Saturday, January 19, 2008

of snow and fish

Since political shows consume the first 21 hours of David's every day, the kids and I decided to take a short road trip.

Last night, Atlanta, home of Laura and Brian. I did some work, a video interview with our friend Mindi, to validate the rental car as a business expense, and then we all stayed up way too late talking.

Following morning waffles, the kids started screaming and dancing when giant white flakes began dropping out of the clouds. We eventually pulled them out of the back yard and loaded them up for a trip to the fantastic Georgia Aquarium. Then, a late lunch at my favorite store, IKEA, where we did some shopping for the Dominican Republic pack.

Seconds after we landed back at my friend Laura's home, the big kids were back to the cold outdoors, making snow angles, snowmen and I have no idea what else because I do not venture out into cold snow. At Sarah's request, I did race out to snag one photo to prove the white stuff was not a dream.

Please Vote

Okay, CNN just called the SC Republican Primary result, so this post is not to encourage you to vote today for someone here. Rather, please vote for my favorite project on Ebay Giving Works.

I'm campaigning for the Heart for Ethiopia project. To vote, you click on the video for a project you like to help it win $5000. The video for Heart shows a woman against the brick wall and is second to the left under "non profit."

This project provides water to people in Ethiopia. They dig wells for $200, so if they win the ebay contest, it will do a LOT of good. I've stayed in their home/guesthouse and have really enjoyed getting to know the people behind the work.

I'll post a pic when I'm back at my big computer. Here is a segment from their last newsletter:

. . . Ermias wrote that two wells were drilled the first week of January.

"This week was a week of digging. The second water well which we dug at Awash Belo in Ato Sorsa's compound has attracted the attention of the community. All the community are using only that well for drinking. The chairman of the kebele (commune) has called me so many times and begged us to go and asked us excuse them for their first disinterest.

Yesterday I was there to dig the second well in this week. I saw a lady was taking water from a hand dug well. I went to her and I saw the well. It fell in on all sides but in the middle it had water. I saw the water and it was not clean. I asked her what they are using it for. She replied that they use it for cooking. When I asked about drinking she said, "There is one water pipe in our community. We use that for drinking." The water she speaks about was the one we dug before.

Ato Sorsa's wife also said "It is holy water. Since the time we got this water all our family has become healthy. We are grateful for your helping us to have this water."

Please vote often and email your friends to vote. Every vote enters YOU into a $1000 sweepstakes as well.

Here's a pic of Kidist's husband, who lives at the guest house. ALWAYS studying, in this shot a book on English.