Embroidery in Pakastan

I got to use a Kiva credit on a a great loan from Pakistan, to Kalsoom Bibi for her embroidery business. Thanks to Kay for the link.

I posted a blog on Kiva friends showing some of the cool things going on in Second life.

This is a display I just made showing how we turn Lindens into loans. The box is a donation box, lindens go from there to our second life group, through sl exchange and paypal to our kiva lender group, to loans. Our group is set up as a donation, so the money can't be taken out, just perpetually loaned.

Spare Parts and Kiva Org in Second Life

I got a Kiva credit, so rushed off to spend it, and found a great loan for my husband.
Ilkin Khalafov is in Salyan region, Azerbaijan and has a 'spare parts' business.

Yawn. Was up late last night in second life, working on some Kiva displays and a todo list and job descriptions. I need to get more people involved and responsible for things inworld, so more can get accomplished. The plan is to delegate everything I'm doing so things don't fall apart if I"m not around, and to let more things happen. I think we can accomplish a lot with Kiva in Second life. Just need to get organized. Good thing I don't need that much sleep! (I laughed when I got a message this morning from our Kiva SL treasurer Elron saying he had been up late last night working on Kiva things!). I wonder if many non-profits get this kind of volunteerism. The stuff kivafriends is doing is incredible, and I keep finding more and more Kiva stuff going on everywhere.

Sunday's mutterings

I found a great place to donate some of my fabric scraps - to an art director of an inner city LA school that lives relatively near me. She is willing to take all the scraps I can give her, I filled up my trunk today and dropped off a load of about 10 garbage bags. My business (Garb the World) is doing very well and we are generating a lot of scraps; several garbage bags daily. We used to donate them to someone who drove them to the Navaho reservation, but she doesn't do it anymore. I had about 5 people come by to sort through them last week, but they only took away a bag or two. I have been contacted by several other people too. I just don't want it to end up in the landfill. FREE FABRIC SCRAPS. We actually offer them free on our site, but you have to pay for shipping. But finding this person was wonderful, because she will take trims and buttons and anything we have, they have 'nothing' as she says. Maybe my fabric will keep kids out of gangs.

I have been working on some Kiva displays in second life, on a book with all our kiva loans
(www.kiva.org/lender/secondlife1494). I think its good to emphasize how we are changing lindens into loans. We've made 19 loans so far, many from recent donations through our displays and stalls. Can't wait till we get an office. Well, I can wait, the displays aren't ready yet anyhow!

And of course I've been doing Obama things.

"As a citizen, you have a choice between two different paths. One path is
easy. When you turn on the TV or open the newspaper and hear about all
the trouble in the world you could walk away from the stories about Iraq or
poverty or violence or joblessness or hopelessness. Just turn it off and
tune out. That would be the easiest thing in the world to do. There will be
pundits and politicians who will tell you that it's someone else's fault and
someone else's problem to fix.

I am not one of them.

There is a second path. This one is more difficult. It asks more of you. It
asks you to not just pursue your own individual dreams, but to help perfect
our collective dream as a nation. It asks you to realize there is more to life
than being rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained. It asks you to
recognize that there are people out there who need you."

- Barack Obama

Peace rallys and meetings

Went to a peace-rally yesterday. It was the 5th anniversary of Barack Obama's speech where he says NO MORE DUMB WARS. Hard to believe its been so many years. $275 million dollars a day we are spending on our dumb war. And then there is the real loss, the deaths and displacements of so many people. Our troops who will come home to PTSD and not much support. They are already starting to overwhelm our homeless shelters.

Last night was the Obama in Second Life meeting, which I seem to have become the secretary for. It becoming a looooooong primary season.

That ball of white light is actually the owner of the headquarters. You don't have to be human to be a Second Life Obama supporter.

Kiva loans, Obama meetings, and Second Life

Found some great Kiva loans yesterday - To Reymundo Sanchez in Teguigalpa, Honduras, to help him with his corner store. And to Betty Adriazola, La Paz / El Alto, Bolivia. My sister told me about Betty's loan, she is a lender and pointed out it was a 'divorced Betty with 2 kids'. Just like our mom!

I also went to my Obama organizing meeting and of course updated it on my Obama blog. I have too many blogs! I did some fundraising yesterday and will again today to try to get our numbers up for the end of the quarter. Once again its time for the candidates to compare. I am also trying to win a group fundraising challenge - we have a chance of getting a conference call by Obama to our Second LIfe group. That means we will be able to try to get him into Second Life.

IF YOU COULD (American Citizens) could you please consider donating $5 to the Obama campaign through this link? We only need about 3-5 more people to donate to win. The amount doesn't matter but feel free to give more than $5. And it has to be by Sunday Evening (tonight) to count. Donate here. AND THANK YOU.


Please help an avatar talk to her candidate.

Also did some Kiva Second Life Land selling - found a few nice people willing to buy part of the land, then found a wonderful new friend who bought the whole thing then decided to just keep it and pay us the money. She's trying to change the world in Second Life, so I think we'll be having some great discussions. I can't wait to see her land and what she's done. I'm working on a Kiva Yard sale on my land.

Kiva loans and land donations

I got land in second life donated to Kiva today, so I've been trying to figure out how to acquire it without upping my tier. I bought a 512 piece and have it for sale, so Kiva is officially in the real estate SL business. The land was donated with the intent that we will sell it and use the money. We should get about $100 for it. Not bad for a donation of virtual land.

I made two loans today. I found one from Honduras and couldn't resist. Jose Jorge Sauceda sells icecream in Teguigalpa.

