(don't quote me on this) LAST chance to vote on logos!!

We are getting closer to the end result for our non profit logo. If you have an opinion, let it be heard asap.

Financial Accounting

I decided that I need financial accounting in my life to further my education and get the most out of my program. It sounds like a good idea right? When I walked into the first core class of the accounting masters degree program at GW, I immediately looked down at my paper with the classroom number, looked up at my classmates, and checked again. There are about 25-30 Chinese people in my class and only about 5 of us that aren't (I'm only part). Interesting phenomena right? Anyway, when everyone introduced themselves, it was only me and my friend that don't have some ties or passion to or about accounting. There are about 5 CPAs (they have their degree in China). Needless to say, I've kept up on the readings and homework and although the class moves really really fast, I felt okay walking into the midterm. Until I received the midterm. That's when my stomach dropped. I looked at the question and read it and re-read it and still did not know what it was asking. It was the hardest test I've taken in a loong time and I've never felt more inadequate sitting there frantically trying to make sense of what was infront of me. I don't know what my score is but he did say that the raw grades range from a 4% to a 79%. that's right. FOUR PERCENT!!! If that is my test, I'm dropping out of school and calling the 18.5 years of formal education that I've clocked in so far enough.

I decided I need a study group. So I emailed the class and I have a few friends to meet on mondays. Their responses are pretty priceless, here a few of them are.

"Hi, I'm very interested in the study group. I'm Belinda. I think Monday noon would be fine. "


"I am Catherine Wong, from the class of financial accounting. I would love to join the study group. Both time work for me. Let's keep in touch and get the ball rolling."


"Hi!
I wanna join that study group. Please contract me.
Truly yours,"

I can not imagine getting a masters degree in a second language. I'm excited to hang out with these girls along with four others on mondays and get the ball rolling. I don't think I'm going to tell them I speak mandarin until a few weeks in, just in case they have some good secrets or something.

Where's Waldo? (aka Will)

new music

some new tunes:

ingrid michaelson



Carla Bruni



Jason Walker



And I can't get enough of this Jason Derulo song (karaoke version)



thank you for those who introduced me. Enjoy!

bean-town

I went to boston this weekend. I didn’t take the simple route of a 1.5 hour flight, or even a express train, I went for the comfort of the Chinatown bus. It just calls to me whenever I think of travel. So, 18 hours of sitting later, I left and am back again.

I’m poor. So I have to budget to travel. But I have so much I want to see, experience, and explore. I had some friends I haven’t seen in a while head out to boston for an education conference. So, although I had to forego my dream of being an otterpop for Halloween and replace it with a masquerade (see below), I had a blast this weekend.



We went to Salem, MA halloween eve and had the most peculiar experience. We were just too late to go into the witch museum, but it was probably for the best because I feel like it is one of those ideas I get really excited about, but when I went up to the gate of the museum, the sick realization of how creepy and eerie it would be already started haunting my dreams before I even went inside, or went to sleep for that matter. I can not believe that the witch hunt is part of our US history. It's embarrassing. hysteria + mob mentality + seclusion = a really bad mix and innocent people murdered and on trial for being supposed witches.

Instead we walked around and eventually went to this cafe and got some ice cream. In walked a drag queen, one that was really comfortable in his shoes which made me think that he may dress like that more than once a year. Anyway, he talked to the owner, left for a minute, and came back with a boom box and instruments. In went a irish celtic river dance cd and people naturally moved aside the tables to dance as the music moved them. At one point I couldn't stop laughing at the absurdity of the scene when a very committed joker had his eyes closed and was trying to river dance.



Saturday was perfect weather. We went to a Harvard football game, which sadly reminded me of high school a little bit. I was sorely disappointed in their cheerleaders who couldn’t seem to expand their cheers to include more than three words on repeat. After the DEFENSE! DEFENSE! DEFENSE! DEFENSE! DEFENSE! Cheer, I felt like I should walk down and talk to them, telling them that I’m sure that they can do better than that. I was expecting cheers in iambic pentameter, or something. Harvard did beat villanova, so we won!


My roommate Natlie and I also walked around Cambridge, it was beautiful, and did some of the freedom walk. Oh and we ate wagamamas. I looove that restaurant.

