why don’t they have a blog action day to end poverty by volunteerism? if money is tight, or you want to give more but can’t, then go volunteer at a clinic, at a food shelter, or habitat for humanity. there’s a lot you can do other than throw money around.

I got a real wakeup call in college, though. I have the good fortune to work a crappy job (university food service) with some great people. One time I had a 6:30 – 9:30 shift with several international students. The first 90 minutes of the shift was always really dead (seriously, how many college students eat breakfast at 6:30?). We spent most of the time talking about differences in culture, religion, etc. I might have learned more from those folks than in any of my classes.

A common story was the absolute poverty in some of these countries, and how the student’s parents had saved every possible cent to be able to send them to college in the US (it was a state school, but international tuition was still quite high). I’m not talking about throwing a few bucks into a 529 – but literally every free cent for 18 years.

No doubt kiva will change a lot of lives,

There is no reason why I should become homeless, I have a nice home and I can’t lose my job because I work for myself. But.. being homeless, or not able to pay my bills is always on the back of my mind…