Daktari Bush School and Animal Orphanage

Since I was a teenager I have wanted to go to Africa, and the main thing I wanted to accomplish before I got married was to do a service trip to Africa and Nick knowing this promised to me when we got engaged that we would go before we have children....and tonight he surprised me with the trip all planned out! The last two weeks of January we will be staying and volunteering at the Daktari Bush School and Animal Orphanage in Limpopo, South Africa!! My heart and mind are racing and thinking about all of that we can get together to take to them and raise for them and I am sure this trip will be all you will hear about from now on!

Namaste, Shalom, Ukuthula

the perfect sunday

after a great husband made breakfast, we walked to the park where Oscar played with his new 70 lb best friend for hours then a delish brunch at the Goddess and Grocer then back home for naps for the boys while I quilted and then a surprise date to Table 52 including a walk through the park in the rain on the way home! I love my Boys!

nick edited the former title

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I want to be friends with Barb Young, who knew.

kiva update.

This week I received updates on 2 of the 3 businesses I have given loans to in Africa. After another lonely week in Chicago it feels so good knowing that somewhere in the world I have a friend.

This is an update on your loan to Matale Lending Group 2 in Uganda.
Christine is pleased to report that business is great! Since
establishing her retail grocery and sundries shop over a year and a half
ago with her first loan from Pearl Microfinance, this friendly wife and
mother of 5 children has since expanded her product selection to meet
the demands of her village, purchased a cow so she can sell milk in her
shop, bought a refrigerator to preserve her milk, sodas, eggs, mineral
water and the fresh juices she prepares daily. Christine was also able
to afford a couch for the home she and her family rent. She’s used the
proceeds from the current loan to replenish her supplies and add new
items to her store. Operating this business has many challenges and
opportunities. Christine struggles to accommodate the customers, most of
whom are her friends, who want to pay on credit. Many times, she’s not
able to collect on this credit and it’s uncomfortable when she has to
ask. Eventually, she wants to apply her knowledge of retailing and
become a wholesale distributor. rnrnThis business has taught Christine
many valuable business skills. As a young housewife, she had no formal
business skills training before opening her shop. Now she knows how to
finance her business needs; plan and budget; manage and save money;
identify and purchase merchandise that her customers want to buy; manage
inventory and, of course manage her loan obligations - all great
entrepreneurial skills!rnrnChristine hopes to take out another loan
after this one to further expand her product selection. Her family hopes
to use the additional profits to buy a plot of land and build their own
home.rnrnWith the support of Pearl’s microfinance program, Christine
and her husband, an electrician, are able to provide 2 meals a day for
their family and pay for school fees. Her kids are attending better
schools and wearing nicer clothes. She’s says her life and her
family’s lives are much better off now. She’s grateful to Pearl
Microfinance and her Kiva lenders.

This is an update on your loan to Matale Lending Group 2 in Uganda.
Robinah is a widow and the single mother of 7 children aged 7-15, and
the sole wager for her household. Two of here children are her late
sister’s orphans. She owns and manages a Malwa bar, a local brew made
from millet (the author tried a sip and let’s just say it’s an
acquired taste and quite potent!). She used the proceeds from her August
2008 loan to buy bulk millet flour, firewood and brewing supplies.
Robinah has a couple of different varieties of Malwa. The style pictured
takes 2 weeks to produce and is best enjoyed in her comfortable and
pleasant café. The other variety requires over a month and is generally
sold in bottles. She started in business with her first Pearl microloan
as a Malwa reseller. Soon after, she learned how to make her own Malwa
and saw a significant boost in profit. Shortly after, with her third
loan, Robinah opened her café, seeing sales rise still further. She now
offers her bottled Malwa through local retailers in her village.rn
rnRobinah says Pearl’s microfinance program “has helped me so
much.” Without Pearl’s assistance, she would still be a peasant
farmer unable to support her children or pay for their school fees.
Without her loans, she fears her children would have to discontinue
school. And she would not have been able to afford the home they all
live in together because of her Malwa business.rn rnBecause her
customers continue to increase, Malwa believes her next loan requirement
will be 1,500,000 UGX to finance the purchase of larger supplies.rn
rnRobinah is grateful to Pearl and Kiva’s lenders.

