We got up and went to Merry’s house – amazingly within the timeframe I had given her! Girls all ran away to pay. I met fiver the rabbit [of course he knew i was coming with his prescience] and admire the work on the garden. Also dumped/ generously gave some spare toms and peppers and onion sets.
The stock cupboard STILL didn’t have landlocked in it, nor did it have the egyptian thing Michelle brought back from her visit – honestly!! but both are apparently on the way.
While we were there, BB counted to 10!!!! first time she has done that – usually we have 1,2,3,4,6 err 6,6,6. The older girls had a convoluted imaginative thing going. we adults packed boxes and did a minor stock tidy and lots of tea.
We all went to the mudpud group in the afternoon. Its been v quiet for the last year with the loss of Merry and Tammy, and also as there was an insurance problem. SB was really excited to go and loved it. A gardening theme. Some poor misguided organiser left me in charge of the baking – i obviously don’t flickr photos of the chaos afterwards of flour everywhere! Luckilly SB and Merry’s girls were willing helpers in the tidy up.
When we got home, SB did some violin practice – still starting on A. We all made spanish omelette together for tea – yummy. Sb was going to do some maths, but talked me into letting her have some computer time for the new webland – but I notice she is cbeebing. When I’ve finished blogging, I’ll suggest to her we play a game or 2, and perhaps read a story from the barefoot book of mothers and daughters i bought from ebay.
Anyway – we do lots of conversational ed, which rarely if ever gets blogged. But I will blog this one, as SB is concerned about money, charity and people who don’t have enough. My mother sponsors a child through some charity [well i think it is a village thing rather than an individual] and she got a letter when we were there. SB is very keen that we do something too, so will take recommendations if there are any.
We sponsor a child through Compassion UK. Every so often we get a letter and a photo from our little girl, and Compassion send quarterly magazines etc. as well which are interesting. They keep sending us paper to write to her as well and I keep meaning to do it … must get on and write one.
oh, but it is a christian organisation. Worldvision do them too but that’s christian as well. Does that matter?
hmm! thats a tricky one sarah, my immediate answer was no, it didn’t matter. But on reading their website, it was quite evangelical christian for christian children. I don’t want to support missionary work particularly – as a non-christian it would be difficult to say here is the money only for a christian. thanks for answering with the suggestion though. i was born awkward! Oxfam would prob do it for me, but I think SB would prefer the interaction with save the children childlink, or world vision [which I know is christian based, but not evangelically christian in its overt outlook]
hmm.
We considered sponsoring a child but were very put off by some literature about it – can’t remember the charity. Basically it had the story of a girl who, due to sponsorship, had the ‘opportunity’ to be sent away from her village and family to a boarding school. The more I thought about it the more I felt that the ethics involved were very complicated – would the money mark out an individual or a family, or would it be used to impose an agenda? I also felt uncomfortable with the fact that we would receive news about the child we sponsored. Somehow I felt like we would be ‘buying’ a connection with another person – and that made me feel like some sort of rich benefactor.
Just not the thing for us, I guess.
In the end we decided to give a regular donation to ADD, Action on Disability and Development. They promised not to send all our money back to us in the form of glossy bits of paper -and they haven’t. It has an empowerment and self-organisation ethos that fits with our worldview.
Just my two pennies – no offence to anyone who does sponsor a child.
thanks Allie. it is that that has always put me off child sponsorship, and have usually arranged my own charitable giving in other more practical/sustainable ways.
But SB particularly is keen by this idea. I think that some of them are more villagy and less individual. Also, I think that this will reinforce to her what a good thing it is to give generously to those who don’t have enough. She has personally asked to do this in an unprompted car discussion, aware that on our tight budget it will take money from spontaneous trips/ toys [which are rare enough anyway at the mo] So I guess that I think that even if just for a year, we should go with this.
Hm, the charity’s point of view is “But, the charity points out, the direct relationship between the sponsor and the child also gives the child hope through the knowledge that someone cares. Although each is of course different, every sponsored child has one thing in common says World Vision – the knowledge that someone thousands of miles away cares enough about their future to help them. ” Pros and cons of the personal side of it I guess.
Big has talked about this a couple of times, I keep looking into it, and I’m sure sooner or later we’ll do something along these lines. I’d very much prefer something without a religious agenda though.
Awaiting moderation????
Guess this one will probably sink without trace too. This charity appears to be in your general area, and says they are willing for ppl to call them or drop in to discuss the process, could be worth a look?
thanks for that jax. you can see you have been rehabilitated! I think the sos could be worth a look. I was humming and hawing over them as they didn’t seem to give a clear fix. asking all those i can find to send me bumpf – i like to see it written!!
it’s not just me that gets put into moderation then!