Who’d a Thunk! – Part 2

Today is Boxing Day in Canada. I survived another Christmas Day and I’m looking forward to the next week off from work. This morning I had the pleasure to talk to a dear friend Anya in Kyrgyzstan via Skype. After I finished speaking with her I had another “Who’d a thunk” moment that I thought I’d share.

When I was growing up in the 1960’s and 70’s Skype was unheard of, let alone the internet, email, instant messaging, etc. When we were kids a long distance phone call was a big deal. This was a time when we paid long distance charges from Hammonds Plains to a neighbouring community of St. Margaret’s Bay.

In the late 1970’s long distance calls within Canada were around 90¢ per minute. Now with internet about $50.00 per month we can talk for an unlimited time with video as well as share photos instantly. On Christmas Eve I was talking with Dad in Florida and sent him an email with photos while we were on the phone. His inbox dinged literally as soon as I clicked send. Even as I type this I’m listening to a radio station from St Johns, Michigan, again unheard of before the internet.

It seemed so weird to me that I could show my Christmas tree live to Anya who at the same time was able to ask me questions about some of my ornaments and about Christmas in Canada. She was also quite pleased to see a small Kyrgyz hat (called a kalpak) hanging on it, that I had purchased when I was there in 2007. A kalpak is a traditional felt hat that is worn by men in Kyrgyzstan. I also gave her a quick tour of my apartment so that she could see some of the other decorations. My tiny cramped apartment is quite fancy she said.

When we were kids it was unheard of to pick up a notebook computer and walk around the house with it (wirelessly at that) and show someone on the opposite side of the world live video of whatever you want to show them. In the 1970’s we had to wait ten days for photos from our camera to be developed (hoping that the pictures would turn out) and then another 10 days to several months for the mail to deliver them to an international destination. Also, a computer hard drive at that time could take up the entire floor of an office building – pretty hard to lift!

In my time on this earth so far technology has changed so fast that I can’t even keep up. I can only imagine how much change my parents and grandparents have seen in their lives. I mentioned in a previous blog how I never thought I would go to a country in the former Soviet Union or that there would even be a former Soviet Union amongst other things. The more I think of these things the more amazed I am. It’s a small world after all.

Anyways…it’s just a thought. (A thought that probably won’t mean much to the under forty crowd, but will be more significant to my age and older.)

The kalpak is on the left.

May you all have a blessed and amazing new year!

Я тебя люблю! (Yellow blu vas!)

Thank You

For those of you who donated to the Christmas party fundraiser for the children in Central Asia, thank you so much. You have made a difference in the lives of some kids who desperately need to see that someone cares. They will remember this for a long time.

If you haven't donated yet and still want to, you can still take part. Just click the title of this blog and you can go to Act of Kindness at http://actofkindness.blogspot.com/ and support some great ongoing projects that Possibilities International has for orphans, seniors, physically challenged as well as the disadvantaged in Central Asia. The need is huge and is more than just at Christmas time. Thank you again.

Christmas Party Fundraiser for Orphans in Kyrgyzstan

Christmas in a Kyrgyzstan orphanage can be just another day with nothing special about it. Many orphanages have very little funding available for any extras let alone a Christmas party. We can make a difference to help kids have a special day. It costs only $5.00 per child to supply a special day for these wonderful kids who are so deserving of a little love.

For more information and to make a donation please take a look at the following link. (You can go straight there by clicking the title of this blog entry.) http://actofkindness.blogspot.com/2009/11/one-for-kids-pie-in-face-challenge.html

Once donations credited to me reach $500.00 I will take a pie in the face for the kids. When donating, make sure you indicate that you would like to see me get a pie in the memo box. I'd really appreciate your help. I WANT PIE!!!!!

This challenge runs until November 23rd. Thank you on behalf of the kids.

Blair

Can We Show Some Love?

Recently I was going through some old papers in my ongoing quest of “what can I get rid of next” and came across an old lesson that was part of a course I took several years ago. When I was re-reading it I couldn’t help but think of the ongoing efforts of our friends in Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Nain in Labrador, and many other places around the world, those who work for seniors, orphans and anyone else who need to see love. I hope the lesson writer and Eric Butterworth won’t mind me sharing this excerpt as it’s too good to put in the recycle bin.

