caring enough to give the gift of heifer

I'm sure a lot of people don't want to hear about it, but christmas is already in the works this year. I don't do too much for the holiday, so I'm not really getting ready right now, but I do know some people are already done with their gift buying. Might as well get it done early, right!

That's why I'm here. To help all of you folks who want to find the perfect gift for the person who has everything. How about a heifer! That's right, for the low, low price of $500, you can buy your loved one a brand new heifer!

Ok, so you can't EXACTLY do that, but you sort of can. I heard about this before, but I never got the catalog. It is actually called "The most important gift catalog in the world." Yep. The entire world. It's a charitable organization called Heifer International that allows you to buy animals for families in need. I'm pretty sure that most of these families are in different countries, though I haven't seen the statistics. It is possible that a family in southern Nevada got a goat and is enjoying its milk as we speak.

AND, a goat is only one of the many animals that you can buy for people. You can also get pigs, sheep, rabbits, chicks, bees and more. I would like some rabbits. Ya know, if you're looking to get me something. Bees would be nice too.

I don't usually get all sappy and contemplatative...uh...contemplative...er...contemplatating... ...emotional, but it's fascinating to read the stories from these people. There is a story in the catalog about a family that got a goat. Then the goat had kids. Then they sold one of the kids for $200. This allowed them to put a tin roof on their house. And by house, I think they mean a hut of some sort that is made of sticks. Previously, their roof was made of grass. Oh...and they had money left over for the kids to go to school. Not the goat kids, but the actual human children.

Here's what I would do with an extra $200...that I might get from selling a goat. I could buy some DVDs of TV shows I like. Maybe get a fancy new cell phone. Or buy some comic books...which I could then fashion into a roof on top of a fort that I made out of blankets and the couch. So...I'm kinda like that family from Uganda...like, .00001% like them.

I'm not writing this to guilt you into buying a sheep for a family in Ecuador. I can't afford most of the gifts in the catalog. I just thought it was interesting. I'm sure we all forget what it's like in other parts of the world. I'm no different. I guess it's just one of those reminders to be thankful for what we have.

Ugh...too sappy. True, but sappy. Like, just tapping the maple tree sappy.

I'm off to find some pancakes.

Enjoy!

-DJ