For Christmas this year, my dad gave a donation in our honor to Solar Cookers International, a non-profit organization working to help promote solar cookers and teach people how to use them.

Wow. These people are doing good work. You start clicking around the website and it's amazing how many ways solar cookers can make a difference for people: "reduced spending on fuels; decreased exposure to smoke, ash, and flames; and less time and energy spent collecting fuel to name a few."

This bit from one of their newsletters made me cry:

Fifty women with leprosy were trained in early 2007. With the loss of nerve sensation caused by the disease, traditional open fire cooking can be dangerous for these women because they can unknowingly get burned. Another benefit is that the women have increased status in the community because they now know something that most don’t: how to cook food with the sun.

Isn't it a thrill to get a gift like this? My daughter gave me a goat thru World Vision that will provide milk and cheese and yogurt and fertilizer to a family in a country short on protein. I almost cried!

An excellent gift, Lexica (all I got was a pair of slippers ) as brilliant as Masbury's goat gift.

It was your comment about the goat that reminded me to clip the SCI page! And a good thing, too – Spiritualmonkey was reading over my shoulder as I wrote the comment and said, "Hey, wait, that was a Christmas gift from your dad? That wasn't just a 'hey, kid, here's the newsletter from a nifty organization I just learned about'? Cool!"

Instead of giving each other gifts, a friend and I have just signed up to split and sponsor a kid in Kenya. We wanted to pick a girl, but then the choices where:

A girl
A boy
The child who has waited the longest.

(That made me cry.) Of course we picked the last option. We'll get a picture too. I am very excited about that.

http://plan-international.dk/

a friend and I have just signed up to split and sponsor a kid

That came out wrong. I mean, we're splitting the cost.

a friend and I have just signed up to split and sponsor a kid