Kiva: Microfinance for everyone

This is Joey following Ashley's orders. Back in July, I learned about Kiva. Wait, back up. In 2006 I read a book by Jeffrey Sachs, an economist at Columbia who had helped Bolivia and Poland with their economic difficulties. The book is The End of Poverty, and it is an ambitious tome that lays out the case for fixing the economic problems in the 3rd world that can be reasonably fixed by 2025.

An important part of fixing poverty is microfinance. Sachs is married to a pediatrician, and from her he learned the importance of differential diagnosis: identifying the various potential causes of a condition and systematically evaluating their potential contribution to the problem. Among geography, public health, access to health care, political corruption, cultural norms, and infrastructure as potential causes, he lists access to financing.

Small entrepreneurs in 3rd world countries simply don't have access to the small business financing that is needed for them to take advantage of economic opportunities and to better their station in life. In 2004, two young American people were in Uganda seeing the poverty up close and personal. They were struck by how much good could be done in helping people help themselves. If only there were a way...

And so Kiva was born. You can hand select and then lend directly to entrepreneurs in impoverished countries. Browsing Kiva is addicting. And heartbreaking. Each entrepreneur page has a picture, a brief description of their business and what the loan is for, the loan amount and terms, and information about the local field partner who handles the loan (and charges interest, which is how they pay for their operating costs).

The best part about Kiva is that they pay the loan back. I cannot emphasize this enough. This is not charity or a handout, this is enabling people to have success they could not otherwise have. This is teaching people to fish, rather than giving them a fish. I have already been partially repaid on the first loan I made and have re-lent that money to another entrepreneur.

We had Isaac pick out a person he wanted to lend money to as our family night activity. He picked a woman (mother of 2) in Bolivia who runs a "Mary Kay" type cosmetics business, selling to her friends and neighbors. She was asking for $875 to buy more inventory. We will be repaid over a 4 month term. As we are repaid, we will turn around and loan out that money again. A perpetual poverty-elimination fund. Maybe not by 2025, but every little bit helps.

An Epic Day

Friday was an epic day for the kids and I. I couldn't chase the thrilled feeling out of my chest and, somehow, earlier in the week when I recalled that Isaac was out of school on the coming Friday, I knew it was going to be good. We began the morning sleeping in till about 7:30 and I let the kids play undisturbed together as long as they wanted...about 8:30. They scarfed down some french toast sticks (you know its going to be a good day when I make anything for breakfast other than yogurt and grape-nuts;) and we headed out the door to the reservoir for bike riding and duck feeding. We went with Soren and my friend Chelsea AND their dog Midget. The weather was perfect and by the end of the day, I concluded that good weather is the key to inner peace! I think we should all move to San Diego! After the reservoir and a shower we headed to McDonalds to meet some friends for a happy-meal. From there we piled into my friend Julies minivan with four other girls (Kennedy and Emma Bahr and Savannah and Katie, the two I was babysitting for the day while their parents moved into a new house). We were heading to the country for the best part of the day, the month, perhaps the year! Today was the kids first day of HORSEBACK RIDING LESSONS at Horseshoe Ranch!! And when we finished I was so absolutely glad that I had followed through with this far fetched idea! It was truly epic! Let me tell/show you a little bit about it:

Meet Flaxy:

He was our perfectly obedient, beautiful, docile chariot that obeyed every tiny command from his little masters. Mrs.Vikky is his ultimate master and she handled the arrival of our surprisingly large brood with great patience.

Vikki started them out giving Flaxy a good brushing. She taught them how and where to brush the mud off of Flaxy's soft, glossy fur. She taught them about horse shoes, bridles and bits. After the short briefing the riding was to begin.

Mrs. Vikky let Georgie lead Flaxy out to the arena by the reigns. As soon as Vikki handed the reigns over Georgie gave them a pull from all the way down into the depth of her tiny little hips. She loves being in charge;)

Isaac was the perfect Gentlemen and let the lady go first. Georgie did great. It was so cute to see her tiny little promptings be obeyed by this big, beautiful animal, to hear her say "Whoa" and kick her little heels into his side. She rode him all around the arena, all by herself, every few moments forgetting that she was the one in charge and letting the horse take back over and stop himself.

She talked Mrs. Vikkis ear off with questions about the horse and facts about herself.

Our beautiful companions watched longingly and cheered her on.

Then it was Isaacs turn! He was so eager to but his cowboy boots to use that he sent Flaxy into a trot almost immediately. Mrs. Vikki announced that we had a natural on our hands. She said he handled the horse extremely confidently for a five year old! At this point I recalled that it was in his genes and I remembered how excited he had been when the rodeo came back into town last month. He was soooo excited to see the cow ropers. Maybe we DO have a natural!

Sheer Joy at the bounce of a horse trot!

