...but not at all for the reasons you're probably thinking of. Also, I am in no way looking to raise any money from this post. I just don't know where else to turn. With that and the click-baity title aside let's dive in. 

Our dad is a Micronesian. The island he's from has only 2 people on it right now. The next closest island is where he currently lives and has about 11,000 people. He moved back there to take care of his side of the family when his mother passed away. We have not seen him since. In fact, I can only remember seeing him three times since he moved away due to the crash of 2008. The last time was when he came back briefly after going out for her funeral. We have never been there and only have the stories and descriptions that came from him. 

Life out there is pretty simple. Many people would consider it a third-world country. It hasn't been until recently that our dad has had a reliable way to communicate with us. Now they've got semi-reliable internet out there and cell/satellite service. In the last short while, our dad has finally managed to get himself a nice cellphone and even a Facebook!

With Facebook came a revelation. Our dad is old, and more importantly he's sick. We never realized the extent of it until he posted a picture from his tin shack on his story. There were more pill bottles than we've ever seen. His diabetes has gotten worse and his leg is swelling worse than the last time. He's also been getting general sicknesses and pneumonia on and off since he moved there.

Naturally my brother and I have more or less dropped everything else in our lives and our main priority is getting out there to see him. We were finally able to get together and start planning/coordinating late last week. We're hoping to go this summer if not sooner and both of us are going to drop our jobs in order to go for at least a whole month. We'll figure out what comes after when we get to it.

We're not rich, but we're not poor. We are both in a position where we make a bit more than our monthly expenses. He recently started working for a trade and even picked up a second job at Starbucks to help the grind. I work 70 hours a week at a full commission job. I stashed some money away because I knew business was going to drop off and I'm only making it out by the skin of my teeth and some help from my SO. I haven't had a real paycheck in 4 months and it looks like I have one more to go. I don't have the time for a second job but you can bet your ass that I'll be selling my ass off until we get there.

The round trip alone is at least $2,300 EACH and I'm not even sure that includes a bag. Then there's paying our bills while away, living expenses (food/gas) on the island, and I would also like to have some money in the budget to improve my dad's living situation. Even if we're building it ourselves. We would even like to get traditional tattoos if we could somehow pull it off. Bottom line: we need about $6,000 collectively. We would love to aim higher because that doesn't pay any of our bills while we're gone etc., but that is the bare minimum we need to get out there and forget the consequences if that's all we can do.

Here is where we come to a crossroads. I think that a Go Fund Me or whatever offers a good enough chance to help us make this happen. I've gotten over that some people use those platforms for the dumbest things and am confident that our cause is righteous enough to be worth putting out there. I also understand that it's a long shot and that the grim reality is that we'd probably fail because we didn't get lucky. That's not the point though. I want to take advantage of any edge we can get because we have a really tight deadline.

However, my brother disagrees. Overall, he's skeptical to the point that he thinks we don't have a real chance. 

Furthermore, he thinks that we should do everything we can to make it happen ourselves without putting any burden on others. The people we know are generally worse off financially than we are and anyone who is likely to donate is probably one of our friends that can't really afford it. I understand this point. I would like to keep it separate from the people who cannot afford it. I'm not sure what we can do about this though. If our friends want to and think they can then maybe we should let them. Some of my friends have already asked me if there's something they can do to help. I don't think they could, nor would, contribute all that much. Also, I don't think they'd put themselves at risk either. Maybe I could be wrong about his circles.

On top of that he believes that nobody outside of our groups would be that interested in giving to us because we don't have anything that sets ourselves apart from anyone else there. I told him that some of my most memorable reddit contributions are when Yap's Stone Money gets brought up in r/todayilearned or something. A few people have asked me to do an AMA and I've even briefly spoken to someone else who's mother is from Yap. Maybe we can contribute something. Maybe learning about people that most people never considered or even knew existed before Moana could be enough to set apart even a little bit.

None of that is particularly controversial between us, but I don't know how I would write what's below without also writing what's above. Maybe I need to vent. idk. 

I know it's going to seem very ironic that I'm talking about this publicly, but it is the real reason why I'm here. My brother has a big hang-up about airing out personal matters to other people. Specifically the people close to him that aren't directly involved with it. He doesn't want to deal with other people talking to him about the issues that we face nor deal with any emotions that might come with facing these things in a public setting. 

He did say that he would get over it if I could prove that it's a viable opportunity. I don't think I can suddenly come up with *the* way to make it work, and I don't think I could if I'm not actively working on it. I'm not even sure that we need to include **any** information about him being sick. We could instead leave it as two sons that haven't seen their dad in a decade and haven't yet had a real chance to explore anything of his culture.

This situation has been keeping me up at night for the last 2 months. Mostly because of dad's condition, less about getting there. All I can think about when I have any free time is getting us out there. I wonder if it's worth trying to turn the time spent thinking into time I spent working towards getting us out there, though I don't see any other avenues.

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WIBTA if I set up a Go Fund Me despite my brother's feelings about putting ourselves out there?

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Also, and much less importantly, AITA for posting this despite my brother's feelings about putting ourselves out there? 

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I don't know where else to turn for perspective. I don't know where to go for help either.