Thank you to all of those who donated to the Christmas pie challenge. We exceeded our goal of Christmas parties for 2000 children. Thanks again and bless you all. You can see the totals here. http://actofkindness.blogspot.com/ Here is the video of me getting my pie.
Sunday, 26 December 2010
Friday, 26 November 2010
Christmas Pie Challenge
The Christmas pie challenge has started. So here's what's going on. I helping to raise funds with Act of Kindness and Lamb International that will provide Christmas parties for children 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 tax deductible donation please take a look at the following link.
http://actofkindness.blogspot.com/ On the right side of the page are donation buttons for Canada & the US and a tracker for the totals. When donating, please put "pie for Blair" in the memo box.
Once donations credited to me reach $500.00 I will take a pie in the face for the kids and the video will be posted. We'd really appreciate your help. I WANT PIE!!!!! I didn't get pie last year...I was sooo close :(
This challenge runs until December 13th. Please have your donation submitted before then.
Thank you on behalf of the kids.
Blair
Monday, 11 October 2010
Counting My Blessings
Well it’s another Thanksgiving Day here. With working for an American company it’s so nice to have a Canadian holiday off for once instead of working when everyone else is off. So...I guess this is the part where I’m supposed to reflect and count all of my blessings.
It has been busy this year for sure. I have paid off the student loans finally. That was a miracle in itself. The loan was originally on nine year terms and despite several bouts of unemployment and having the terms redone several times I still paid them off in April…seven months early.
I managed to get to Zambia and back in May where we got to work with some amazing people with Hands at Work Africa who do great work with HIV stricken communities. I also had an amazing birthday in Livingstone where I got to fly over the famous Victoria Falls in a micro light plane and went on a dinner cruise on the Zambezi River.
I managed to get a TESL teaching certificate and I’m about 1/3 through another course in my preparations to go to Kyrgyzstan. I just wish this process would go much quicker. The big hurdle now is the fundraising (any fundraising ideas and sponsorship will be well appreciated) but I know I’ll be equipped at the right time. I just need more patience I guess.
This is just a sampling of my many blessings so far this year. I hope you all have a lot to be thankful for as well. Happy Thanksgiving! Я люблю тебя! (Ya lablue va!)
It has been busy this year for sure. I have paid off the student loans finally. That was a miracle in itself. The loan was originally on nine year terms and despite several bouts of unemployment and having the terms redone several times I still paid them off in April…seven months early.
I managed to get to Zambia and back in May where we got to work with some amazing people with Hands at Work Africa who do great work with HIV stricken communities. I also had an amazing birthday in Livingstone where I got to fly over the famous Victoria Falls in a micro light plane and went on a dinner cruise on the Zambezi River.
I managed to get a TESL teaching certificate and I’m about 1/3 through another course in my preparations to go to Kyrgyzstan. I just wish this process would go much quicker. The big hurdle now is the fundraising (any fundraising ideas and sponsorship will be well appreciated) but I know I’ll be equipped at the right time. I just need more patience I guess.
This is just a sampling of my many blessings so far this year. I hope you all have a lot to be thankful for as well. Happy Thanksgiving! Я люблю тебя! (Ya lablue va!)
Burning the student loan papers
Thursday, 3 June 2010
My Journey Is Still Going to Happen
This past Sunday I returned home from a trip to
I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between
Now that my loans are paid off there is much to do to get ready. I have to raise funds, get visas and so many other logistics. This summer I will be going to get my TESL certificate and this fall I will be taking a course that will help me prepare for my journey. All of this while working full time. My schedule is going to be gruelling and I’ll probably be cranky (okay…more cranky than usual). I ask you my friends and family to stand behind me as this next phase in my life gets going. My journey is still going to happen…believe it!! Thanks for your ear.
Saturday, 26 December 2009
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!
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!)
Friday, 27 November 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, 7 November 2009
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
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
Saturday, 10 October 2009
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!)
“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!)
Sunday, 28 June 2009
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."
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."
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