Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Bucket List Shoving Match

I had all the best intentions of starting my New Year's Resolution to donate platelets once a month. I drove to the Blood bank. I answered all the questions about medication and travel. Oh I need to check something, they say. And then they came back.

Oh. Umm. Sorry? But Labadee, Haiti? Not good.

What do you mean? I didn't have sex with anyone. There were no blood transfusions done. What is the deal?

And then I flash to the gorgeous scenery. That much green. That much rain. It means mosquitos. Malaria carrying mosquitos. So here I've been stressing over Morocco in March and it turns out I'm high risk NOW.

So yeah, and since I'm going back to Labadee in say two weeks, this means I won't be donating  anything blood-like for at least another year. So I need to add something to my 12 for 12 to replace my failed blood attempt. I thought about buying flowers once a month for a year, but really trading a bucket list contribution item for a bucket list beautifying item? It seems a bit off.

So I went to my bucket list of contributing items and one jumped out at me. Contribute a microloan at Kiva.org

I thought I'd start small. You can loan as little as $25. This is the cost of a lunch out with the kids for me and when they ask if we can go out, I'm going to tell them no. We cannot because we spent the money helping Stephen. And they will be all WHO IS STEPHEN? And I'll show them Stephen. See that FULLY FUNDED notation? I DID THAT! He only needed $25 left to complete his loan and I gave the last $25. So somewhere in Africa a farmer is being told that his loan is ready. It took 32 strangers to help him out and frankly it brings tears to my eyes thinking that this man needs enough to support his family of six on LESS THAN WE PAY FOR OUR MORTGAGE IN ONE MONTH.

Perspective people!

Am I guaranteed to get this money back? No. Is this more than I can afford to lose? No. Do I feel an enormouse sense of accomplishment for doing it? HELL YEAH!

If you have never heard of Kiva and/or are interested in helping people in other places from the safety of your home, please check it out!

2 comments:

  1. I haven't been able to donate blood in years. I thankfully donated my bone marrow right before I went overseas to a malaria zone, and it couldn't have been better timing!

    I think I am going to donate to Kiva...such a cool site.

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  2. I should add a warning that Kiva is addictive. I had intended to loan to Stephen but somehow ended up lending to Israel as well! Especially if you join the group Late Lending Loaners. They search out the applicants whose application is about to expire.

    I'll be interested in when/who you lend to, CeCe :)

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