Kiva Loan #5

It's amazing how time has flown since my last post, and it's funny how the last one was a Kiva donation as well. This time I sent my money to Mongolia where Dashdavaa Hurlee will be putting it to use buying more supplies for his grocery store.

Adding another check to my map of countries where my money has gone....

visited 5 states (2.22%)
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Kiva loan #4

My last loan, to a woman raising pigs in the Philippines, was paid back recently so it's time to make another loan via Kiva. So far I've loaned money to four women in Mali who were selling clothing, a group of retailers in Paraguay, the pig farmer in the Philippines, and now a woman's group in Uganda that run a general store.

If you're still unfamiliar with Kiva I recommend taking 5 minutes to get to know them. As I said, I've successfully lent out money three previous times and my money always comes back to me. They're helping people get ahead in life and I find that worthwhile so it's a no-brainer to me.

My lending map is slowly filling up...

helped folks in 4 countries (1.77%)
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Sending some help to the Philippines

It's Kiva time again and I thought it would be nice to spread some of the help to the land of my bigger girls ancestors - the Philippines. I found this woman raising pigs, she only needed a little bit more money and hey - who hasn't wanted to help out a pig farmer?

Introducing... Elisa Labordo - from Sto Niño, South Cotabato, Philippines. She's almost to her goal, maybe someone here can click over and give her a few bucks? Or, if she's already met her goal by the time you get there please consider giving to someone else. The Kiva experience has been fantastic. They take care of everything, send you updates when parts of your loan get paid back, and let you know when it's time to find a new worthy person looking to make their life better. It's a no brainer to be sure.

Continuing with the mapping of my loans, so far I've donated to folks in Mali, Paraguay and the Philippines

helped 3 states (1.33%)
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It's giving time again

Back in February I made our first loan via the Kiva web site to a group of women in Mali who were buying cloth to resell in local markets. The group has steadily been repaying the loan and I've almost been reimbursed the full $25 initial loan. With only a few dollars remaining on that original loan still owed to me I thought it would be a good time to start another loan. The idea would be to start a new loan when the previous wasn't quite done and eventually I'd have enough left over from each of the previous loans to be able to cover a second loan independently. That's the idea anyway.

Here's the group I've decided to loan to - the Las Mercedes Group. I chose a group with a shorter repayment schedule to speed up the process a little bit to hopefully get that second loan in play sooner.

Adding to the map from my first donation -
Country donated to: Mali, Paraguay

visited 2 states (0.88%)
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I'm going to make it a habit!

Wifey showed me a blog she follows (thanks Jessica!) where the author has been on the Kiva bandwagon for a lot longer than I have. She posted about this very cool tool she uses to track her donations. The point, if I'm not mistaken, is to try and cover the World with donations. I like it. Although my tiny little one donation really doesn't seem to be all that impressive I'm hoping to make this a habit and this tool might help me do it.

Country donated to: Mali

donated to 1 country (0.44%)
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Our first donation to Kiva

Wifey and I had heard about Kiva, a micro-lending service, a while back but for a variety of reasons hadn't done anything about it. I must admit, I have been stuck in the mindset that while our finances move in a negative direction we were in no shape to be helping anyone else out. That is an easy rationalization to make to oneself, and I don't think many people would argue too much with it. However, making a difference doesn't have to break the bank, even if that bank is (not so) slowly deflating.

My good friend Geoff really hit me hard today, right in the gut. And not even once. Twice he made this old stone heart soften today. First, and this doesn't have anything to do with the micro-lending part of my post, he sent me a link to a video created by friends/colleagues of his relating the urgent need for global change when it comes to water policy. Everyone needs to check this out...
(below is the video posted to YouTube. I'd really encourage you to go to their site by clicking on this link)





So, as if Geoff's scare-the-crap-out-of-all-of-us video didn't do enough to get me thinking globally, his post on the latest developments at the Berga school definitely did. Although I asked him about the ability for folks like us to assist in the collection of medical supplies for the village's health extension workers, my thoughts turned to Kiva and the likelihood that a site such as that might be able to help those wonderful women doing so much with practically nothing. That, of course, made me interested in finally getting off my virtual duff and check out Kiva's site. Gotta say it was one of the best things I've done lately.

