in honor of Mama for her bday85

Kiva has been after me for almost a month to re-lend, re-lend!

(smile)

My intention had been to do so last Saturday.

That would have been Mama's 85th birthday, had she not stopped aging at 63.

So, I've been celebrating her birthday without her for the past 22 years.

(sigh)

Today, I finally relented and went in search of someone she would have supported.

I found Anila almost instantly.

It was almost as if I had been taken by the hand and led straight to her.

Even better, she is the ONLY borrower on Kiva with her name.

Seriously.

The name is what first drew me to her, but it was her face and style that made me stay.

She looked so much like my mother had when I was a teen.

 

After making the loan, I alerted my fellow Nerdfighters to join me in supporting her.

This is the very first time I've ever done that.

I've been a member of that team since 2012.

Here, I make the same plea as I did on Kiva to my teammates.

 

"Faustina Dec 14, 2022 - 7:14 pm PST
Joined Aug 22, 2012
Anila of Albania is trying to open a fruit and vegetable stand to help support her family. 

She caught my eye for two reasons.

1) She bears a strong resemblance to my Mother, who died in 2001

2) She is a cook with healthy products.
I hope you will join me in supporting her goal.
www.kiva.org/lend/2476174
Thanks!"

 

For those who might want to let Kiva know that I was the one who made the referral, please use the link below.

 

Kiva referral link

 

I wish her much success in establishing her fruit and vegetable stand to help support her two children.

something to believe in

That sounds like a song lyric, doesn't it?

Well, it should, as the mental jukebox in my brain is always in search of the next record to put onto the turntable.

This time, the blog's title is a song from Poison.

And the reason it popped into play?

Sumphun of Thailand.

That's right: all it took was one look at her name.

And just why had I even been on Kiva.org today?

Three reasons: 

1) I wanted to give a loan to mark would would have been Mama's upcoming 84th birthday; 2) I knew I had enough repaid funds from previous loans to do so; 

3) Tripadvisor.com was having a special "make a loan, make a second loan for free" deal.

That's why I'd gone to the lending site today instead of tomorrow.

 

The Thai weaver was the second recipient of the two borrowers chosen today.

I had seen her name and knew without further searching that she was the one for me.

The song had simply cinched the deal.

The first loan recipient took me almost an hour to find.

Then I noticed there were two women, both named "Christina", each looking for a loan.

As they had the same name as my first niece and Mama's first grandchild, I knew one of them were to receive a loan from me... 

but which?

The pink dress of the woman in the Solomon Islands running the general store won out; her loan had the shorter amount of time remaining for it to be funded.

How fortuitous that I had checked my email and found the Tripadvisor missive!

How fortuitous that enough repayments had been made into my nerdfighter account to encourage me to help a new borrower reach their dream!

How fortuitous that I've now made loans to countries new to my portfolio!

(smile!)

Happy birthday, Mama.

I'm glad we could start the celebration early.

a mom with good credit

Today is International Women's Day and kiva has lenders eager to match all contributions to those seeking these loans.

I chose Rusi as the benefactress of my largesse, small though it is.

Partly I chose her because of how she was described: "a mom with good credit history" - I can relate to that.

Partly I chose her because she lives in Kenya, a country I have not yet supported with my funds.

The deciding factor, though, was the wording used for the summation of her background and purpose for the loan.

 

"Rusi is a 57 year old mother living in Litein, a land of seemingly never ending beauty. She is a mixed dairy and crop farmer who has farmed for the past many years. Through farming she has given her family a solid reputation.
Rusi is seeking this loan to buy farming inputs which she plans to use to improve her production and earn more income to support her family.
Rusi is looking forward to your warm response to her loan request. Your loan will enable her to make the upcoming season good for her family."

 

Her town is "a land of seemingly never ending beauty"?

Mine, too.

She seems to have such a positive outlook on life!

I wish her much continued success, for herself and for her family.

I am grateful to have been able to lend her $25 and to have that sum matched by others.

Maybe someone else would like to help her, or another woman?

This is the link to do so.