The freedom walk is really impressive. In just a few miles you can see paul revieres house, the sight of the boston massacre, the town hall where the constitution was first read to the people, the graveyard where Benjamin franklin was buried (oh and mother goose) and a lot of other things all in a really short distance.
The charm of the city with it’s farmers markets and classy historic buildings among many self proclaimed “AMERICA’S FIRST_______” it was a really fun experience and I’m so glad I went.

running

Sometimes I run. I do it fairly sporadically and yesterday was one such day. I looked outside at the beautiful east coast fall and had this burning desire to get out and experience it. So, I left, put my ipod in with a great playlist and was carried off into my own little jogging world when BAM!!! the next thing I knew I was sprawled out on the sidewalk having skidded my hands and knees on the ground. I immediately looked around, while still lying there on my stomach, hoping to catch an eye or a smile or honk, just some acknowledgment at how amazingly random that was. I don't really have much to blame for my tumble except for the fact that maybe there was some uneven sidewalk? anyway, it drew blood. I looked down at my hands and had a flashback of the thousands of times as a child I scraped my hands and was almost frustrated by how little I had to show to reflect the pain I was in. This time I didn't really have anyone to complain to but was bleeding! After taking five seconds to decide what to do, I decided to keep running for a few more minutes before I went home.

I also decided as different body parts were throbbing that it's healthy to still hurt myself sometimes. Usually there is a good story behind it. I'm not planning to make a tradition out of biffing it when I jog alone, but once in a while it's pretty funny. It makes me feel young again. And, well, quite clumsy.

sister school for a girls school in Pakistan

Will wants to find a sister school for this girls school in Pakistan. Let me know if you have any connections or are interested. He can do a lot of the connecting work from there.

Watch THIS. It's called the school girls odyssey.

I'm back!

Oman was an amazing place. I put a full 200 pictures on the face book so once I get a few minutes, I'll transfer some over here. There was a perfect balance of adventure and relaxing time. I'd definitely go back someday. It was a blast.

Now that I'm back I'm trying to throw myself into life. By doing so, I feel like I'm a little unbalanced. So, forgive me if I'm being a bad friend.

I went to a study abroad dinner which was a blast. there are some amazing people who decided to go to study abroad fall of 2003. We all mutually covet Lindsey's life in London, but have a good time together reminiscing.

I have midterms this week and have nooo clue how to do financial accounting. I'm stressing about it but hopefully I'll be able to pull it together.

My good friend Kate who I grew up with in japan is in the ICU and in and out of consciousness because of hydrocephalus so if you can, please pray for her.

The non profit stuff is going well, it's busy. We are changing the name from nyirira (it is too hard for people to pronounce to either sanyu or musana (joy or sunlight).

I'm now a temple worker and am really excited to spend some solid time in the temple every week.

that's all,


Here are some more of my personal fav's.

Oh Man

I'm going to Oman.

MUSANA

Pronounced mu-sa-na, musana means sunlight in Luganda--the largest native language of Uganda. As I was leaving Lugazi, Uganda this summer for lack of a better description, my heart hurt feeling that we didn't do enough for two populations, the single impoverished mothers and the children who haven't been taken into orphanages and roam the streets.

I have been formulating in my head for some time now the ideal non profit that I want to work for later in my life and decided after reading Yunas's latest book on social business that I want to be involved in a non profit that has a business component so that it's self sustaining while funding the community outreach projects.

I've never had the desire to start my own, as many people do. I know of so many who are doing great things and I feel that there needs to be more of a cohesive effort in development work to really make a difference long term. There definitely needs to be work within existing structures in the country for sustainability, and ownership by the people you are working with. I believe the purpose of a NGO is to go in and become friends with those you want to help, ask about needs, and train and provide tools so that they can accomplish what they need themselves. After talking to a few other volunteers and Melissa, the other country director, we decided that selling jewelry made by some of these women would be a great way to fund the community outreach projects.

There are currently 8 women in Lugazi who are being trained in jewelry making.