Seriously! Everyone can help! It's silly not to! What really got me going was the fact they use PayPal to handle their donations. I logged into my PayPal account and found out that I had $11 in there from who-knows-when. It was like finding a $10 bill in your pant's pocket after they go through the wash. All I had to do was sign up for a Kiva account, pick my intended beneficiary, and donate through PayPal. I credited that $11 from my account, added a bit as a donation to Kiva to help them cover their costs, and now 4 lovely young women from Mali will benefit from our $25. I know, it isn't much, but the point is to get everyone to help just a little. We'll eventually get the money back and then it can be passed on to the next folks who we find on Kiva's site.

This is a no-brainer of the highest order.

So, do me a favor... go check out my newest African friends and see if you can help them out. It will help them out and make you feel fantastic. Nice way to feel right before going to bed.



***Update*** Apparently my new African BFF's have reached their fundraising goal!!! Not sure if any of you out there donated to their cause (I wouldn't mind if you left a comment of two letting me know) but as you can see this little Kiva announcement widget has moved on to other worthy candidates. Pretty cool little program - when one person or group reaches their goal the widget automatically moves on to another candidate. So, whomever the widget shows, please consider donating, it really is painless.

Saving lives, one pint at a time

Normally in my life a pint is used to describe how much beer I would like to have in my hand at any given time. However, I am happy to announce that "pint" has taken on a new meaning today. It has been more than a decade since I've last donated blood but today I made up for lost time and jumped back on the bandwagon. My employer, a large UARC in Maryland that shall remain nameless (don't try to figure it out or we'll have to visit your house late at night), is wonderful enough to schedule multiple on-site donations each year which makes this process so easy it is absolutely impossible to not participate. The Red Cross brings in this rickety old bus and it feels like we're on an old episode of M.A.S.H. laying on these "beds" with tubes sticking out of our arms. But let's just say there wasn't exactly any "Hot Lips Houlihan" taking care of me! No worries though, the ladies were very kind if a bit bored with their daily activities.





And, as if saving lives weren't cool enough, I've got to let all of my readers (both of you) in on a very sweet "contest" being spearheaded by a blogger friend of Wifey's. You've got to check out Manic Mommy (or should I say MaNiC MoMMy?) and her way cool contest and give away -

MaNiC MoMMy'S ViRTuaL BLoG FoR BLooD DRiVE !

So, my proof----

If I win I'll totally invite all of you to join us in sunny Florida. Either that you you can all divvy up the kids so Wifey and I can try to remember what it feels like to be adults again.

I enthusiastically encourage everyone to join me in restocking your area's blood banks. They all need the donation and you get to look real cool and tough with your Spider Man Band Aid. :)

This Stuff Ain't Easy

I always knew being the father I wanted to be was going to be pretty hard to do. Not going too much into where I came from (not in this post anyway) I didn't exactly have the greatest of models. So now that it's my turn to be the Dad it just amazes me when I look into the mirror and realize that Yeah buddy, it's up to you. So, when I run into articles or stories that make sense, or that provide a good dose of "DUH" I like to reflect on them and share them when possible. Two such pieces are now sitting in front of me, both coming from Parents Magazine. While magazines of this type are typically geared toward the fairer sex (Wifey and I have had plenty of conversations about that - she holds that it is the women who take the time to be the readers and caregivers, I say it is a piece of a larger societal problem where fathers aren't expected to invest themselves in the thought process of parenting - thank God Obama called fathers out in his acceptance speech last night!!!) I still tend to find at least one thing in each issue that I can relate to.

So, from this month's issue...

"Memo to Mommy" - see what I mean? Why not "Memo to Parents?" Sexist?

Anyway, this article provides 10 good little "quotes" that every adult should keep in mind when raising little ones...

1. Stop freaking out about the mess! There's always time to clean - but how often do we get to make mud pies?
2. Love me, even when I'm naughty. I'll only be this age once.
3. Be patient. I do everything for a reason, but I don't know enough words yet to give you an explanation.
4. Let me do it. I know you can do it faster and better, but sometimes experience is the best teacher.
5. Don't expect too much of me. I want to do what you ask and make you happy, but I'm still little.
6. Don't try to reason with me when I'm having a tantrum. Trust me - I can't hear you over my own screaming.
7. Keep your promises. It's all about trust. When I'm a teenager, you'll understand why it's so important.
8. Don't keep asking me if I've been good. I'm not even sure what that means, but if I was bad I'd never admit it!
9. Don't let me think that you're perfect. I feel a lot better knowing I'm not the only one who makes mistakes sometimes.
10. Set limits. I can't actually eat a whole box of cookies - I just want to see if I'd get away with it.

