Final lunar eclipse of 2010 set for early morning of December 21 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

Final lunar eclipse of 2010 set for early morning of December 21 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

I don't think I've ever seen a lunar eclipse. It would be an awesome, glorious sight to see, so I may have to just get up in the middle of the night to see this. On the other hand, I could just stay up until it happens, further exacerbating the problem of my horrible sleeping habits I've developed since getting home for Christmas break.

Either way, I hope to get to see at least part of this eclipse, and I hope you all do to.

I'm back to working and making money finally, though I'd say I much prefer work at Opportunity to working at Russ or Calvin pool...oh well

What I'm Reading: When Helping Hurts

When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself

By: Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

When Helping Hurts is a book that any person who wants to fight poverty should read.  I think it is safe to say that the average person thinks that every bit of giving they do is helpful.  Americans on short term mission trips bring tons of donated clothing, assuming they are helping the poor, but not realizing they’ve just put the local shirt producer out of business.  Development organizations enter poor communities, decide what is needed and carry out their projects; creating dependency, and leading the poor to assume that if they need something all they need to do is sit and wait for a Development agency to do it.  This type of relationship leads to poor communities bringing a laundry list of needs to organizations that work in their country and expecting them to be done through no effort of their own. 

The authors of When Helping Hurts point out the many potential dangers in what we always think of as helpful aid.  Corbett and Fikkert wrote specifically on two important themes: determining the type of aid needed, and asset based community development.  They wrote of three different types of aid; relief – urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering from a natural or man-made crisis; rehabilitation – restoring people and their communities to the positive elements of their precrisis conditions; development – process of ongoing change that moves all people involved closer to being in right relationship with God and the rest of creation.   A key distinction is that relief aid is immediate giving to people in crisis, and rehabilitation can often be giving to people as they recover from crisis.  Development however is not giving to people, but working with people to improve their livelihood. This is what Opportunity does.  We work with our clients, empowering them to pull themselves out of poverty.

The books other main theme is Asset Based Community Development (ABCD).  ABCD focuses not on what a community lacks, but what assets it has, and how to make the most of those assets.  Focusing on assets rather than needs helps build confidence in a community, while encouraging them to maximize returns on their assets.  Again there is a connection with Opportunity.  Most of our clients already have micro-enterprises going; we help empower them to grow and develop these enterprises, taking what they are good at and helping them use it to make a difference in their community. 

For anyone who wants to fight poverty and wants to ensure that their efforts promote effective development, When Helping Hurts is a must read.  

Home...

I'm back in Grand Rapids, and it hasn't really hit me yet (at least I don't think it has) that my semester is done.  This weekend kind of felt normal, since I've visited home on occasion throughout the semester.  As the week goes on I think I'll realize more and more that my semester is done, and my internship at Opportunity International is done.  It's kind of weird not having a set schedule all day long, but I also am kind of liking it, so I'll just enjoy it while it lasts.

On another note, it is SO great to be back with family and friends.  I've gotten to see some friends so far, but there's many more I need to see.

Closing Time

Closing time - time for you to go out, go out into the world.


So I'm sitting here at Opportunity International, for my last half-hour of my fall 2010 internship experience.  It's been a good one, and I've learned a lot.  I can't even say how thankful I am for this experience that I've had.  The staff here have been so incredible, making sure all along the way that this was an educational experience for all of us interns.  I learned so many things, developed many skills, and got to know what it's like to work in a non-profit organization.  


We closed off today with the first ever Opportunity International Chili Cook-Off, hosted by the fall 2010 interns.  It was a great time, and we raised over $120 for Opportunity South Africa.  This group of interns was a ton of fun to work with, and we had a blast, while teaching and learning from each other all along the way.


Closing time - time for you to go back to the places you will be from...


I'm excited to go home tonight, back to Grand Rapids, back to my own house, to my own room, to my own bed.  Mostly I'm just excited and thankful that I get to spend the next almost 2 months spending time with family and friends.  It's been tough being away this semester, especially with the fact that I've been away from Kristen for most of the last 6 months now.  I can't wait to get to just enjoy spending time with her this break.  


Closing time - you don't have to go home but you can't stay here.


