This is a photo I took out my sun roof. Green City limit signs flank the sides of the photo where the bus is crossing over a bridge from Everett into Mukilteo.
Mt Baker view from a neighborhood not far from where I live..
Impatience on a road nearby, Forest park area, of Mukilteo Blvd. ( From a community planting every year), and about now, the impatiens are very large, a few feet high, so beautiful, and the trees are large, too, giant ferns abound. I love this drive. My windshield doesn't offer the best view...
KIVAIf you have never heard of Kiva, let me introduce you, Kiva is a non profit organization that allows me to loan money to people who are in need to support their families around the world. You can loan as little as $25.00.
I have loaned to several families worldwide, in 3rd world countries, and been paid back. I suppose I even make a little, but I loan it out again. I think if it were me living in such poverty, I would feel so grateful some one cared about me and my family, and was willing to loan me money to start or increase my farming or fishing or weaving, etc. business.
I would feel warmth coming from what might otherwise feel like a very cold world.
For me I feel I might bring hope for a future for another person, family or group of people.
You can decide who you want to loan to and how much, and you can lift others out of the cycle of poverty.
So if you are interested in using your coffee money, or setting aside a little entertainment money to help folks in another land, please take a look at Kiva, and if you sign up, please sign as my guest, because so far, none I have invited has joined KIVA.
Here is the form I usually send out with email addresses on it, and if you want an invitation form me, just let me know, ok?
I wanted to let you know about Kiva (www.kiva.org), a non-profit that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world.
You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. It’s a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.
I loaned to Maniga Gondo, Maniga is 44 years old.
She is married and has 5 children. Maniga lives with her family in Abobo, a township in the north of Abidjan. She sells fruits and legumes in the Abobo open market. She is a dynamic woman who strongly contributes to her family's revenue generation. She heard about AE&I in June 2004 and got her first loan one month later. She is a good performer. She will use the loan to purchase goods in bulk and improve her revenues. Her 4th child (a boy) will attend grammar school in September, and she wants to be ready to pay his school fees. She borrowed a total of 800.00 and paid it back in less than the year she borrowed it for. I would love to meet her. It would be so wonderful to meet her. I wish her well.
I have loaned to a Vietnamese fisherman and his wife for a boat, and this loan is paid back 67%. I have a new loan out to a group in Tanzania who are raising poultry. Surely you have $25.00 to spare to begin a loan to someone in need to have a better life! Thank you!
Kiva is an organization that is very special, please support KIVA!
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=13772