T minus 22 days (Monday, July 23rd, 2012): “Random
Act of Kindness”
Right now, I’m working overnight shifts in support of the
HTV3 mission (it’s an unmanned, Japanese cargo vehicle that goes up to ISS). I’m
not going to lie; working from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. doesn’t make me a very happy
camper. I have a really hard time sleeping during the day. I love naps but a
nap isn’t exactly going to get me through the day (or night rather). What does
this have to do with anything? Well, it’s a really easy excuse to give up on
this little challenge one week in…or at least use my exhaustion and general non-leaving
the house except to drive to work activity as an excuse as to why I couldn’t do
any of the challenges today. Partly, because I’m grumpy from several days of
this shift and have several days to go…
BUT, I thought of this thing that I’d heard about a while
ago and liked the idea but never actually went and looked it up. I truly
believe in the idea of the platitude “give someone a hand-up not a hand-out”.
There are a lot of organizations that try to go into areas, both domestically
and internationally, that have really good intentions but don’t really take
into account what the people there actually need. Trying to force this kind of “help”
on people isn’t really helpful, in my opinion. I don’t remember where I’d heard
about it the first time but www.kiva.org is
basically a micro-loan organization that allows people to pick someone around
the world to loan money to that will help them reach a goal that is generally
to put into their personal businesses. The donations start at $25 and of course
can go up from there. So, for the price of a manicure (which I really wanted to
get today but the stupid place was closed L) I can help to give
someone a hand-up instead of a hand-out (an un-manicured hand but whatever…I’m
not bitter).
I helped this guy:
He’s a single father with an 8 year old son and they live in
Nicaragua. He’s basically a cattle trader and his demand has gotten pretty
high, so the loan will help him to meet his demand. Really, no one should be
shocked that I picked someone in agriculture to help. But, the beauty is that
there are so many options of who you could help. So, I recommend looking into
it if you’re ever bored one day. And have money laying around from a manicure
that you couldn’t get…but seriously, I’m not bitter about that…
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