I'm not quite at the point of really thinking about DC yet, but at the same time I'm excited for the experiences I'll have living in DC and interning at InterAction.  I'm confident that this internship at Opportunity has prepared me well, and I'm excited for all that I'll learn in DC as well.  


God has been so good to me all of my life, but especially in this year as I've gotten to gain internship experience while living and learning in the great city of Chicago.  Chicago Semester really was an awesome time, and I'm so thankful for all the friends I made and the great times we had.  


So now we're closing up the semester, and we're all getting ready to head home, then graduate later this year and go out into the world.  Some of us are going home, but others are going to be spread out around the world.  


Goodbye to everyone at Opportunity, it's been great working with you.  Goodbye to all my CS friends, it's been a blast.  Goodbye to Grevengoeds, and thanks so much for having me live with you, you really were a blessing.  Goodbye Chicago, I'll be back sometime.


Closing time - every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end... 

What I'm Reading: The Poor Will Be Glad

I got this idea from my internship at Opportunity International.  Once a week they do a blog post "What We're Reading" and it's a review of an article or book someone at Opportunity has read on poverty, microfinance, development, etc. Running with that idea, I'm going to try and occasionally do a "What I'm Reading" post.  This first one is actually a post that I wrote for the Opportunity Blog.

I recently finished reading the book The Poor Will be Glad, written by Peter Greer and Phil Smith. I don’t know about the poor, but reading the book made me glad. The first thing I felt when reflecting on what I had read was the hope it gave me. It also gave me realistic, practical steps that I can take to make a difference in the lives of people living in poverty. Through its stories of financial success and failure, as well as direct, practical guidelines for eradicating poverty, accompanied by incredibly moving photography, The Poor Will Be Glad provides a great balance of the sad reality of poverty with the hope that exists for a revolution.

The book’s stories of failed attempts to help the poor really makes you step back and think: “By trying to help, how can I avoid becoming part of the problem?” At the same time, the book’s presentation ofmicrofinance and the way it has revolutionized development efforts gives cause for great hope.

At Opportunity, we know exactly what the authors mean when they say that microfinance can change the world. In fact, we’ve seen it. The book actually highlights Opportunity as one of the best models for an MFI that does its work in a way that helps the poor build themselves up, creating independence rather than dependence.

The authors also address how faith communities and individuals can get involved in fighting poverty. While they clearly want people to be excited about microfinance (as they should be!) they don’t want their readers getting carried away and running off to try and start their own MFIs without properly examining the feasibility of such an attempt. They do encourage individuals and churches to get involved with MFIs as a way to fight poverty.

Key suggestions for how to have an impact on global poverty:

• Be an advocate – Spread the word about microfinance whenever you get a chance.
• Make a donation – Any amount of giving can help. For the price of a Christmas present one can make a practical difference in the life of an individual in the developing world.
• Fund a community bank – Members of a faith community can work together to raise enough money to fund a community bank loan portfolio. In this way, one community can reach out to directly impact another.
• Fund a project – Pick a specific project to support that is being done by an MFI .

Another important topic with which The Poor Will be Glad deals is the balance between the emphasis on the social needs and the spiritual needs of people living in poverty. For a long time, churches and mission organizations focused only on saving souls. This emphasis ignores the fact that we should spend our time on earth bringing God’s love to the world. That means addressing spiritual and social needs, not one or the other.

This book argues in favor of the very thing that motivates Opportunity’s work: empowering people to work their way out of poverty and responding to Christ’s call to love and serve all people. It is a message of openness and inclusion that resonates with me.

Imperfection

So I said earlier I was going to write about imperfections.  Here I am, writing about imperfections.  Unfortunately I’m also quite tired, so this might be a short post.  My thought about imperfections came about earlier today while I was sitting and watching presentations of our final projects for the Arts & the City class for Chicago Semester, Fall 2010.  One of my friends was performing a song on the piano (I think it was Cannon in D by Pachelbel).  It was a beautiful song, and she performed it beautifully, full of emotion, and with great pace.  She was however, not perfect.  At a few points she got stuck and missed a few notes.  It was a great overall performance, but there were just enough mistakes that I could tell she was pretty nervous and I felt kind of bad for her. 

