Lending to Ali

Today i started a new loan through Kiva. This time it is to Ali in Lebanon. Ali lives with (and takes care of) his elderly parents. An experienced and reputable carpenter, he is looking to start his own business, and needs to stock up on wood and get some tools.


Ali's face is pixelated (like many Lebanese and Iraqi borrowers) to protect his privacy for "political and social" reasons. I'm guessing that people fear what might happen to them if they are seen as being connected to 'the west'.

The average wage in Lebanon is $5,900 a year ($16 a day) so the loan of $2,000 is the equivalent of 4 months pay. Obviously, most people would be scared to lend $2000 to someone overseas, but by each putting in $25, we can achieve things that would be impossible otherwise.

[Related link: Investing the Phillipines]

UPDATE: On March 17 2014, Ali made the final repayments. His business is presumably now going well, and I am satisfied to know that I could be part of helping him.

Lifeline Bookfest

This is what (half of) Lifeline Bookfest looks like. There's the same amount again, just out of shot.

This was taken from the volunteer break room (where volunteers are provided lunch/dinner if working through that time). During the day there's way more people - picking up great value second-hand books, all for the benefit of a great charity.

[My other Bookfest photo]

Top pics of 2012

Here are my photos of 2012 that you viewed most:

5. It was a tie between two food related pics - the unbelievably cheap meals, and the macadamias i harvested. (If picking them up and cracking them with a hammer is called a harvest :)

4. My unrelated post about democracy in Queensland rated quite highly. I might continue to throw in the occasional non-photo post.


3. I really enjoy funny photos, so i'm glad that the memory card photo was popular with you too.


2. My photo of the enormous number of Da Vinci code books donated to the Lifeline Bookfest.


1. The Eclipse photos from the Solar Eclipse viewable from eastern Australia in Novmber.

All the best for 2013!

Eclipse 2012

The total solar eclipse on November 14 was visible in Queensland's north. Here in the south 86% of the sun was covered.

This was my method of seeing the eclipse without looking directly at the sun.

Closer to the time of maximum eclipse, this is what it looked like.

As you may have seen on the news, one of the TV cameras filmed me when i moved the crescent to around the face area of my shadow - such that it looked like a big smile.

I think science only makes it on commercial news if there's pretty footage - or a corny line like "the eclipse brought a smile to everyone's face". (Sigh!)

Cheap Meals

This is either a simple error, or this place is being very generous ;)

Just One Day

One of the joys of growing food is seeing plants spring out of the soil. Classic case is my current experience with beans. Having planted the seed (almost jellybean size) a week before, i took this photo on Tuesday morning:

And this one on Wednesday morning (with finger for scale):

Pretty impressive for one day's growth. Let's see if any beans come from this. :)

(The debris in photo 2 is the shell of the original seed)

Investing in the Phillipines

I've just joined Kiva - the online community that makes interest free micro-loans (as small as $25) to people in the developing world.

This is Carolve, who i've lent some money to. She's 25 and runs her own rice farm.

I'm quite excited about this way of helping, because (i) it's helping people help themselves and their community, and (ii) the one $25 can be used over and over again to assist different people in different communities.

I should mention that the loans are interest-free - so you're not going to make money out of it, but you can get a bunch of warm fuzzy feelings from helping someone out.

UPDATE: We're now in March, and the final repayment (of $1.93) has been made. That doesn't seem like a lot of money to us, but to people in places like the Phillipines it is huge. The average wage in the Phillipines is $1175 per year. So the $250 (from me and 9 other lenders) was significant. Even the $1.93 repayment is around half a day's wages.


In you want to experience what it's like to make a big difference, why not sign up for a FREE trial at http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/david17104460?

A Cracking Time

A few weeks ago i showed the macadamias i collected. After some 'hammertime' i had myself a jam jar full of ready-to-eat macadamias.

Clearly the jar wasn't full by the time the pic was taken. Some got eaten during the cracking process - and a few later on (with some icecream and melted chocolate). Mmmm.

Winter Sunset

Saw a brilliant sunset developing while on the bus home this afternoon, and took this shot from the pedestrian bridge.

... and the bit that didn't fit in the first shot...

Macadamias

Our neighbour has a macadamia tree. Having grown to quite some size, it generously shares its produce over the fence. This is what i collected. Now to crack them open!