Traveling Cat

I have some photos of our kids from this Thursday’s “crippled children’s clinic” in Eldoret and I thought I’d share a few today. Makes me want to make a brochure and maybe start one of those Sally Strothers-type nonprofits* that seeks sponsors for starving African children. You know, where the now-chubby Sally pleads, on late night infomercials, for your extra pennies. Where for only 50 cents a day you could feed a kid, cloth them, and send them to school.

Our 11 year old paraplegic hydrocephalic girl with an amazing smile that never ends

I saw those commercials as a child and thought them a bit fanciful. I’ve always mixed my idealism with realism, even as an elementary school kid, and wasn’t entirely convinced that $0.50 would do all that Sally promised. However, I did consider it as a kid. I did the math to figure out if I could save a starving kid in Africa and was sad that my $10 allowance wouldn’t fund a $15/month kid. The $0.50 a day was beyond my reach, which was okay at the end of the day. I knew enough about television to know that you couldn’t believe everything you saw. I wasn’t sure if Sally was promising a legitimate proposal anyway.

Our sweet 5 year old boy with bilateral club feet and delayed milestones (who borders on mentally retarded)

Skip ahead 20-odd years later and I can tell you first hand that Sally was on to something. Inflation has hit the US, and Africa too, but I do believe $0.50 a day could still cloth, feed, and educate our kids here. I haven’t watched late night infomercials for many years, but I hope Sally is still out there saving the kids. It’s a worthy goal, and a pretty sweet deal at the end of the day.

One of our super cute 2 year old girls with 2 club feet who loves to play games with me

* Feel no pressure to send Sally money, or me for that matter. I’m sure at some point this year I’ll have a goal for some project and make a vague plea for anyone who wants to help, but for now rest easily knowing it’s really true that $0.50 a day can indeed save the life of a child.

Cindy celebrates in style with feathers and
an Elmo finger puppet sent by her mom

Be sure to send Cindy birthday wishes as she turns a year older this weekend! What we’ll do to celebrate is anyone’s guess.

THANKS so much for the tapes! I’m now the proud owner of Billy Joel, Nat King Cole, Genesis, REM, Mission Impossible, Counting Crows, and more!! Many thanks to Sameer, and many, many thanks to Jeff! Thanks also to Rod for the post cards, Mary for the photos, and Samer for the warm greetings from Cuba!