Give money or lend money?

Hi Guys - I'm back, and amazingly not sunburned. Devera is a little fish now, spending a good 18 hours a day stuck to the side of the pool like a little snail. She thinks she's a mermaid now.

Anyway, I wanted to share this cool site with you. It's called Kiva.com and it's a micro-lending site for disadvantaged people across the world. I don't know if you've heard about micro-lending, but here's my take on it...so, some woman in Somalia with 6 kids sells drinks by the side of the road to make enough money for her family. She knows she can really hit it big time if she can buy a bike so that it doesn't take her 4 hours to get to where she needs to go.

Good lord, I can loan her money to buy a bike. I could just give her the money and call it a day, but I like the idea of a loan, because it teaches you a little money management in the mean time. She's going to make enough to pay me back over a period of time.

Cool concept, huh? I think the guy who won the nobel peace price did because he set up a microlending network in like bangladesh or something. So, I think I'm going to start investing some of my tobyDESIGN profits in Kiva.com and see if I can spread the joy a little. Right now I'm investing in a Taro Plantation and a Mat Weaving business in Samoa. We'll see what kinds of captains of enterprise these women can become. I've got my fingers crossed for them.