My third loan was given to a father of 11 who has been a teacher for 30 years and heard about the loan process and thought it could help him finish the house he has been trying to build for his family for years, whenever he could he would buy steel supports and was always building bricks and now he can do it all at once. He has never been late with a payment, and it feels so good to help a man who has helped so many young people stay out of the violence in such a war torn country. My heart swells for the people of Africa, I am going to put together a package for Nick and I's 3 year old Zambian "daughter" Loveness today and dream about our trip there next summer, hopefully.

smile emo mommy

How hilariously true is this list? Every hipster or emo parent I know has named their child a name on this list! But what makes me nervous and mad is that three of my top baby names are on here, Harper, Silas and Orson and our dogs name, haha! Luckily our other top baby names are not on here Jude, Luka, Eleanor and Mila.

the list.

I have at least 12 posts to do but negative energy but funny story. So my job, in the mornings I take children out of their classroom and teach them phonics, math and spanish in small groups and in the early afternoon I go to different classrooms while other teachers go on their lunch break and their kids "nap" and later in the afternoon I either go home or go to a random classroom that needs another teacher. Well, the oldest class in the center the 4 turning 5 class is where I usually go from 1 to 2, and I absolutely hate it, I usually leave with my stomach and back in knots and call Nick on the verge of tears and/or dropping some swear bombs!

Well, today I had only been there for 20 minutes and I was in the semi-open air bathroom trying to help a boy change his pants after he pulled them up and "more pee came out all over, okaaay" so he could get out of the bathroom so another girl could sit down on the toilet because "the poop was already out of her butt touching her underwear." While this was happening one of the lovely blessings from heaven was standing on a bookshelf calling me a "poopy skeleton" while another one was standing on the computer desk calling the other one a "what the hell" and another lil blessing was jumping on his cot with his blanket on his head subsequntly waking up the two kids next to him I had just gotten to sleep! Oh, and two other teachers were looking through the windows laughing...to their defense one came in and helped me but only for a minute, which reminds me of a whole other story that the kids i work with ONLY listen to large African American women!!

Well after gaining an ounce of control and dishing out some consequences one of the boys looked at me and said " I am going to make a list about you tonight" and I said "and what will it say?" "NO MS. KRISTIN"..."AND THEN I AM GOING TO MAKE A SIGN FOR MY HOUSE THAT SAYS NO MS. KRISTIN ALLOWED!" and I said "Well, I am making a list of people who listened and it is going to say no ******" I hope he is at home right now asking his extremely strict latin parents how to spell Kristin and when they ask why he can tell them the whole story!

you know who you look like...

last Saturday I cut my hair (once again) into a short bob, and if I had showered today I would take a picture, here is a picture from exactly one year ago at our 2nd wedding reception in Pittsburgh when I had cut all my hair off! Although right now mine is much shorter, more a-line and less bangs!


and someone told me I look like the MOM from the movie The Sixth Sense, I had never seen the movie so I looked up the actress. Her name is Olivia Williams, she is British and below is a picture of her in Miss Austen Regrets. I guess I see it...do you?


Like every other week I have gotten the "you look like someone"......long pause...sometimes hours....."BABY from Dirty Dancing" Okay, this one I don't really see and take a little offense to because after the movie she got a nose job! Patrick Swayze is living next to the Summers maybe I should knock on his door and ask him if he sees it!

and my favorite! a chubby winona ryder!!

She obviously feels the same way.

The only one I find flattering is when people tell me I look like Snow White, in fact I am going to invest in a real Snow White costume and be her every Halloween for the rest of my life! When my kids talk about their mom I want them to say I look like Snow White and all of my gay boy best friends that I shop with and that do my hair will be my dwarfs and I already found my Prince!