I personally have interviewed these women and taken their pictures. Although unique in personality and story, they have a few common themes. They were born into very poor circumstances and did not have the opportunity to be educated. The only way to acheive stability in their life was to marry. Frequently these women's husbands had other wives, which the women would sometimes leave and then return when they realized they couldn't make it on their own providing for their children. A few women are widows, some of the women were left HIV positive when their husbands died. All have children. Some are taking care of other children more than just their own. The way a woman gains status in Uganda is through bearing children, so many women have 4-6 children. Some of their husbands are or were abusive. When I ask what their biggest dream is, there was also a common theme. To have a house for their children so they don't have to always worry about where they will sleep dispite what happens with the men in their lives and to be able to send their children to school. These women don't think about themselves, like moms everywhere, they live for their children.



The women will make the jewelry for 5 hours a day and be home for their children when they come back from school for lunch. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. The women are starting a savings and loans group within the jewelry group and we plan to start literacy classes after work. A Pastor is going to meet with them fridays after work to discuss the week and their personal growth and set goals for the next week. We are also hoping to sponsor their children for school after the women have been working there for 6 months.

One of the types of earrings these women are making are eagle bottle cap earrings. These bottle caps are going to be collected by the street children. There are at least 100 children on the streets in Lugazi, a town of 35,000. They are migrant and kept under the radar. They earn money by digging through heaps of disgusting trash to try to find scrap metal and sell it for a few cents.

The children are going to now collect our bottle caps for us as a temporary way to get them a little money to buy some food. One bottle cap will bring $.10, which is enough to buy a chippatti, a bread similar to a tortilla. They can get the caps outside of restaurants and bars instead of digging through trash.




The profits from the jewelry are going to directly help these children. We have a partner called Livingstone Zziwa who is the co-chairperson for the Mukono district in the government. The Mukono District has over 800,000 people in it. He is, in my opinion, the ideal politician because he started by doing community based work and running his own non-profit called pat the child. He is going to partner with us to implement a project that he successfully did in his village with some help from the world bank, into our town.

Nyirira jewelry profits will buy a female cow.

Livingstone found a family who would take in a street child and when they agreed, they were given a cow. As the cow and child grew, the added revenue from the cow that the family received paid for the childs schooling and food. The results for the child are; they are placed in a family in their culture, with parents, and the child is incorporated into the family because they aren't a financial burden.

The first calf of that female cow goes to another family with another child off the street and all subsequent calves are for the family's benefit.

Livingstone then bought back the milk from all these cows at a fair price so the family had constant income and started a small yogurt factory in his village. Employing more people and increasing public health.

At this point, I want to do as Yunas did in Bangladesh when he partnered with Danone and brought nutritionists into the group to assess the needs of the community. There is a lot of stunted growth and malnutrition in Uganda. When the yogurt is fortified with the proper nutrients, it will be sold for as cheap as possible so that the poor can afford it. It just needs to be a self-sustaining business, one that pays its employees but is able to be sold to the poor people of the community.

So, that is the plan.

Start with the jewelry business and then buy cows.

So far I have potential places to sell in a couple of boutiques, gift shops, and friends who will sell the jewelry by word of mouth so that we will sell online.

I have a friend from Japan who is doing the website probono.

I'm trying to get our 501(c)3 status for free through a probono law group out here.

We have three employees in Uganda who aren't taking pay until things get rolling but who are doing a great job facilitating the two jewelry trainers who are being paid.



I have met with 3 teachers, and emailed a few non profits who are doing similar things.

I have a friend who has done a great job adjusting and coming up with ideas for the logo.

We are meeting this week with Warner Woodworth who will have his MBA class help tighten the business plan.

It's pretty consuming, but there is momentum behind it. I feel like it needs to. I hate that we are starting our own when there are so many around who are doing a similar thing but with a slightly different twist, but I can't wait for someone else to do it and hope it will expand to reach these specific people. I feel a lot of pressure to help these women and children and hope to be able to partner with other organizations as soon as possible.

We would love help with this. I'm scrambling and trying to tell as many people as possible about it and so far have invested my own money (I know some of you are laughing reading that). I'm going to need some more money to get to the point where we have samples but I feel added pressure having friends donate and me being in charge of that money so I'm going to see if I can slide by by personally paying for things.

Please let me know your opinions! I know there are a few other non profits doing similar things, beads for life does paper beads in uganda and also does some community things but they are not selling anything but paper beads. Other stores like Pangaea and World Market and Etsy.com do similar things as well. I question if there is a market for this and figure, I might as well try things out and take it a day at a time. It's better to try and fail then to sit back and watch life pass you by right?