…

I can’t thank you enough for any help you can give!

Ajabu is set up with Zelle, so that would be best, but if you preferred to send a check, I can make sure he gets it.  With Zelle, the money lands directly into the person’s checking account, right away, and there are no fees on either end.

If you want to donate with Zelle, and you already have an account with them, either through the app or through your bank, then all you need is his email address. ajabu86 at yahoo.com

Many banks are connected to Zelle, so you could check your bank to see, if you want.

Please don’t send money to “Ajabu” – even though the Ghost Cat who mistakenly received funds from a few people was surely pleased to suddenly have money from strangers landing in her account!  :-)

If you want to donate but aren’t set up with Zelle, it’s quite painless, and Steeplejack has volunteered to help folks if they have any Zelle setup questions. 

If you guys are up for helping, we would like to get Ajabu $4k to cover the two months while his regular gig is on hiatus, that could be the boost that he needs.  Ajabu will still have to scramble to keep things going, but missing mortgage payments is bad, so it would be awesome if we could at least cover that while he can hopefully line up some individual gigs.

Ajabu has been kind of quiet on the blog of late, so I’ll share a couple of posts to help dust off the cobwebs:

Ajabu – Making Music!

Ajabu Shares a Personal Story

And of course, like all things at Balloon Juice, no one should feel obligated to donate to the blog, to help another BJ peep, or to political fundraising.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

72Comments

  1. 1.

    thruppence

    I’m struggling myself, but I’ll throw some in when I get home from work tonight.

    ETA: frist? That’s a first

  5. 5.

    Steeplejack

    @Kristine:

    Zelle requires either a phone number or an email address as an identifier for you, similar to how you have to log in or have an identifier for PayPal, ActBlue and other donation services.  It’s the same in the app as on the desktop version.

    . . .  And I see that you found it at your bank. For most people this will be the case, because all of the big banks are behind Zelle.

  6. 6.

    JaySinWA

    @WaterGirl:

    @Steeplejack:

    You need the recipients cell or email address as well as your own-

    From the Zelle webpage:

    You can send, request, or receive money with Zelle®. After you’ve enrolled, simply add your recipient’s email address or U.S. mobile number, the amount you’d like to send or request, review and add a memo, and hit “confirm.” In most cases, the money is typically available in minutes1. To receive money, just share your enrolled email address or mobile number with a friend or person you trust and ask them to send you money with Zelle®.

  7. 7.

    oldster

    Any option for Venmo?

    Zelle is about ten clicks and several passwords deeper on my desktop. Not impossible, but more hassle than Venmo.

  8. 8.

    Steeplejack

    Oops, looked at the comments before reading the post.

    WaterGirl, Ajabu needs to give us the phone number or email address that he used when he set up Zelle for himself. You cannot donate with someone’s name.

  10. 10.

    Steeplejack

    @JaySinWA:

    It’s not just the recipient’s phone number or email address. It’s the one that they specifically used when they set up Zelle for themself.

    There is a fail-safe, in that if you try to send money to a number or address that the person didn’t set up Zelle will tell you that it can’t find the recipient and stop the transaction.

  11. 11.

    Steeplejack

    @oldster:

    No option for Venmo at this point. This is a quick-turnaround, low-overhead project, and Zelle is the most friction-free: no fees at either end and the money is transmitted within minutes. Sorry for the inconvenience.

  14. 14.

    divF

    I can kick something in. I’ll keep an eye open for the post when you get the Ajabu’s Zelle information.

  15. 15.

    Steeplejack

    🚨 I have left a message for WaterGirl about the phone number/​email address thing, so we’re on standby until that gets sorted out.

    Here’s some hold music from last night: Nicola Conte, “Bossa per Due.”

  19. 19.

    Steeplejack

    Okay, it’s go time. If you’ve got Zelle, either through your bank* or through the Zelle app, all you need in order to donate is the email address at #17.

    * Most banks have Zelle listed in the “make/​receive payments” section of your account page (whatever that is called). For setup, all you have to do is tell your bank what phone number or email address to use as an identifier for yourself and which account to use to send (or receive!) money.

  20. 20.

    oldster

    Zelle payment actually went through very easily — I typed in the email address, it responded with his human name.

    Good luck, Don! We’ve all needed help at times, and you’ll be in a position to help others when your fortunes improve.

  21. 21.

    Steeplejack

    @oldster:

    👍 Glad you were able to get it to work.

    I just tossed in some money myself. The pipeline is open, people! No pressure to donate, but let us know if you do, since we don’t have a thermometer.

