halloween to thanksgiving

I love making travel plans. I’m not sure if I would enjoy doing this for a living, but I sure enjoy doing the research before I visit a new place. I make packing lists and spreadsheets, I detail the places I want to visit, I analyze costs, and I make more lists of the gifts and supplies I bring to my hosts. The Internet makes planning easy, but I also swear by the Lonely Planet guidebooks. Aside from a month I spent in Spain with my maternal relatives, this may be the longest time I’ve been away from home.

My itinerary is confirmed:

• Oct 31 - Depart SFO for Taipei
• Nov 2 - Arrive in Bangkok at 2am, catch a Druk Air flight to Dacca, Bangladesh, arrive in Paro, Bhutan at 11am
• Nov 17 - Depart Paro for Bangkok
• Nov 27 - Depart Bangkok for SFO

I’m especially looking forward to seeing my friends Cameron and Dale in BKK. Cameron is a medical researcher for Unicef, and Dale is teaching English. I hope to visit with them for a few days before flying up to Chiang Mai. It seems that all the times we’ve crossed paths has been during the whirlwind of Pride activities here in San Francisco. This time, I get to play the jet-lagged visitor.

an ocean full of drops

If one person can do a little, than imagine what many people together can do.

In 2005, Matt Flannery left his job at TiVo to found Kiva.org, a microfinance non-profit organization that provides microloans to entrepreneurs in the developing world. Since its inception, Kiva has funded over 56,000 loans with a total value of $39.6 million USD, and less than a 1.54% default rate.

Meet some of the folks I’ve helped:

Sorn Mon, 42, and her husband, Kong Chey, 45, were married in 1984 and have five children, four sons and one daughter. Two of their sons work full time and the others are in school. The family lives across the Mekong River and about 17 km from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Mrs. Sorn has been in the business of selling fish for two years. She buys some of them from the market and some from her husband’s fishing to resell in the village. Her husband has been a fisherman for ten years. Doing this, they can earn between 20,000-30,000 riel a day, about $4.50 to $7.25 USD.

She received a loan of $500 to purchase lattices for repairing her house. Since receiving funding in May, Mrs. Sorn has already repaid 25% of her loan.

Long Nhek, 61, is a widow with three children, two sons and one daughter. One of her sons is married and lives outside the family home. Her other son one runs a motor taxi, and her daughter weaves silk at home. The family lives on an Island on the Mekong River about 15 km from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Mrs. Long has been a weaver for 45 years, a skill she learned from her mother. She sells her finished products to the middle man in the village, who will take it to sell in Phnom Penh. She has two looms in the family; one is for her daughter and other is her own. Though she is in her early 60s, she is still strong enough to work.

She received a loan of $1,000 to purchase silk materials for weaving and buy a new motorbike taxi to replace her son’s old one. Mrs. Long has already repaid 15% of her loan.