So, there is the first. Great advice to read each and every day. In fact, Wifey even posted it up on our bathroom mirror. Not sure what she is saying about me/her/us but I'll take the help any way I can get it.

The second article is bigger, with far too many words for me to retype the whole thing so I'll just give their main points. It is titled "Teaching Old-Fashioned Values in a Modern World."

1. Don't interrupt adults in the middle of a conversation.
   
   Wifey and I have worked on this since JAM was tiny and we are now getting into it with Red. It is actually pretty funny when we tell her to not interrupt and she yells out "I don't wanna wait!!!!" Well, it's funny right now, but not so much when it actually happens.
   
   
2. Say "Thank You" without being prodded.
   
   JAM is so amazing at this - with everyone else but us. lol We expect them to say please and thank you each and every time. I've even gotten so far into the habit of prompting that I'll hand a glass of milk or something to a friend's kid and say "What do you say?" only to feel like a doofus for overstepping. Good thing we have such good friends.
   
   
3. Greet adults with "Hello" and a proper name.
   
   This is something that we honestly haven't worked on much at all. We are very informal people, so we expect kids of friends to call us by our first names and we have always let our kids call other adults by their first names. This is really strange because some of our friend's kids do this by matter of course, but others, who had been students in Wifey's classes way back when, still call us Mr. and Mrs. even though we've tried to get them to stop. This is where having different sets of norms (does this qualify as a value?) is so interesting. I don't want to step on their rules or expectations but I also feel strange when my kids call their parents by their first names and they're calling us by our formal names. I'll have to ask more about that this weekend when we see them for Labor Day.
   
   
4. Hold the door.
   
   DUH!!!!! Why wouldn't you teach you kids to help, treat others with respect, etc.? Honestly, I think the thing I like most about myself is that I'll go out of my way to help others and holding the door is such a simple way to do this. So when JAM sees me doing this, and now Red sees it too, I'm happy to be a positive role model for this. I'm also so pleased that the magazine chose this one thing as something to focus on. Too many people, especially college kids at UMD where I went to school and still visit and interact with quite frequently and high school-aged kids in my neighborhood, don't think about anyone else around them. I know, it is developmentally appropriate for this up to a certain age, but there is no point in not showing them the right way to act right? I especially love it when I hold the door for another guy. Some guys just don't know what to do with that. Good manners is good manners though right?
   
   
5. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
   
   Oh! Thank you for saying this! I had a funny sign on my wall when I taught that had some goofy sayings on it. One of them was "Never miss a perfect opportunity to shut up." A bit ruder than maybe called for but my teen-aged audience got it.
   
   
6. Give up your seat.
   
   Did you read that everyone? I can't tell you how many times Wifey has come home from riding the bus somewhere and told me that someone didn't get up for her. Oh, did I mention that this was usually when she was visibly preggers? And if you know her, she doesn't do 'just a little pregnant.' When my beautiful wife gets knocked up she goes all out so it is very obvious that she is "in that way." So when I heard about college kids knocking over each other, and her, to get on the shuttle buses when she was trying to get on, sometimes with another kid in tow, I wanted to go stand out there with her and b*$%-slap anyone I saw cutting her off or not getting up for her. On second thought, maybe it is a good thing I wasn't there with her. But, I digress as usual. I try to model this one too, on the Metro when we use it, is usually the only place where this might come into play but it all comes down to manners and class. By God my kids will know how to act civilly in their community.

All right, that's it for now. Can't say enough about this topic though, especially when we are surrounded by the area where we live and its lack of basic civility and common courtesy. It's hard to raise your kids "right" when they are constantly being inundated with "wrong" but I'll be dammed if I am going to give up.

A feel-good news story???

I couldn't believe it. In a world where all we hear are stories about death, destruction, recession and George Bush, all horrible topics, I heard a honest-to-goodness positive news story tonight. All right, it was on ESPN, but it was nice to hear nonetheless. You can read a story on it
here: http://www.record-eagle.com/sports/local_story_012101556.html,
here: http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2007/09/30/bigskylife/hjjcjagjjjiaif.txt,
and here: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/orl-recycleman07dec30,0,3127408.story

Basically, a wonderful elderly gentleman has taken it upon himself to 'adopt' his local high school's athletic program by collecting cans, one at a time. Thus far he has single-handedly donated more than $10,000 to the school's athletic program just by collecting and recycling cans. And people say that they can't make a difference when they do something good all by themselves. Don't tell this guy that, he'll just laugh at you.