This and That

Wow – it was 14C under a sunny sky with just a light breeze for this morning’s walk.  It has been so long in coming this year that it doesn’t seem real to be so nice out – LOL

When Chester and I were taking our walk, there were bunches of kids running along there – so, not too much chance of seeing any wildlife this morning.  I did manage to see one male Wood Duck, but he was behind branches and I just couldn’t get a picture of him.  So – my only walk picture is of the big tree across the Red River – not so much to show the water, since it is going down now – but to show the green leaves finally starting to open. 

Big Tree across the Red River

It is time to check and see what is going on at Africam today.  Click here to see today’s pictures.

You will also find a blog here to promote buying stamps for snail mail to help save threatened animals.

It is time to mention Kiva again now too.  The last person I lent money too on Kiva is paying back on time and before long, I will have the money back in order to loan it to another person.  It’s a win/win situation.  Take a look and see if you might be able to help someone out.

Tuesday, Tuesday

I was going to post this yesterday, but would have had to call it Monday, Monday – but since there is a song called Monday, Monday and I didn’t want to break any copyright rules – so I had to wait for Tuesday.  So – today is Tuesday and the snow is finally starting to melt!!!!!

The temperature is starting off at 0C and is supposed to go up to (drum roll please) +5C.  Tomorrow they are saying rain and +4C.  There is so  much snow to go, but a few more days with temperatures like this and we will start seeing the ground soon. 

While we’re on the subject of snow – I have a couple of rants (of course).   The neighbour across the lane and down a house, has his garage turned to face the street – so he doesn’t use the lane at all.  On Sunday, he decided to shovel snow from his gate and garbage cans and he piled it on the lane.  If he had spread it around, it wouldn’t have been too bad, but he piled it about 2 feet high on one of the tracks and in the middle of the lane.  There is no way my car could have gone through that or any of the smaller cars.  In order to come and go, I had to drive to the far end of the lane until a few  trucks has passed by and squashed it down.  I can not understand why anyone would not even consider their neighbours before doing that.  If it hadn’t been for the work involved, I was seriously thinking of shoveling it all back against his gate.  Then, just before leaving for work yesterday, I looked out to see if the mailman had come, only to see a 3 foot pile of snow at the end of my sidewalk.  It seems the sidewalk plow had gone by and instead of pushing the snow on the boulevard side of the sidewalk, they pushed it on the residence side, leaving this huge pile.  I do not use the front sidewalk myself, but if I ever want to receive bills and stuff from the mailman, I had to clear that snow.  It must have been done the day before – so it was nice and hard and heavy to move.

Chester and I had a nice walk along the Red River this morning.  The temperature had risen to +2 and it was a nice sunny morning.  

While I was typing this, I was watching an elephant at Tembe on Africam.

Elephant at Tembe

Kiva

I have talked about Kiva before, but thought it was worth talking about again.

Through Kiva, you can lend money to a person who usually just needs a very small amount (by our standards) to get their business going or improve their business enough to support themselves and/or their family.  You can loan as little as $25. or as much as you want.  Shortly after the entire loan has been made, the recipient begins making payments.  In the several loans that I have made, every cent has been returned – but there is no guarantee that every person will fully replay the loan.

Once the loan is repaid, you can either take the money back or loan it to someone else.  I have re-loaned the same $25.00 over and over again.  Kiva asks for a donation of $3.75 to help cover their costs, but you are not required to donate this in order to lend the money.  I have donated most times and said no on occasion.

Today I loaned $25.00 to David Njai from Kenya.  He is wanting to borrow $725.00 to purchase fertilizer and pesticides for his farm.  He still needs $600.00 before he can get going on this, so hopefully more people will lend him money to help him meet his goal.

Most of the loans are under $1,000.00 but sometimes a group of people will ask together for a little more.  To some of these people $200.00 would make a huge difference in their lives and help them to support their families.

Take a minute to check Kiva out.  If you have a paypal account, it is easy to transfer a few dollars from your account to Kiva’s account and help someone out.

It has started to warm up here.      This morning it is -15C and is supposed to be going up to a balmy -4C.       They are even talking about + temperatures within the next few days.     Today’s walk with Chester along the Red River should be a little longer and quite a bit more pleasant than it has been for much of the cold winter.

I see that I missed a pack of wild dogs at Elephant Plains on Africam this morning.   There is a video though    and you can see them here.  Here is another great video from yesterday when the lions were at Tembe.

For the picture of the day, I’ll give you three zebras having a drink at Tembe early this morning.

Zebras at Tembe

Kiva

I have been associated with Kiva.org for some time now.  This is an organization that allows for small businesses to take out loans, using money from several different lenders.  Many lenders just lend small amounts (as I have been doing).  You choose the person, business or group of people that you wish to loan your money to.  I normally lend $25.00 at a time.  Once the borrower gets the full amount of the loan that he or she is asking for, the business gets moving and as money allows, this loan is paid back with the payments being divided among the lenders.  Once you get a minimum of $25. back, you can then re-invest it in another loan – or take it back yourself.   You can actually take it back as it is repaid, but the minimum to loan is $25.

I just made my third loan today.  The first one had been completely repaid, the second on is more than 1/2 repaid and the third one has almost collected enough to begin working. 

You can check Kiva out yourself by going to http://kiva.org/

The loans are made through paypal, but you do not need a paypal account to make your loan, although you would probably have to have one to take your money back.  I enjoy just lending it to another person who is just starting up though.

It is really exciting to watch these small businesses grow and operate on budgets that are very tiny to most of our ways of thinking.  It is hard to think about starting up a business with only a loan of $200.00, but that is only what some of these people are asking and many are asking for even less.

There is always a possibility that the borrower will be unable to repay the money, but most seem to be doing just fine.