I used a Kiva credit this morning to help Tamam Alakbarova, she rents a bathroom.

Second Life Stories

I just posted this to kivafriends.

Here's an update on all the Kiva things happening in Second Life.

We are still waiting for an office in the Non-Profit Commons, but another sim was donated and we are on the 'for sure' list. The price of the first sim was estimated to be $40,000 US dollars, so this is a nice donation. Kiva is very visible in the NPC; Joe and I have been going to the weekly meetings, making Kiva usually one of the only organizations with more than 1 member. Here we are at the meeting last week to discuss the new sim.

Here is one of the weekly meetings. They are on Fridays at 8:30am Pacific Time. Joe and I send each other (instant messages) Ims. Last week was strange, we both got interviewed at the same time by someone (private ims with that person) while we were talking to each other. She took pictures of us and our info is posted here: http://secondlife.techsoup.org/. She put pictures of us up on flicker too. I don't know why my glasses look like sunglasses, but make me look cooler! Especially on my trim, fit avatar body!

Here is the meeting.

The meetings are open to anyone who wants to attend.

You can learn more about it at techsoup.org http://secondlife.techsoup.org/. OH, look, Kiva is at the top of the blog today!
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Elron, the KivaSL group organizer, is busy not just making loans (our lender page is here:http://www.kiva.org/lender/secondlife1494, he is also starting a kiva stall network and selling things in second life to make money for our kiva loans. This group, by the way, is now set up so that the money can't come out, it can only be re-lent. That means you can use donations as a tax-write off, and Elron is organizing all of that (with Fiona's advice). He is also sending out thank you for large donations.
. Elron is setting up a Kiva donation box for me, so the money goes directly to the group and I don't have to do any bookeeping. He also made a 'freebe' box (pictured on the right) which gives you info, the jean jacket, bracelet, etc.
. Here is one of the stalls he has set up, you can see we are in a building in a mall type place. He bought the inventory for resell, so anything anyone buys here goes to our group for loans.

I am going to make some things for him to sell, and I am hoping we will get some creative kiva friends making things also. Its a way we can turn time into money, building isn't that difficult. Explaining to a kiva client how we raise virtual money is probably much, much more difficult.

I am starting (as of about an hour ago) to work with Naomi about recruiting translators in Second Life. I think it might be a great resource, especially since we can go find people who speak a particular language and ask them in person. We can just pop into the Vietnam area, for example and see if we can find someone interested. We will have info in our office to make it easy and fun to volunteer.

Busy week in the UK

I've been in England for the last week, at an international meeting of Genetic Epidemiologists. We are people trying to treat and cure genetic diseases. The meeting was in York and I quite enjoyed the historical city. I also liked hanging out with old friends, and making some new ones.

My Kiva account had $125 credit when I returned (from paid back loans), but I only used $25 to lend to Phally SOK who weaves scarfs in Cambodia. Kiva has been doing very well since President Clinton was on Oprah last week discussing it, and he has mentioned Kiva in his book. Since that time the number of loans have been few and they get funded quickly. I need to do more sharing and let others give their money too. What a great world I live in, where people compete to help others. You live in the world you create, and I am glad I live in a world full of caring people who create positive change in the world. I'm glad I'm not cynical and bitter, as so many people are.

I'm not even that upset that I once again missed meeting Obama, and missed my chance to meet Oprah. I was invited to the event she just had for Obama, but once again I was out of town. I also missed being on a panel for KIVA, but I got a great person to do it and I'm sure Kiva was well represented. I attended a meeting today in second life about a new non-profit sim, that Kiva will have an office in because I have been attending meetings.

KIVA and Obama and TIME.

Well I've been working but I haven't been posting. On Friday I attended my THIRD Obama meeting last week, we have been given direction by the campaign and there is lots to do. Luckily, we are also getting lots of help.
I've also beening doing things in SL for KIVA, and for the new SL Non-Profit Commons. I attended their meeting on Friday and agreed to make the shirt for the opening, which I did yesterday. I'll post a picture of my avatar in it when it gets approved. I'm going to donate a KIVA gift certificate for a door prize.
I made a KIVA display in SL, and now I need to get it to other lands.

Today I attended a meeting for Non-profits in Second Life and have been in contact with several people about other space for KIVA. It was very interesting. I blogged about it on the Kiva friends forumn.

Tonight I am going to sit at a table for Obama that we set up at one of our local street fairs. Its good to have life outside SL too.

Weaving and motocycles

I just couldn't resist helping Heang Loeng in Cambodia with this loan, she wants it for weaving materials and a motorcycle, since I am both a weaver, and a motorcyclist (my last bike was a 750cc Honda).

I am also helping Kiva in Second Life today, I am arranging for a free both for us in a charity mall. 'cause I need one more thing to set up!

More on the Kiva Friends site

The new Kiva friends Second Life Hang out place is coming along. I made my first cut out today, and she will be selling tomatoes.

Second Life and Kiva Friends

Today I set up a virtual place for Kiva Friends to hang in Second Life. We still have a lot of work to do at the place, but so far a few people have dropped by including a president of a NGO in South Africa.

I think it will be a productive, fun place. Can't wait till the Grand Opening Party.

KIVA vitual office in Second Life. That's me!

I spent way to much of today learning about second life, and setting up KIVA information blocks. Thats' my avatar in the picture, with the 5 information files I set up and scripted. Since this picture has been taken I have also set up things inside, and on the roof. Someone gave me a hammock and I put that on the roof and have been napping in it.

I joined a KIVA group that has already amassed enough second life dollars to make 4 KIVA loans (there is a direct translation to real US dollars).