Last week I found out that Woman’s World Magazine is doing a story on the Year of Giving. The article will be in the July 19th issue which hits newsstands the week of July 8th. I will post something here when we get closer to the date. The reason I mention this is because last Friday they sent a photographer to take some photos of me giving away my $10.
It was a pretty day and I suggested to Pete, the photographer, that we walk up to Dupont Circle. After arriving, I took some time surveying the potential recipients and found a woman sitting on the grass playing with her daughter. Perfect!
I walked over to Cecilia and explained what I was doing and asked if she would participate. She agreed but mentioned that she might have some difficulties answering some of the questions because as Spanish was her first language. I offered to do the interview in Spanish and she said that that would be more comfortable. Her daughter Emilia was full of energy and a bit awestruck by the attention, especially the camera!
Pete deftly maneuvered around us as we spoke, capturing the scene unfold on his Nikon D300.
Cecilia and Emilia (Photo: Reed)
Cecilia and her family moved here for her husband’s job18 months ago. A teacher back in her native Chile, Cecilia has had to adjust to a lot of new things here in the US. As she is not working while they are here, she has had the opportunity to dedicate the majority of her time to five-year-old Emilia and her nine-year-old brother Santiago. Additionally she has been taking English classes and learning to cook.
Cecilia spoke to me on camera about some of the challenges that living abroad has presented. Besides learning a new language, culture, and city, Cecilia shared that being far away from their family has not been easy. Family serves as our support network in multiple ways. Luckily technology helps minimize that void. I noticed how technology impacted communication from the time I lived in Mexico as an exchange student in 1990 to when I lived in Brazil four years ago. In 1990 I would only call and speak to my family once or twice per month because of how expensive it was. Going back just a few years though, it was not unusual for me to talk to my family several times a week while living in Sao Paulo. Tools like email, Skype, more economically priced long distance service, etc. helped reduce the miles between us.
This video clip of some of my conversation with Cecilia is in Spanish…hopefully this will be an interesting new element to the blog for Spanish-speakers who are following the Year of Giving. And for those who don’t speak Spanish, you might enjoy watching it just to see how playful and happy little Emilia is.
As for the $10, Cecilia shares on the video that “the $10 will travel with me to Chile.” She plans to go next month and will donate the money to the relief efforts for the recent earthquakes there. Thankfully her family and friends are all ok and only suffered minor inconveniences.
On a different note, I want to take this opportunity to share with you some exciting news about me and the Year of Giving. As you know I have been searching for work. I have some good news on this front. No, I didn’t find a job…but I did secure a small consulting project in Manizales, Colombia. Next week I will travel there and spend ten days in the heart of Colombia’s coffee-belt working with a nonprofit foundation with their role in helping the region meet the Ministry of Education’s goal of being a truly bilingual country by 2019!
This is a very exciting opportunity for me and I feel that it will enrich the Year of Giving in many ways as well as change the landscape some and see first-hand how people from another part of the world react to my commitment. I will of course continue my daily giving and blogging. More news on this in the coming days!
Year of Giving 