Wonderful Friday!

[Cadiz]

Friday is our first day of the weekend here in the Middle East so I am spending most of it writing. Was editing my previous book earlier today, but this afternoon is dedicated to my latest book about a Missionary woman running a home for war orphans on the Kenyan border near Somalia. Her fiancée, who worked for UNICEF, had been killed in an attack by Al-Shabaab on a UN convoy in Somalia a year before, so she took over this failing orphanage that they had planned to try to turn around together.

 

[Steven Mathews]

Day off here as well. This has been a short week because of the Kuwait National Day and Liberation Day holidays. Working around the house and hope to write later.

 

[Steven Mathews]

Hopefully, your writing went well. Do you have a name yet for the new book? Fiction?

 

[Cadiz]

Sorry, slept last night but back writing today. The name of my book I am working on now is: FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN MERCY. It is a most fictional story based on a real person and stems from a sad but unfortunately real event.

 

[Steven Mathews]

Sad. Iraq?

 

[Cadiz]

No, Somalia. Al-Shabaab suicide bomber attack on a UNICEF convoy that was providing medical assistance to children.It killed this woman's fiancee who is the person the story is based on. I mean she is the woman who the story is based on.

 

[KateESal]

Cadiz, for someone so upbeat (certainly, that's how your posts come across) you have known a lot of pain...your own and that of others. The fact that you are making it into something positive...telling the stories...is even more impressive. I take my hat off to you.

 

[Cadiz]

Somehow it has something to do with seeing people like Roza (above) who somehow manage to continue and live to help others even after going through huge tragedies. I only hope that my sorely limited writing skills can do justice to their stories.

 

[Monarch]

For the last six years I’ve been sponsoring a young girl from Chad through World Vision. From her letters and pictures it’s apparent that I’m making some significant difference to her life and to the life of her family. Each year I also send an additional monetary gift, which the family uses to purchase food, seeds for planting, cakes of soap, extra school supplies, etc. I guess she thinks I’m rich, as she recently asked—get this—if I owned a donkey! I’m not rich, of course, but what do I say to that when I in fact drive a model year 2018 Italian sports car? But we in the west need to recognize how fortunate we are, and to do what we can (even if it’s as little as I’m doing) to help make the lives of a few people somewhere else better and more hopeful.

 

[Cadiz]

For the last six years I’ve been sponsoring a young girl from Chad through World Vision.

While they say you can't help everyone, you can darned well make a difference in the lives of a few.You are definitely making a difference for her.

This is a bahay kubo like I grew up in with no electricity and the only water was from a hand pump outside . I have worked hard in the Middle East and through that have built a concrete house for my mother and one by one for my brothers. Now all of the nieces and nephews (yes there are a lot) come to my mother's house in the morning on the way to school, eat a good meal and then continue to school. After they leave school they do the same on the way home. Now I have two in university and four university graduates (a chemical engineer, a civil engineer, an accountant and a nurse).... not to mention my own children in the university. Yes, you can make a huge difference.

This is from my most recent trip home in the house I built for my mother. Only a few of the nieces, lots more. Hey, we are Catholic...

 

[Monarch]

While they say you can't help everyone, you can darned well make a difference in the lives of a few.You are definitely making a difference for her.
View attachment 5081
This is a bahay kubo like I grew up in with no electricity and the only water was from a hand pump outside . I have worked hard in the Middle East and through that have built a concrete house for my mother and one by one for my brothers. Now all of the nieces and nephews (yes there are a lot) come to my mother's house in the morning on the way to school, eat a good meal and then continue to school. After they leave school they do the same on the way home. Now I have two in university and four university graduates (a chemical engineer, a civil engineer, an accountant and a nurse).... not to mention my own children in the university. Yes, you can make a huge difference.
View attachment 5082
This is from my most recent trip home in the house I built for my mother. Only a few of the nieces, lots more. Hey, we are Catholic...

Amazing, Cadiz, you must be the family hero! That grass house is about what Mamaje’s looks like, only better. Yes, I chose a girl because studies show that you can do the most good by educating and helping to lift up the women. There were lots of little boys pictured that had the same birthday as me (how they help you narrow down your choices) and I hated to pass over them, but unfortunately you do have to choose. So impressive that you were able to rise above poverty and help so many in your family, you will be remembered long after you are gone.

 

[Steven Mathews]

...but unfortunately you do have to choose.

So true, and sometimes a sad thing. Unfortunately, I have come to the same opinion of whether it is better to help the boys or girls in third world countries. I have tried to help a number of the boys, but it is the girls were I have seen the better return on helping to financially uplifting the family. The girls just seem more willing to work and share where more of my nephews are more focused on themselves. In many third world countries it isn't difficult to live while poor, there is always someone to ask a handout from. I was saddened when I was looking for one of the girls to bring over to work in a restaurant in Dubai. She was a sweet and hard-working girl, but I was so disappointed when I overheard one of my brothers telling her father, "Once she goes overseas and starts sending money home you will never have to work again." No, no, no, no. That isn't why I wanted her to come so I insisted that the first thing she does is to set up a savings account for her own future where most of her salary would go. I heard so many sad stories of girls working for years, even skipping their vacations every year just so they could send a little more home only to find that the house that was supposedly being built of the store that was supposed to be established was never even started and the money was all spent on their father or their 'husband's' drinking and chasing girls. That was always so sad.

 

[Monarch]

So true, and sometimes a sad thing. Unfortunately, I have come to the same opinion of whether it is better to help the boys or girls in third world countries. I have tried to help a number of the boys, but it is the girls were I have seen the better return on helping to financially uplifting the family. The girls just seem more willing to work and share where more of my nephews are more focused on themselves. In my country it is so easy to live poor, there is always someone to ask a handout from. I was saddened when I was looking for one of the girls from my barangay (something like a village or district) to bring over to work in a restaurant in Dubai. She was a sweet and hard-working girl, but I was so disappointed when I overheard one of my brothers telling her father, "Once she goes overseas and starts sending money home you will never have to work again." No, no, no, no. That isn't why I wanted her to come so I insisted that the first thing she does is to set up a savings account for her own future where most of her salary would go. I heard so many sad stories of girls working for years, even skipping their vacations every year just so they could send a little more home only to find that the house that was supposedly being built of the store that was supposed to be established was never even started and the money was all spent on their father or their 'husband's' drinking and chasing girls. That was always so sad.

Thanks for the added insight, Steven. I suppose there are no easy solutions. Very sad. If I were the “Monarch” of the world, I think I would abdicate and let women run it. At least women can comprehend the concept of a future, and if “mankind” could live for the future, and for their grandchildren and great grandchildren, how much better the world would be.

 

[KateESal]

Looks like y'all may agree with Keb' Mo':

 

[Monarch]

Looks like y'all may agree with Keb' Mo':

Broken link, at least on my iPad. Found it elsewhere, though. Catchy tune!