More from Africa...

I got a notice today from KIVA that my funding of entrepreneur Sabina Twumasi has been disbursed to her.





















Sabina is a divorced mother, 37, who lives in Ghana, and is proprieter of a clothing store. She needs additional funding to expand her offerings and fund her child's college education.

My daughter Lisa put me on to KIVA and even started me off with a gift certificate for my (January) birthday this year.

With all the uproar around here of late, I didn't log on to the KIVA site until recently to find Sabina and invest my certificate.

People from all over the world have invested a few dollars in Sabina's venture. She requested $975, so KIVA aggregated our dollars until the goal was met and then disbursed the sum. They will also collect Sabina's repayments on her loan.

Eventually our accounts will all be repaid so that we can invest in someone else; Sabina will be more successful in business and life; and KIVA will have another success story! The default rate on KIVA microloans is 2%. Not bad when you consider the good they are doing.

If you have a few dollars lying around maybe you should consider investing in a KIVA entrepreneur too!

Peggy

Cookin' in Africa

Do we have any idea how good we have it here in the good old USofA?

Been complaining about the cost of gasoline lately?

Well, in case you haven't counted your lucky stars of late...Be sure to drop over and read: Now I Know My ABC's... …of housework, that is!

The post is by a missionary wife, Richelle: in Niger, Africa - "...from the back side of the Sahara"

Here's a sample of her alphabet: The letter "G":

"Garbage disposal – yes or no? Do pets count? Our horse and dog eat almost any and everything. Otherwise, we burn burnables and a fairly recent development in Niamey is a garbage service that comes by and takes our garbage away after we haul it out to the barrel."

And her understandable concern about the falling dollar and rising grocery costs in the post: $$$$$ ????????s

Gas is over $6/gallon. If we want to fill up the Land Cruiser, it costs well over $100. Even filling up our little Toyota Corolla is way too much.
A friend bought 2.5 lbs of cheese to make pizza for her son's birthday party - and paid $34 for the cheese.
Last week, I tried to find a 100 lb bag of sugar (we tend to buy in bulk). After talking to a couple of different merchants, what would have cost us $42 a few weeks ago will now probably cost us $57.
The price of milk has doubled over the course of the last year. When we can find it in town, we buy powdered milk in a 50 lb bag, which will usually last our family about 10 weeks. That works out to nearly $17/week on milk - which we use primarily on cereal or granola, to make bread and to make yogurt.
Flour, too has shot up, from $.35/lb before Christmas to a current price of $.46/lb.
A 2 lb jar of jelly costs nearly $6.
2 sticks of butter cost $1.80 - $2.20.
1 liter of corn oil costs $3.50 - $4.
1 lb of ground beef is approximately $3.
The very cheapest box of cereal (a generic and small box of corn flakes) is $2.50 - unfortunately our kids don't appreciate it because it turns soggy immediately in milk.

I love well written stories about life and growing up in Africa. I'm reading one now in my spare moments called "When a Crocodile Eats the Sun - A Memoir of Africa" by Peter Godwin.

Richelle's posts could get addictive. With seven children and another "on the way", I'm sure she has no end of adventures.

Peggy

Retro Kitchen Chalk Board

Ran across this cute retro kitchen chalk board today...
























Unfortunately it's from the UK, so not that gettable in the US.

For those not deterred, it comes from Fun Gifts for Girls.

They also have coffee mugs and other kitschy stuff with retro prints.

Peggy

I'm Back!!

My husband has returned home and we are trying to get back into the swing of things with work and such.

Yes, he spent almost three months in the (truly) wonderful Palo Alto VA Hospital being treated for abscesses. They finally surgically removed the 39 year old bullet that was causing the problems about three weeks ago...and viola! Here we are back among the living! It wasn't all that easy: I almost lost him to sepsis twice in the process, and he still has lingering effects and some stitches that will come out next week.

Going to the VA every day was like living in a parallel universe. We made dear friends with a lot of people there:

There was dear Pat, whose husband Robert was dying of cancer on 4A (the hospice) - She brought in her dogs to see Robert every weekend. Robert passed away last week, may he rest in peace; Mervin, who has lived more than a year beyond his death prediction in the hospice...He has abdominal cancer and is often in great pain, but always ready to help anyone who needs it; Alexander, who has had a toe amputated due to diabetes and was in to treat a sore on the bottom of his foot. Alexander went home the same day we did, and emails often. Then there were Joe and his wife: Joe was admitted looking as though he was nine months pregnant with a bowel obstruction. He had surgery to open things up and went home after recuperating, but still came back to see us now and then...and many others.

After all that communing with life and death, I am taking my time and easing back into the world of the healthy and living.

Glad to be back,

Peggy