The View from a Drawbridge

Tag: kiva

  • Acoma Sky City

    If you travel about 60 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, you’ll come upon a 367-foot sandstone bluff. Atop that bluff, you’ll glimpse a village. Acoma Sky City is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in America. Because of that, I’m really surprised that more people don’t know about it. I had the opportunity…

  • How Microloans Change Lives

    I just opened my drawbridge for the Boeing Corporate Yacht. That thing is probably worth 3 million dollars. And it will most likely be coming back through in less than an hour. Every time I do this, I can’t help but think that the money they are spending just on fuel for that one little…

  • Just Trying to Get By in Azerbaijan

    I am a huge supporter of Kiva.org. Through the years I’ve made 54 microloans of 25 dollars each to women in 44 countries, and I’m thrilled to say they’ve always paid me back. While loan defaults have been known to happen, Kiva’s default rate is amazingly low. (I think I did lose about 10 cents…

  • Giving

    A well thought out gift will always say, “I cared about you enough to take the time to really think about what would make you smile.” What could be more special than the gift of caring? That’s why we say it’s the thought that counts. You took the time to know me, know what interests…

  • Money Well Spent?

    Someone just bought the bike from the film Easy Rider for 1.35 million dollars. Stuff like this makes me want to scream. For a little bit of perspective, I did some research. Here’s what I found out. 1.35 million dollars equals any one of the following: 54,000 microloans on Kiva.org, which in turn would allow…

  • Donating Yourself

    Times are tough and there’s so much need out there that it can be overwhelming. But it’s understandable when people can’t make financial donations. I for one am struggling to make ends meet. But there are so many other ways to help. Here are some ways you can give of yourself, show the world how…

  • The Dinner Party

    A friend and I have this little game we like to play. If you could invite 10 people, living or dead, to your house for a dinner party, who would you choose? This is an interesting thought experiment. It makes you think about the questions you’d like to ask. It makes you examine closely the…

  • Jessica Jackley: The Most Amazing Woman You’ve Never Met

    I was looking around for amazing people to include in a future blog entry, and I thought to myself, “I wonder who founded Kiva.org? For those of you who have never heard of this wonderful organization, Kiva provides microloans to people all over the world and in turn gets those funds from people all over…

  • Charity Chicken: Anti-Dignity and Ways to Counteract It

    Happy Independence Day, America! I’ve chosen to write about a topic that goes hand in hand with independence: Dignity. My mother was a single mom in an era when that was not only less acceptable, but also not as workable. Daycare wasn’t as widely available, and women were often relegated to the most menial low-paying…

  • Making a Difference When You’re Barely Making it Yourself

    Quite regularly I open my drawbridge for million dollar yachts. More often than not, the owners are very courteous. More often than not, they wave at me as they pass through. That’s the extent of our connection.  Even so, at times like those I can’t help but think that just one day’s worth of interest…