Did you know there are 1.2 billion people around the world without access to clean water? Here in Santa Clara County, people are panicking because we've never thought about how much water we use, and we can't figure out how to reduce usage 25% by June. To us, access to clean water is a given, a constant. But to 1,200,000,000 of our neighbors on this earth, water is an uncertain resource carrying life-threatening disease-causing agents.
With this in mind, I want to share about a clean water iniatiative that addresses this global water crisis. I've been supporting Well Done, an awesome project that brings clean water solutions to rural villages in Ghana. It was started by a few UCLA grads who decided to take action after they witnessed children taking malaria pills with visibly contaminated water during their first visit to Ghana.
Last year, Well Done successfully commissioned and drilled two wells in villages that previously had no access to clean drinking water. This year, our goal is to raise enough funds to drill another five wells.
Please watch this video and consider joining the cause!
I know y'all are compassionate, selfless, good-doing people so please... show your lovefor the people of Ghana! You can radically improve the lives of these villagers -- even those in the most remote least-visited regions -- by GIVING what you can to the funding of a well and by SPREADING THE WORD!
(100% of your donation will go toward the wells and is fully tax deductible. If you feel compelled to give to this meaningful and inspiring cause, please let me know!)
7:15AM Wide awake, well before the 9AM alarm. Anxious to see what the day will hold. 8:30AM Scrounge for food. 9:45AM Realize for the 5,872,414th time that God is awesome. 10:30AM Receive a call from an 801 number. That's Salt Lake City, which I've flown into many times but never actually seen. Streets make sense there. "Ud. ha ganado quinientos dolares. Para mas informacion, oprima uno." A female spanish-speaking machine tells me I've won $500!...? Jackpot. That's almost as good as Obama's $400 tax break. 12:00PM Perplexed that 31% of Europeans blame the Jews for the world economic crisis. (Russia Today: http://www.russiatoday.com/Crisis/news/37222) 1:00PM Scrounge for food. 3:00PM Get a call to rescue a friend who locked himself out of his own car, for a ridiculous reason I shall not disclose - in case the cops read this. ;) 3:30PM Tell rescued friend I'm headed to my favorite coffee shop to work, even though I seem to have developed a knack for running into other people's ex-boyfriends there. 4:30PM Strange man at the coffee shop declares he IS the Himalayas. 5:00PM Observe a group of Middle Eastern friends greet each other with "Shalom" and kisses as they convened at the table in front of me. 5:06PM Ponder the meaning and implications of shalom. 5:08PMDaydream while gazing in the direction of someone who, now that I think about it, probably thought I was staring at him. 5:30PM Decide that the world would be a beautiful place if all 6.7 billion people on earth could greet each other with "Shalom" and a kiss. 6:00PM Realize for the 5,872,415th time that God is awesome. 6:15PM Receive text saying rescued friend successfully broke into his own car. 6:30PM Awkwardly run into a friend's ex-boyfriend, again. [See 3 hours ago.] Decide to sit in the back next time. 7:30PM Try to imagine life with no clean water or light that is kerosene-independent. 8:00PM Stomach is unhappy it has not gotten food for so many hours. Skip climbing. 8:30PM Scrounge for food. 9:00PMDancelike nobody's watching with my salsa buddy. On a Tuesday night. 10:00PM Make ridiculous movements that don't quite pass for dancing like nobody's watching with my salsa buddy. 11:00PM Make strange noises on the dance floor like nobody's watching with my salsa buddy. 12:00AM Scrounge for food. 1:00AM About to realize for the 5,872,416th time that God is awesome.
In Summary - Number of job applications submitted: 0 Number of job sites browsed: 0 Number of to do's completed: 6 (yes, believe it or not!)
"If we can support the president as he stands by his pledge to the poorest nations -- even in the face of our own financial crisis -- it will make a phenomenal statement about the kind of partner America plans to be in the world." -- Bill Gates, WSJ
Every once in awhile, I come across words that send a rousing tremor through my gut. These words aren't particularly poetic or alluring, but the message resonates with my idealistic thinking. It's the prospect of what could be that moves me.
that this happened (and continues to happen in places like Saudi Arabia
and Northern regions of Nigeria where pure Sharia law is upheld) or that there were thousands of people watching.
"A woman in Somalia has been stoned to death after an Islamic Sharia law court found her guilty of adultery.
The woman was buried up to her neck and then pelted to death with stones in front of a large crowd in Kismayo.
It was the first such execution in the southern port city since
Islamist insurgents captured it from government-allied forces in
August.
A local Islamist leader said the woman, Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow, had pleaded guilty to committing adultery.
"She was asked several times to review her confession but she
stressed that she wanted Sharia law and the deserved punishment to
apply," said Sheikh Hayakallah.
A group of men performed the execution in one of the city's main squares in front of thousands of people, AFP news agency said."
