I may end up re-evaluating my #19. It seems a little too vague. I mean, I do acts of kindness everyday. In the past week I've offered my seat to a woman with crutches, taken photos of families traveling in New York (who wouldn't trust someone with a face like mine ;) ) and basically not done anything bad. And finding 30 things to donate to seems empty and a cop out. At the same time, I want to become more charitably-minded in an sustained sense. I mean, I am (and Erik and I are) so fortunate. It's hard for me to give my time at the moment with the constant dread of knowing at any moment my free time can become a distant memory. Also, oddly enough, if you want to volunteer to do something in NYC, you have to pay to do it! Isn't my time enough?! So, I don't know.
At any rate, after reading Half the Sky, I was inspired to start my own Kiva.org portfolio. I even posted it on Facebook. I guess I should have discussed it with my husband first because he asked me if my FB account got hacked! Oops!
My person is named Alice and she lives in Rwanda. I picked Rwanda because I studied the terrible genocide that happened there while in college. If you haven't, watch Hotel Rwanda. It'll give you a reality check on your own life. Anyway, Alice has had a successful cosmetic business for 5 years now and needed $1,150 to get more inventory. Me and 44 other lenders are making this possible. I look forward to seeing how she does. I think I might add another person each month until the end of the year. I like the idea of microloans because there's a person attached to the donation.
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