Isaac could hardly wipe the grin off of his face!

Mrs. Vikki gave Georgie another turn and let Isaac lead her around this time.

An experience like this ought to make a little guy feel official! Leading around a big, docile animal with your baby sister on his back probably feels like ruling the world to a five year old.

Georgie liked riding but her attention span was a little short. She almost preferred being off of the horse and brushing him. She made great friends with a girl horse (very important!) named Angel. She kept brushing her, talking to her, and bringing her hay and grass to eat.

She loved Indie as well.

Our little animal lover had to be pulled away, crying, from Horseshoe Ranch. She went around hugging and kissing all the animals in the barn. We can't wait to go back in two weeks! Expect many more posts like this one because I won't be able to stop taking pictures! At the end of the day, we decided to keep Isaac in the lessons along with Emma and Kennedy. Mrs. Vikki says that she has three sweet and obedient horses and can take three kids at the same time. She said that anytime Georgie wants to ride, we'll throw her on but for the time being we'll just let her romp around brushing, feeding and just having fun with the animals until her attentions span increases a little. I think she'll enjoy that just as much. It wasn't a hard decision to keep Isaac in lessons! Seeing that look on his face is worth every penny!

San Antonio Trip

San Antonio, we missed you! As we pulled into town the memories came flooding back and I got more and more excited, with each turn of the wheel, to see our old friends again. Isaac was in Heaven and Georgie was finally getting to see what we'd been talking about for the past year! Isaac loved living in San Antonio and still defines "best friend" as Samuel Huddleston. And his reunion with Elly was epic:

As they tossed eachother around on the ground, giggling, the most magnificent thought entered into my mind, "What if we betrothed them!" And so we did it! Zeffy and I pronounced them betrothed. The wedding date is set for 2030 and you're all invited!

Second on the list to seeing our old friends during our visit was going to Sea World for the one free trip that is offered to Military Members each year. We take all kinds of advantage of the military perks. After all, Joey does lay his life on the line every day for his country...he deserves it! Thanks Anheiser-Busch, it's the least you could do for this kind of sacrifice!

And if you choose to go as well, please feed the Dolphins.

Its the most magical thing in the entire park!

What kid doesn't dream of petting a dolphin?

They're so squeaky!

Isaac fell in love with the lazy river. In the three years we lived there we never ventured into it. I'll be darned!

My girls!

Becky Hunt, Mary Morrow, Anne-Marie Huddleston and Zeffy Feist.

The boys...saving the world one mockery at a time;)

And while we contemplated the worlds issues the kids did the above. What a sacrifice. They stayed up until midnight watching movies. Do you think they enjoyed themselves?

Georgie made two new girl friends, Abby

and Summer. She loves big girls!

Jason, the Hunt we'd never met before our trip was an absolute Angel. Holding and being with him was the first intense incident of baby hunger that I've had since Georgie was born....uh-oh!

So don't shoot me for this picture, Joey, but its the only one I got of our visit with Jill in Austin. And oh did we ever visit! My cousin Jill is the kind of person that you walk away from thinking to yourself, "Man, I love that girl. She is so awesome, so real and so guiless." She makes you want to be better, more at home with myself because you sense from her that she is and how blissful having that unity of mind and body is. She embraces who she is with complete humility and wants that for everyone around her, even if its at her own cost. I love you Jill!

More pictures to be added when Anne-Marie sends the ones over from Isaac, G, Samuel and Emily's sleep over!

How Cute Are These...

These are cute AND for a good cause! What more could you ask for? Well, maybe that I had been the one to think of it...that would have been cool! How much better of a job could you get? Designing cute things while traveling in Uganda AND helping out these women...AMAZING!

Pride and Joy

We had parent teacher conferences today. It was so nice to meet Isaacs teacher and hear what she thinks of our little guy! We walked away feeling relieved and proud! He's doing great! Two stories I wanted to get down for journaling purposes...not from the teacher but things he shared with me on a few drives home from school. Every day I ask him and the girls that we carpool with if they did anything nice for someone else at school today. (Julie....I have a few stories for you;) Isaac almost always thinks for a second and then says,"No, not really." With a little bit of prodding I almost always get something excellent out of him!! Here are 2 of my favorites.

HONESTY:

"Two kids were singing a song at school today and I joined in and the teacher turned around and said 'Who's singing that song? Whoever is singing that song come sit on the front carpet right now!' And I got up and sat on the carpet but the other kids didn't. They had to walk paces on the sidewalk during recess for telling a lie but I didn't. They were just scared to get in trouble. Actually, I thought for a second when she asked us to sit on the carpet because I could tell that I would be in trouble but then I thought, 'if I don't sit on the carpet than that would be a lie,' so I got up and sat on the carpet. "

Me: I'm so proud of you, it's so hard to tell the truth when you know it means you'll be in trouble, I'm so proud of you!, now your teacher can trust you etc. etc.

p.s. "What song were you singing?"

