The Secret Life of Expats

I have nothing interesting to report. After my purse got snatched the first weekend I was in Dili, nothing else exciting happened. I went in the office, ate out with my colleagues, worked late, headed out to the districts to pilot test, hit the beach on Sunday afternoons, frequented the local watering holes (where even the resident mercenaries were charming after drink number three or so...) And that's it. I don't even have a flat tired to report.

This is doubly bad because for the first time, I am talking up a charity and asking anyone that can contribute to contribute. The project is called "Lambs for Schools" and is run by one of the people I was a Peace Corps volunteer with Burkina Faso. The idea that a little girl (let's call her "Mary") is given a little lamb and money for one year's school tuition. Mary goes to school that year, and takes care of her lamb at home. The lamb grows up (fat and tasty), then Mary's family sells it at the start of the next school year to pay for school fees and another little lamb. Sustainable development at its tastiest (not to alienate any of our vegetarian donors.) So the Burkina volunteers are trying to raise money for the project. Global Giving, a online charitable giving site, it running a contest. The program that has the most individual donors by 3 pm (EST) on January 31st will get $50,000 from global giving. So if you have $10 that you aren't using, please contribute. This is the link: Education for 900 Rural Girls in Burkina Faso As I said, I don't usually do this, but I have something of a softness for education in Burkina. If we win, maybe I will even dig out all of my old Peace Corps posts and stick them on the blog...

Alright, I will leave you with a couple of pictures to try in some small way to make up for the lameness of this post.