Tell them a Nerdfighter sent you, to help fight suck in this world.

helping a mom

For this International Women's Day, I decided to take a little different approach.
I've been doing a lot of helping people with educational costs.
I've also helped quite a few with enhancing goods for sale to others.
Most of my loans have gone to Central America or South America.
This loan did not check any of the above boxes.
Instead, I helped a Tajik mother help her son.

Her name is Sharofat and she is 56 years old.
She and her family live in Tajikistan.
One of her two sons has obtained work as a
handyman in the Russian Federation.
Her request was for $325 to purchase the
ticket for him to go to the job location.
All she lacked, at the time that I saw her
plea tonight, was a mere fifty dollars.
My $25 pledge, matched by a generous anonymous
donor today, helped satisfy her loan.

I know Mama would have approved.
She was always trying to help my brothers, and myself, to have a better life and a brighter future.

i thank You, God, that I had this opportunity to help someone else's Mama.

lady in Red, once more for the last time

I have received the final dvd of the film,
my kickstarter reward for "Red Thread"!
Poetry, operatic music, and a tale of a strong woman and the choices she made, good, bad, and ugly.
I may not watch it often, but it is a stirring video.
It is also an award-winning film, having earned the New York State Council on the Arts Film and Media Grant. That enabled the team (Duston Spear, producer; Michael Minard, music composer; Ann Casapini, singer) to truly fine-tune the piece. That fine-tuning included a slight name change: "Red Thread: The Prisoner and The Painter".
I am so proud of them.

Thank You, also,
for a birthday gift
from beyond all time.

hey baby, hey baby, HEY!

Trick or treat!
When I arrived home yesterday, this was waiting in my mailbox.
Woohoo!
I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to view "Gypped" on the big screen at the Trustees Theatre on 30 May of this year, when it was screened for the student showcase. Now, I have my own copy and can enjoy it whenever I want.
What a treat!
Nice to see my name in the credits, too.

Trick or treat is also descriptive of the storyline.
This tale of a young man who relentlessly pursues the wrong girl -
and irks the wrong gypsy -
is quite humorous when the tables are turned and he becomes the object of pursuit.
I think Jesse Newman Lindorf has a bright future - looking to the other side of the box is always an exercise in empathy and certainly makes the world a better, less biased, place for all of us.
As you may recall, this was a local film project from my October 2011 funding spree.
But first, let me remind you why I began funding these projects.
My mother was an artist at heart. Her outlet for creativity lay in sewing and handcrafts and cake decorating. She was never able to practice art as a career.
After my stepdad's recent death, I received some funds from my mother's estate. It was free money: I didn't earn it, it was simply given to me.
That meant I had the option of spending it however I wanted.
Again, it was free money.
I opted to share it with artists. I had recently been introduced to the world of kickstarter through a friend's project and, when I suddenly found myself with funds to invest, I chose kickstarter as the search engine for my investments.

muralcle block party!

I was asked to promote this event, so here we go. Please note that all of the following italicized words were written by the folks at SeeSAW. I have added my photographs in lieu of using theirs.

For Immediate Release
SeeSAW Block Party and David Ellis
Who: SeeSAW (Savannah Art Walls) and Savannah artists Katherine Sandoz, Troy Wandzel, Adolfo Alvarado and visiting artist David Ellis
What: Block Party
Where: SeeSAW Mural Wall | 34th and Habersham Street | Savannah, GA
When: Sunday, October 14 , 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Social Media Feed: Twitter @SavArtWAlls
Follow SeeSAW’s collaboration with David Ellis with the hashtag #EllisSAV on twitter and instagram October 14 - 19.
For info please email info@savannahartwalls.org

SeeSAW (See Savannah Art Walls) is excited to announce a block party this Sunday, October 14 in celebration of a year’s worth of art and community support at the mural wall at 34th and Habersham Street in Savannah, GA. In December of 2011 SeeSAW secured approval from Savannah’s Metropolitan Planning Commission to oversee the first designated rotating mural wall in Savannah. To fund a years worth of murals SeeSAW successfully raised over $7,000.00 on the crowd-sourcing website Kickstarter. Most of the money raised was locally sourced from individual Savannahians and local businesses that support the amplification of public art.
In order to stay in line with the curatorial standard of creating work that is Savannah-centric in nature, SeeSAW selected prominent local artists Katherine Sandoz, Troy Wandzel, and Adolfo Hernandez Alvarado. These three artists were selected to tell a visual story of Savannah because of their consistent history documenting and interacting with the diverse people and geography of Georgia's first city.

