Christmas

I was thinking about gifts the other day. A friend reminded me of how cheaply I can bless others with animals, fruit trees, etc. that would give them an incredible economic boost, and I thought, "oh this is nice but not for me-I'm a poor college student." I've been looking at iPods, thinking about which one I'd like to get, and the special edition (PRODUCT) RED nanos looked interesting, and $10 (of $250) goes to help fight AIDS in Africa. "Aww, cute!" I thought, and more or less decided to get that one instead of a plain old (yet perfectly sufficient) Shuffle. THEN Jon D's blog sent me to globalrichlist.com where I learned I was in the top 15% of richest people in the world. Even with my student's wages. The website told me that, with $73 I could buy a new mobile phone OR a new mobile health clinic to care for AIDS orphans in Uganda.

Embarrassing, isn't it...that I would consider a $250 toy that would give $10 to the "Global Fund" instead of a $70 version which would enable me to give basic health supplies to orphans?

I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.
~C.S. Lewis

africa 007
Originally uploaded by sumiknik.