time to start a photo blog

i think it's finally time to start doing the thing i always intended to do when I started this blog.. post pictures! i think that too many times, we walk around without noticing our surroundings. we wander through life with our noses in newspapers, blackberries, or on our feet. so many times i sit on the bus and admire the fabulous view from the bridge, and wonder how nobody around me seems to care! we'll spend thousands of dollars on a holiday to asia, or europe, or mexico and take a bazillion pictures of the pretty scenery, but when we come home, we totally ignore the pretty scenery around us. so here it is, the daily photo of something nice. i still haven't bought myself a digital camera, but i think i took enough photos at work this summer to keep this place busy for a while until i get one of my own.

here's a picture of what i do. if you can't admire this scenery, then you're dead inside.


p.s. sent a little gift to abdulnur last week - hope he gets it. they have prohibitive rules about the size of gifts - 150 g - what was i going to do? send him pencil crayons, but no colouring book? colouring book, but nothing to colour it with? so i just sent it all. it's christmas - maybe they'll understand.

welcome abdulnur

I found out (well, several months ago actually) that my new sponsor child in Africa is a little boy named Abdulnur. he's 4. how I wish to know more about him! I went on a wild letter writing binge - first 4 pages on who I am, what I do, where I live, etc.. plus postcards, pictures, drawings, etc.. then a few months later another 4 pages on what I've been doing lately (poor kid - I wonder if the Plan people really translate the whole thing for him). last week, I finally got my first letter from his family - a short 10 sentences from his mother thanking me for taking on her son, welcoming me to their family, and telling me that Abdulnur has just joined nursery school. despite the brevity of the letter, his mother was so sincere that i got all warm and gooshy inside. THIS is a good thing (take that Martha!).

having kids without the messy part

last week, I adopted a sponsor child in Africa. I don't know where yet, or who, or what their situation is - I'm anxously awaiting my information package. I held off on this for a long time. I've always thought it would be great to sponsor a child and make at least a small difference in the world, but the only organizations I knew of were religious ones, and I absolutely positively WON'T attach my aid to a religion of any sort. you can be good without being a christian and you can be bad without being an atheist.

so here I am, waiting. I'm actually a little nervous - this is a committment almost as big as having a child of your own. I mean, they say that if your "situation" changes, you can stop your sponsorship, but how would a needy child whose parents have died of aids, who has nothing take that? I have signed myself up for possibly 18 years of financial and emotional committment, but even though I'm a little nervous, I feel good. I can do this. I will do this. I'm gonna be the best damn sponsor parent a kid can have...