Starting on the coldest day of the year in February 2012, Katherine Sandoz painted an abstract landscape of Turtle Island, a hammock off the Georgia coast directly due east from the wall at 34th and Habersham. The landscape spanned the length of the 8 ft x 100 ft wall.

In June 2012, rather than obliterate Sandoz’s landscape, Troy Wandzel decided to add a field of flowers along the lower third of the wall. Often in contorted positions, Wandzel painted over 70 portraits from life of everyday Savannah citizens that willingly suffered the June heat with smiles on their faces.

Staying in the theme of adding
to the wall rather than starting
over, in September of 2012
Adolfo Hernandez Alvarado synthesized Sandoz’s landscape and Wandzel’s portraits by painting a centrally located female figure with a crown formed out of seashells and waves. The woman represents
the feminine qualities of Savannah as a city, from its natural and architectural beauty to its motherly embrace.
“La Madre” of Savannah is flanked by two bearded horn players derivative of the fountain in historic Forsyth Park.
To close out the year with a bang, SeeSAW will be bringing in world-renowned NYC-based artist David Ellis for a week of painting “large, mobile, 3D” objects placed on the lawn in front of the wall on 34th Street. SeeSAW co-founders James “DrZ” Zdaniewski and Matt Hebermehl were inspired to create SeeSAW based upon previous experiences assisting Mr. Ellis on projects in Savannah and the Wynwood Walls neighborhood of Miami, FL. David Ellis will be in Savannah October 14 - 19.

Let me tell you, this was quite a block party, too! People from the neighborhood, people from all over Savannah, even people from other cities, all came together to admire the Muralcle and to watch the New Yorker create his motion-based paintings on the side panels of cargo trucks. It was almost like he was dancing! He may well have been, as the crowd was entertained by the sounds of Vinyl Appreciation while slurping Italian ices to stay cool in the sunshine.
Remember how Fliss had her portrait painted in June by Troy Wandzel? Well, the evidence points to his having an influence on Adolfo Alvarado's design. Perhaps he asked that my visage be preserved; perhaps he did not. Whatever the case may be, Fliss remains with "La Madre", peeking out on the lefthand side. Is it mere coincidence that has me nestled near "The Mother"? I prefer to think it was on purpose. Yet another message from beyond, reassuring me that I am spending the money properly.
Thanks, Mama.

garden party!

For the past few weeks, I've had an old song running through my mind. The song is "Garden Party", as sung by Ricky Nelson in 1972. The first verse, the part that has been playing on repeat for me, is as follows:
I went to a garden party
to reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories
and play our songs again.

This was certainly befitting of those lyrics! The hostess, who has been holding her Garden Party for the past five years, usually has the affair in October, in memory of her mother. This time, the party was to honor several attendees, women whose stories are featured in a new book in progress by the hostess. The book, which will hopefully be completed this summer, is titled "Celebration in the Garden: Slices of Life and Recipes of Southern Women".
I became involved with the kickstarter project in November of last year. I had been searching for local projects to support, in particular, projects in Georgia. This one caught my heart, promising to delight both my palate and my soul with tales which connect daughters to their mothers and the recipes of their younger days. What a beautiful concept! Stories of love through the generations, with a family recipe to add to the warmth of a mother's touch.
I had been eagerly awaiting the Garden party held yesterday in the North Druid Hills. The meteorologist had forecast severe thunderstorms, but none materialized. My first niece accompanied me on this journey and we both dressed for the occasion in spring-time frocks and nice shoes. Our hostess was reading an excerpt from one of the chapters of her book when we arrived and we listened as the tale unfolded.
After, she greeted us enthusiastically and offered to make us tea (I had told her on the phone that I was thinking of the soiree as a mid-afternoon Tea Party!), but we declined. Several foods had been prepared using some of the family recipes which will appear in the book, so all made plates of Chicken Divan and Lane Cake and Mini-Biscuits and other delectable dishes. Nice! Then we chatted and nibbled and sipped, periodically being treated to another tasty slice of the book for the next few hours.
What a wonderful afternoon!