__support the fight against poverty: kiva

Tags

business, charity, empower, fight, kiva, life, loan, make a change, microloan, money, poverty, support, women

Do you need to do your good deed for the day? Join Kiva!

I needed to share this with all our lovely blogger followers! Here is the invite from me:

http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/ermisenda1487

They are giving away $25 vouchers that you can use to lend to disadvantaged entrepreneurs over the globe. The money is paid back, since it’s a loan, and you can re-loan it infinite times. You can augment your donation pool or keep it at $25. Support the fight against poverty by lending micro-loans to agriculture, food, retail, etc. projects!

I love supporting and lending through Kiva and for those who are on a budget, you can still lend with their new users promotion where they give you $25 to start with. What are you waiting for?

– Ermisenda Alvarez

__picture it & write

Tags

art, book, gold, life, magic, money, photography, poetry, writing

I urge people to join in, comment with your paragraph of fiction to accompany the image. It doesn’t have to follow my story or reflect the same themes. It can be a poem or in a different language (provide a translation please :)). Anyone who wants to join in, is welcome. This photograph has been reblogged under Ermisenda on tumblr.

Thanks to Scriptor Obscura’s suggestion, I am urging contributors to post the URL to an image they would like to feature for next week’s Picture it & write. After posting your story or poem below paste the image web address. Depending on the amount of images we get I will make a poll in the following two-three days, or I will choose the most appropriate one from the group. Please post the appropriate credit beside the image.

It should be fun. Write away and share your desired photograph! (Remember no pornographic or explicitly violent photographs. Don’t feel like you can only post photographs from other sites, you may post your own photographs as well.) A maximum of two photographs from each contributor please.

The coins glowed. They twinkled and sparkled upon the wooden table. Fifteen gold pieces. The coins amounted to more wealth than I could earn in fifteen years. Twelve hour-long work days. Seven days a week. Could I really be blamed for wanting my share of wealth? I was starving. There was no future. The Great Depression was like a concrete blanket upon us all, smothering sparks of life. I had to feed myself. I had to survive. My fingers finally scooped up the abundant golden blossoms. They fell into my pocket. Clink. Clink. They weighed like a kilo of filthy, worm-infested manure. I walked away from the rotting brothel, and her.

– Ermisenda Alvarez

Everyone is welcome to use the button, just link them back to the Picture it & write category or Ermiliablog! 🙂 Share your love for Picture it & write on your blog with the image below. Be proud, and stylish 😉 !

Do you see people or do you see workers?

Tags

employees, Germany, Gilmore Girls, help, host family, maids, money, Single in Suburbia, Starbucks, study abroad, wealth, Wendy Wax

You enter your favorite book store, coffee shop, or restaurant and someone rings you up.  Are you talking on your cell phone?  Do you ask them how their day was?  Do you see a person standing before you or do you see a worker bee sent from the cosmos to wait on you?  Our tendency is to look down on those serving us, but one thing I picked up from my host family in Germany is that every job is important, therefore every person who performs a job is important.  Imagine if all of the janitorial staff vanished overnight.  Sometimes we don’t appreciate what we have.

Thankfully, society seems to agree with my host family.  People who disregard the help are seen as snobby rather than admired.  Take these examples from the TV show Gilmore Girls and novel Single in Suburbia…