“Eric Butterworth in an article in Chicken Soup for the Soul told this story.

A college professor had his sociology class go into the Baltimore slums and interview 200 boys. The students were to evaluate each boy’s future. After hearing their stories the students concluded for each boy, ‘He doesn’t have a chance.’

Twenty-five years later another sociology professor came across the earlier study and had his students do a follow up. Of the 200 boys, who were now men, 20 had died or moved away. Of the 180 that remained 176 of them had achieved unusual success as doctors, lawyers, businessmen, or other professionals. When asked what influenced them each man said, ‘There was a teacher…’

The teacher, now quite elderly, was located and asked how she pulled these men out of the slums and made them successful. Her answer was simply, ‘I loved those boys!’”

It doesn’t always take a lot of money to help the disadvantaged in our world. When I read the blogs and the newsletters of organizations like Act of Kindness, Loads of Love, Possibilities International, I AM 1 R U, and so on, and see the dramatic results of how lives are changed, I wonder how many doctors, lawyers, businessmen and women, or other professionals are being created through those who dare to love in situations when everything seems hopeless.

Happy Thanksgiving! Я тебя люблю! (Yellow blu vas!)

Who'd a Thunk?!

There’s an old gospel song that has a line that goes "When I look back over my life…" and today I was in a sentimental mood and was doing that with mine. (Ok, it was a slow day and I was bored.)

Growing up in the 1960’s and 70’s I never would have imagined the things I’ve seen and done and the places I’ve been. If you look at my Facebook photo albums and the "Cities I’ve visited" map you’ll see a lot of places mentioned. Here are just a few of the thoughts that came to my mind.

- I remember watching Apollo 13 come in for a splashdown - live. I was seven and my mother was preparing me ahead of time to minimize any trauma if anything went wrong on the re-entry. Now people just remember the movie.

- I still remember the day in 1974 when Richard Nixon left the American white house for the last time, parts of the speech he gave and him waving from the helicopter. Kids only see video or read about it today.

- I still vividly remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard that Elvis died, when the first space shuttle disaster happened and of course more recently, when Princess Diana died and watching every second of 911 unfold live on television. (I still get cold shivers when I see the video.)

- Growing up in the 70’s I never would have imagined going to a country behind the Iron Curtain in the former Soviet Union. With the Cold War at its peak, we never thought there would be a former Soviet Union. In 2007 I went to Kyrgyzstan. This trip turned my life completely upside down (for the better).

- Growing up in the 70’s I never dreamt I would go to a communist country. In 2008 I went to China and saw an amazing country.

- I also never dreamt I would go to a tropical place and yet I was to Belize in 2006. (P. Mike probably will never let me go to the tropics again with my extremely fair skin.)

- In the 1990’s I was speaking with a deacon in my former church, who was in his 70’s, and he told me that he had never been outside of Halifax, not even to Truro. And here I was having been up and down the entire eastern seaboard to Florida and back by car, been across Canada at least four times at that point (one of them by bus – I’ll never do THAT again) as well as many other places that’ll take too long to type.

- I never dreamt I would meet so many famous people and even get a handshake from a world leader (German Chancellor Helmut Kohl when the G7 summit was in Halifax). I have a picture of Charleton Heston in my mind wearing a green hotel robe and wool hunting socks, and even now I can’t picture Moses any other way.

I’m not saying all of this to brag and I’m certainly not pining for the old days. I still have a lot of living to do, which includes going to Krygyzstan again for a longer stay. I’m just looking back over my life, seeing all of this and saying "Who’d a thunk?!" It’s a long way from rural Hammonds Plains to the other side of the world. As the British say…I’m just gob smacked!

About all of this...as P. Bruce would say, "Just a thought."

This was taken in the Orlovka Orphanage in Orlovka, Kyrgyzstan. There are so many needs among orphans and seniors in Kyrgyzstan. Hopefully soon I will get the student loans paid off & money raised to work there long term.