That led me to my thought about imperfections.  Watching my friend struggle at points in the song actually made me admire her more for what she was doing.  I started thinking about when we had seen the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and when I’ve seen other musical performances, and how perfect they usually are.  It then occurred to me that when you perform every night in front of thousands of people, and you’re perfect every time you have such a high confidence level that it takes absolutely no courage to go out there and perform.  You simply know you’re going to perform well.  The difference here was that my friend wasn’t used to performing in front of people, and she hadn’t done this over and over, so it took a lot of courage.  I also think it’s harder to stand up in front of friends and perform.  When you don’t know the audience it’s easier because you don’t have to worry about what they might say when you’re hanging out with them later.  When you know the people you’re performing to it’s tough because you know that after you perform, you have to go spend time with those people afterwards, and if you don’t perform perfectly you sit there wondering what they’re thinking but not saying (I’ve been there before, it’s not fun). 

So I tip my hat to my friend, and all others who step up and show the courage to perform in front of others even when they know it’s not perfect. 

(I need some kind of tagline to end these posts with, any ideas?)

This week keeps getting busier. I'm not sure when i'll have time to post, but i hope it's soon. I have some thoughts i want to write out.

Imperfections...more on that later

The Decision

No LeBron James doesn't have another 1 hour special on ESPN to announce that he's taking his talents to South Beach.  I'm talking about my decision.

Today was decision day for me in regards to my internship in Washington, D.C. for this upcoming Spring semester.  I had been offered a position at the ONE Campaign, and was waiting to hear back from InterAction after also having an interview there.  Pressure was on, because ONE had said they needed a decision by the end of the day today.  The only problem was that InterAction was my #1 choice, and ONE was second (so ONE was really two, haha bad joke). I went into the day having decided to hold out as long as I could to hear back from InterAction before responding to ONE.

When I got to work this morning at Opportunity, there was a surprise in my email inbox.  InterAction had responded, offering me the internship position.  Excited, and glad that I didn't have to spend today stressing about The Decision, I responded that I would love to accept the position.

Soooo, I'll be interning this Spring with InterAction, an alliance of International Development Organizations that does coordination, organization, and advocacy.

Stay tuned, more to come later on...

Opportunity International Amazing Race

I'm in the middle (more like on the home stretch really) of a competition among interns here at OI.  We get points for different things we do (read a book on poverty, comment on a blog post, write on Opportunity's Facebook page, write a blog post for the Opportunity Blog, etc.).  For most of the semester I had a good lead, but in the last 2 weeks one of the other interns has almost caught me.
The great thing about this is that all the things we can get points for only help to spread the word about Opportunity International and microfinance in general.
I hope I win, but more than that I hope that all the writing and "liking" and commenting I'm doing makes someone take a second look and consider supporting the transformational work of organizations like Opportunity.

Now I Can Email Blog Posts Too

I'm making this easy on myself.  I can now text posts to my blog, email posts to my blog, or actually go on my blog and write a post.  Oh, and I can use Windows Writer to write blog posts when I'm offline. 

Hopefully this will get me to post regularly. 

--
Eric J. Walcott

New Opportunities

This may seem like an odd time to be re-starting my blog, seeing as the semester is coming to a close, and with it my internship in Chicago is also ending.  My original goal had been to blog throughout the semester, telling of my experiences in Chicago and what I'd been up to at my internship. Unfortunately that didn't happen, so here I sit in my last week of my internship, blogging about  what I wish I had blogged about all semester.

This semester has been an incredible 4 months, and a great chance for me to learn a lot about life, international development, microfinanace, non-profit organizations, and myself. For those who don't know, I spent the semester interning with the Resource Development Department at Opportunity International.  I was responsible for writing  reports on our microfinance initiatives around the world, doing research on potential new programs, writing stories about our clients, writing proposals for funding, and writing position papers for the organization.  It was an awesome experience, and I really appreciated that I was pretty much treated like a member of the staff.

Living in Chicago was also a ton of fun. I'll write more about that later though, for now you can check out the blogging I DID do this semester, as I was the student blogger for Chicago Semester Fall 2010.  You can check that our here.

Starting my blog up again. checking to see if this text-to- blog thing works...