Winner!

Yet again, I have the same winner, Page. I am surprised no on participated! Clearly my fellow bloggers are more flush than I am…sigh ;)  So one person has netted over $100 bucks in free money. Not bad!

Clarification

So I got a comment on my last post “ Are we promoting Novica? Or Makindu? http://makindu.org/? it's not clear from your post whom we're supposed to blog/tweet about.”


And I as I often say to my husband, “What? You can’t read my mind? Ughhh.”


So apologies. I would like for you to promote Makindu. You can do so by tweeting, linking to this post, linking to the national geographic article, blogging, facebooking, digging, buzzing…. I don’t care, just spread the word and make it big.


Also I realized I did not put an end date. I am letting the contest go until noon 8/23. I will announce a winner after that.

 

Thanks all!!

What Can You Do With What You Have?

From Makindu News

So I told you I had some exciting news coming and here it is… I have yet another promotion to offer everyone. I got contacted by NOVICA to offer my readers a chance at a certificate to $75 to use on their site! In case you are not familiar with NOVICA they work with National Geographic and are one of the leading fair trade sites. For those that know me, know this was so up my alley. I was blow away by how amazing everything was. I think you will be as well. I saw a million things I wanted, but I also know this is where I will be going to finally find that gift for the person (AKA my dad) who has everything.


So how do you win a chance to win? You can help me promote a wonderful organization. I know you are thinking, “What? What organization? Please, please tell me more? “ So I guess I will.


I had the pleasure to attend a fund raiser to help raise money for Makindu Children’s program. The program’s focus is to help the children orphaned by AIDS in Kenya, which is estimated to be over 1 million children. The Center helps find the children families to live with and in turn support the child and family with meals, education, AIDS education and medical care. To support the efforts of this center every other year a group of people get together to raise money by going on “proper walk.” The participants of the walk pay their own expenses (roughly about 4 thousand dollars) to get there, and be there. They are also required to raise 10 thousand dollars that goes directly to the program. Amazingly every other year folks do it, and it seems to grow. One of the things I really like about the program is that it has been turned back over to the village and is now run by the village.


The proper walks themselves are amzing things covering 150 or more miles of uncharted terrain and have been covered by national geographic. The link will take you to the National Geographic article about the walks.

However, what blew me away wasn’t a bunch of crazy folks trekking across uncharted Africa, it was the statistics he gave that night. Frankly, while I sipped my wine and ate my catered food while sitting in a gorgeous home, it made me feel ill. I don’t have most of the statistic from that night but here is what I do know:

• In 2007 worldwide there were 2.5 million people were newly infected, 1.7 million of those were in sub-Saharan Africa.

• More than two-thirds (68%) of all people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa.

• The majority of people (61%) living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are women.

• In 2007 more than three quarters (76%) of all AIDS-related deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.

Nkosi Johnson goole images

The thing that has stayed with me most since that night was the story of a young boy, Nkosi Johnson- age 12. He was dying of AIDS. He addressed International AIDS Conference - Durban, South Africa and simply said:


Do all you can

With all you have

In the time you have

At the place you are


How often do we do that? I know I don’t. I do know, however, I should. I do know that I am not here just to take as much as I can and then die. I know that I am meant to do something. So here I am, doing something. It is not much, but is what I can do, with what I have (my blog) with the time I have (not much) and in the place I am. No, truly it isn’t much, it is however a start.


So I am asking you to do the same. Help me get the word out about this organization. Blog about it, link to this post, twitter, facebook, stumble. Dig, buzz. Just do it, do what you can. For each thing you do (just send me a link and/or tell me about it) you will get an entry to win the $75 dollars. Make a donation https://makindu.ejoinme.org/MyPages/ProperWalk2010/tabid/199365/Default.aspx(I am supporting Joshua) and I will double your total entries (meaning you twitter, facebook, stumble and make a donation you will get a total of 6 entries).


And as for the donation, this is really a matter of every dollar helps. So what can very little money do?


 $35 provides food, elementary schooling and medical care for one child for one month.

 $50 provides school uniforms and shoes for 10 children.

 $100 provides millk for 100 children for 1 month.

 $200 provides bulk food (maize, beans, oil, etc.) for 59 families for four months.

 $350 provides a high school education (tuition, boarding, books and supplies) for one student for one year.


Amazing sometimes, how little something of so much value can cost.



Please go check out these amazing links with Novica and dont' forget to let you know what you are doing!

Fair Trade

Green Gifts

Unique Gifts

Microfinance

The Winner of Blueberry Heaven

Okay, this is a double post. First, the winner of the contest  Sadly very few of you (2 to be exact) took advantage of multiple entries. One of the folks that did, won. So keep in mind that you could have had 30 bucks to go toward this, when I tell you about the next exciting thing coming. I am not telling you yet, but you guys really want to stay tuned. It is super cool.  And now for the winnner....

So the other day the fabulous Kindness Girl asked me to go blueberry picking with her. I have to say that I have not been blueberry picking since I was about 10. All I recall is thinking, “God this sucks.” So I accepted the invitation but did so with high doubts of truly lovely times to come. Kindness Girl assured me it was lovely, loveliness. Humph.



First the ride there was lovely, down tree covered roads and past water. I felt myself easing into just being. We got there and the kids were off. Typically, that would make my shoulders go to my ears and me want to turn tail and leave. Somehow, I knew that it was okay.

We selected a path and soon I found myself in a blueberry room. The bushes literally formed a tunnel. A tunnel of blueberry lusciousness.

 The bushes dripped with berries. I mean really. They hung on the bush like grapes. To me, it was amazing. Then Kindness Girl said, “Too bad you should have seen them last week. I never left one bush.” 

It took me about 30 minutes, all while negotiating kids, to pick about 10 lbs of blueberries. Which sounds great, but I could have been there all day. It was truly, lovely, loveliness. We had a picnic and the kids “stole” blueberries. Dreamy.

Tonight, cantaloupe and blueberry sorbet. Sigh…