Giving back on a budget

So, I’m pretty broke. And since I know that most (but not all) of you fine folks are a) earning a non-profit fellow’s stipend, b) earning an international non-profit fellow’s stipend, or c) paying copious amount of money to be taught things, I think it’s a safe assumption to say that we’re all on the same page. That being said, I get so much pleasure out of donating to a cause I believe in so I’ve been researching different ways to make every little dollar count. I’ve found some really nifty non-profits that are shown below. You’d be surprise how much just a little money can do. Hope you’re inspired!

End world hunger!

Heifer International is one of my favorite charities ever. They address the world-wide hunger crisis by giving both livestock and training to families in impoverished regions of the world.

Why I love it: A family not only gets an immediate source of food, but also a way of sustaining itself far into the future. The coolest part is that they turn the recipients into donors by having families give the first set of baby animals to another needy family. It’s really a gift that keeps on giving.

What you can do for the price of a T-shirt ($20): Sponsor a flock of chicks for a family in Zimbabwe. The meat and eggs provide crucial nutrients to the family and selling part of the flock provides income that can pay for medicine and school.

End the Achievement gap!

It’s a well known fact that students from low-income backgrounds under-perform in our public school system far more often than their more affluent peers. Less well known is the fact that this achievement gap is already present in preschool aged children. Jumpstart addresses this crisis by pairing at-risk preschoolers with highly trained work-study students in year-long mentoring relationships.

Why I love it: If you want to address problems in education, Jumpstart gets you the most bang for your buck. A recent study showed that every $1 invested in early education ultimately has a $7 economic return to the children, their families and tax payers nationwide.

What you can do for the price of a sandwich ($8.50): Sponsor one hour of quality literacy mentoring for a child who is seriously at risk of falling through the cracks.

Cure the sick!

It’s horrifying the number of deaths in impoverished nations from preventable, curable disease. Partners in Health is a mean, lean organization that’s going to put a stop to it.

Why I love it: PIH was started by one of my personal heroes: Dr. Paul Farmer. Read his biography Mountains Beyond Mountains and you’ll be a convert too. His years of tireless work are based on the simple undeniable truth that one life is worth just as much as another.

What you can do for the price of dinner and a movie ($24): Cover the transportation costs (re: ambulance) of 4 patients from rural areas so that they can reach a clinic for care when they wouldn't otherwise be able to get help.


I'll stop for now, although believe me, I could go on forever. Please let me know what you're favorite charities are. I always love learning about how people are saving the world.

"I'm not a mean person..."

As I’m sure you all know by now, it doesn’t take much to get me laughing. A cheesy pun? Keep ‘em coming. A B-grade comedy from the ‘80s? That’s what I’m talking about. Watching someone trip? Knee-slapping hilarious. This is probably why I laughed for a good 20 minutes yesterday after a chance encounter in the Massachusetts woods. I was taking a Sunday afternoon walk through the brambles alongside a little pond in western MA with my friends Ethan and Eugene (see pictures below) when an adorable fancy lap dog bounded into our path. Ethan, who was immediately charmed, picked up the pooch, pet it, snuggled it, and scratched behind its ears before reluctantly setting it down. Two seconds later a burly man (who could’ve passed for a 1950s lumberjack in a heartbeat) burst through the bushes, picked up the lap dog by the skin on it’s back and literally threw it into the pond.

Stunned (though admittedly not as stunned as the puppy himself), our eyes followed the clean arc of the blurred furball against the beautiful blue sky. I really think it had a good 6 feet of air.

“I’m not a mean person”, interjected the lumberjack whose threatening look made me wonder if I were about to be thrown into the pond as well. “It’s just that my dog rolled in dead muskrat.” Oooh, a dead muskrat, you say? That’s a perfectly good reason to chase your dog through the woods, pick it up by its fur, and hurl it into a drinking reservoir. That’s right, the pond was surrounded by very orange, very numerous and very visible “No trespassing—drinking water” signs.

So, why am I still laughing? 1) Ethan snuggled with a dead muskrat. 2) I watched a lap dog fly through the air. 3) For the next month I’m going to have to check each glass of water for muskrat-y dog hair.

This is why I miss you all so much...

A picture's worth a thousand words

Hello folks. In case you're curious what my life has been like since moving to Boston, I've compiled some pictures into a slideshow showing some of my more recent adventures. Click on the speech bubble icon if you want to see the captions. Also, here is a link to the album itself. Enjoy!