Isaac: "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"...how in the heck does he even know that song?!!

COMPASSION:

"Well, um, today, Mommy, in P.E. Tammy was the only one that didn't get picked to be a leader in the game. I looked at her and I could tell that she was sad. When we got back to class we played the quiet game and when someone picked me and it was my turn to pick, I picked Tammy. She was so happy that I picked her."

Me: "Well, I'd definitely say that was something nice for someone else!!"

Sweet Boy! He is growing up so much with all this school business! It just goes to show how much kids(we all) need interaction with others to teach them, to uplift them and to show them just what they are capable of. Facing difficult decisions and service opportunities each day, to be accountable for and uplift others is priceless for character building. I'm grateful for public schools! (not that this is the only way to have these opportunities....Go homeschoolers!!!)

Summer Moments We Missed

I was going through some photos today and spotted some moments that never made it into a post...and they should have. Here they are:

One afternoon Isaac requested that I take a picture of his "favorite friends", Lemur and Froggy. And I figured, "why not?!" If the picture was so important to him I figured they were important enough for the blog.

What can I say, they're part of the family now. The Lemur was bought by Gaga at the SLC zoo in June. The froggy was given to him by Aunt Reta this spring. He has so many stuffed animals (most of them hand me downs from my childhood) but these are the two that he's taken a loyalty to! What can I say....they have chemistry!

We had a fourth of July party at our house. Here are the kids that came: Gigi, Anna Mumford, Isaac, Sam Fischer, Maile Bahr, Ryan Mumford, Jacob Mumford, Kennedy and Emma Bahr, and Charly Fischer. The Binghams and Laura came too. It was fun. We had great company, burgers, fireworks, potato salad, an american flag cake, patriotic apparel, rain...yada yada

Do you see what I see?

(I see more than the camera can see)

Can blue eyed babes have freckles like mine...crazy, everywhere freckles?

We spent a few days after Tahoe hangin' with my brother and his family. It was blissful. We really love them and their house is like visiting a resort. You never have to leave. It made me wish we lived in California...desperately! Take note, Kirsten, and hold me to it!

Even William is looking!

Just moments before this picture was taken Georgie asked me if we could have one just like him. She calls him "Williams"...she must think he's a butler!

We forgot the camera so many more times than we remembered it. It was a great summer, full of swimming pools, friends, beaches, car trips and air planes. But happy fall! Summer '10 will be here before we know it!

Motherhood: A Journal Entry

I recently read this quote from Joan Didian and found it very fitting to explain why I feel this urge to write randomly deep journal entries. Don't read them. They'll only make you think I'm wierd. But there's something more cathartic about putting them out there where they can be read....as if it gives me acceptance, agreement, or understanding of some kind. So I do it because it feels good. Joad Didian says: “I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” Here's what I have to say about that:

I've been meditating motherhood lately. I've been having these intense moments of love for and pride in my children that I wish I had the words to capture...or perhaps a photo. But, alas, I have none. For some reason, lately, I feel as if these days are fleeting and I want to savor them. I watched Isaac and Georgie play so creatively and tenderly with eachother for over 3 hours at a restaurant this weekend, without complaint of time or location. I've watched Isaacs confidence blossom as he tastes success in a school environment, amongst peers and teachers. My heart melts at Georgies sparkling grin that strikes across her face, the way she sings my name, "mommeeeeee" and runs to me with a tight, around the neck hug after each prolonged absence we experience from each other (especially night time). I used to spend many days, wishing for brakes, a babysitter, a job, to take me away for a while but now, finally!!, I feel ready to relish in every mommy moment that I can. I want to be better, more devoted, more intelligent in the way that I parent. But it seems as if there isn't time enough. Life just keeps coming at me...dinners to be cooked, a body to keep fit and healthy, meetings to attend, cleaning to be done, yard work to do, phone calls to make and emails to send. But even as I write this I see that all of this is part of "the parenting process". All these things can be used as tools to teach them. All of my day I spend either working or interacting with people. And I guess that's what can be so intimidating. I teach by being who I am. They watch and they see. By bettering myself, I better my children. But, no pressure or anything;) I am so deeply grateful for this experience, for this season of my life. Why do I waste time wishing it away? Why do I become impatient with Isaac and Georgies process of "becoming"? There is joy in every step. I look forward to seeing there great lives unfold...full of joy that will release them and pain that will teach and shape them. But I'll take this moment (as I have done many times before;) to invigorate my resolve to live now so that I don't look back and wish I had better savored this time...better enjoyed being a witness to Isaac and Georgies journey. And that's my current meditation. Gosh it feels good to write it out! Thanks, Joan, for that recommendation!