Shawn Burke's Blog

For the last few years, I've been working on strategies to declare a gift truce with my family.  For some reason, I don't want people buying me things most of the time - I've got enough stuff already!   An added complication is that I don't seem to be able to understand the reciprocal nature of a "truce" as I keep buying things for other people anyway, ruining the whole thing.  

Anyway, this year I suggested my family to make donations to charities in lieu of a gift purchase.  I gave them some suggestions of causes that I support, and then kind of forgot about it.

In late December, just a few days apart, I got two emails announcing that a goat had been purchased in my name from Heifer International.   I know, seems like they'd only do cows, right?  But it's cool - basically they give a family in a developing nation an animal that can eat just about anything and offer protein (milk, etc) in return, as well as an income source.   It's a cool program, and my (divorced) parents each came across it independently and decided that was what they'd do, and I thought it was a great gift.  I kind of wish I'd get little goat updates along the way, you know, the goat's name, its family, and what sort of crazy goat antics it's been up to...but I guess that's probably asking a lot.

Kind of off the topic, but if you're interested in using some of your extra dollars to help other people around the world, I'd highly recommend checking out Kiva.Org, which is another really cool way to make a difference right from your comfy chair.