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    Sorry, guys, that I goofed that up right out of the gate by saying you needed the name and not the email address.  Next time I’ll get a phone number before I put up a post so if I need to get in touch ASAP I can.  You’d think I would have learned that already!

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack:

    * Most banks have Zelle listed in the “make/​receive payments” section of your account page (whatever that is called). For setup, all you have to do is tell your bank what phone number or email address to use as an identifier for yourself and which account to use to send (or receive!) money.

    Thanks for that!  My little credit union isn’t connected to Zelle, so I couldn’t describe what I can’t see!  :-)

  28. 28.

    raven

    My bank Zelle says

    You don’t have permission to add, edit, or delete this contact.

     

    I’m using his email and Ajabu Vibes?

  29. 29.

    Mel

    @oldster: This is so true. And it can feel so utterly lonely, isolated, and frightening when things get tough and you have a limited support network due to illness, age, loss of income, distance from friends or family, etc.

    It can be especially hard when a tough time hits for people who are or were in creative or helping professions, I think, because although the work is so important, the pay is often comparatively lower or unpredictable (artists, social workers, teachers, CNAs, caregivers, writers, respite workers, musicians, health techs, and so many others..,).

    Even for folks with higher paying professions or steadier incomes, one serious or chronic illness or one major trauma can still tip the scales in a frightening direction so much faster than it ever seemed possible.

  30. 30.

    Alison Rose

    I of course don’t have much to spare, but I sent my tiny bit, and wish it could be a lot more. I tell you what, if I had Bezos level money, or even one-tenth of that, my greatest joy would be giving it away to people in need. I’d be digging through social media looking for GoFundMes to finish off.

    I hope we can help Ajabu through this patch.

  32. 32.

    oldster

    @raven:

    My Zelle front end, via BoA, was satisfied when I gave it the yahoo email address. That’s all it wanted, and then it filled in his human-name on the next page, which provided me with reassurance that I had the right recipient.

    So, I did not have to type in any names or any identifiers other than the yahoo email address.

  43. 43.

    Another Scott

    Man, that’s painful to use software.  :-/

    I didn’t have it on my phone, so I installed it.  My credit union isn’t a using institution, so I used a debit card.  It was going Ok until it wanted me to create a password, and refused to show the keyboard to let me type one in…  :-/  I eventually was able to create a password elsewhere and cut-and-paste.

    [Sheesh.]

    Donated.

    Good luck, ajabu!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  45. 45.

    Percysowner

     

    I gave a bit. Hope it helps. I’ve used Zelle a lot and I had his email so it was very smooth.

  52. 52.

    mvr

    I very much don’t want to add ways to take money out of my account.  I have a paypal account. Can I just send money to that same email address using paypal?  I can use friends and family and they won’t take any money out.

    Thanks!

    -Mark

  60. 60.

    mali muso

    Putting my marker down to donate tomorrow when I get to my laptop. Sending solidarity your way, Ajabu!

  63. 63.

    thruppence

    In the Zelle section of my banking app, it wants a first and last name as well as the email address. Did I miss something? Is it just this version on this app? I’ll come back to it later. I’ve used it before to send Cole a few bucks, but I knew his name

  65. 65.

    kalakal

    @thruppence: odd, once I put in the email address a pop up appeared with this address is registered to don at etc. Do you want to continue etc. The only info it wanted was the email.

    This was on a OnePlus phone running android

  67. 67.

    Steeplejack

    @thruppence:

    Based on my experience (with Bank of America), that’s an idiosyncrasy of the particular implementation of the application. When I was setting up Ajabu as a recipient I couldn’t remember his surname, so I just put in “Smith.” Went through fine. (In other words, BoA was just storing that internally to help me keep track of recipients.) The email address is the essential thing, and you can go back later and edit the “recipient” record to correct any details.

    ETA: Or, as kalakal said, the app might populate the fields for you. It could vary by bank (or the stand-alone app).

  68. 68.

    chrisanthemama

    Uh, after reading through about half the comments (most of which were Zelle-specific confusions/questions, etc.), and knowing my borderline tech-aversion–is there a mailing address to which I could USPS a check to get to Mr. Abaju?  Thx!

  69. 69.

    Steeplejack

    @chrisanthemama:

    As WaterGirl says in the post at top, “If you prefer to send a check, I can make sure he gets it.” So send her an email at watergirl at balloon-juice dot com.

  71. 71.

    Miss Bianca

    I am so sorry to hear all this – as soon as I get paid for one of my writing gigs I can spare some for Ajabu. WG, if we did send a check, where would we send it to? (I’m old-fashioned that way.)

Comments are closed.