Nine Million Refugee Children

I’ve been experiencing the worst case of “heal the world” syndrome lately and it seems there is always more I can do, but never enough; money, time, hands, etc. Habitat for Humanity has always been an organization I’ve reached down into my pockets blindly and given what I could, when I could and if ever I could do the same for another organization it would have to be ninemillion.org. Their commercials have worked their way into my mind and the website is far more gripping. Just reading the accounts of refugee children from Uganda, Azerbaijan and Thailand has me real worked up now. I’ve just traveled to three countries I’ve never set foot on in one of the most disheartening ways, yet I hope to some day go and lend more than an online donation. Maybe a smile, a story or a very extra elbow-greased limb to contribute by whatever means necessary will do the trick. Until that times comes the least I can do is spread the word.

There are 20.8 million refugees in the world. Nine million are children. See how you can get involved. Donations in any amount go a long way.

Word for the Travel Wise (08/03/06)

Whoa! Now here’s a cool affair to attend if you have the time, money and desire to travel Mongolia. Apparently 2006 is the 800th anniversary of Great Mongolian State and Mongolians are planning several events to help visitors follow in the footsteps of the great Genghis Khan. The trip looks to be made on horseback and details about the historical expedition can be found at Discover Mongolia. You better act fast though if you’re really interested in something like this – trip dates are only slated for August 13-22, 2006 and September 3-12, 2006. As Neil mentioned sometime ago, there is no better way to explore Mongolia than on horseback. All-in-all it seems like a win-win situation for anyone who actually makes the journey over.

Today’s word is a Mongolian word used in Mongolia:

mori – horse

Mongolian is an Altaic language and spoken by over two million people throughout Mongolia (where it has official language status) and by up to three million people in northern China. Wikipedia doesn’t offer much for increasing your Mongolian vocabulary, but it has great background information. Learning Mongolian online will be tough without an understanding of their alphabet or script used. Omniglot is the perfect place to begin to start learning the alphabet. For quick reference use LP’s Mongolian Phrasebook on your trip.

World Recipe Book

People that like to cook already know about these things, but since I just blogged about fortune cookies I figured I may as well provide those of us that occasionally like to try something new every now and then with a worldly recipe site. The World Recipe Book online has over 21,000 free recipes online now as of 2005. I went looking through some and I have to tell you pictures are everything and what many of these recipes are missing. I like to see what the dish I’m going to be cooking is supposed to look like, but that could just be me. Other than that I haven’t any real complaints. Look up Jewish fare, Korean or a chutney dish to whip up for the weekend. Yum.

Make Fortune Cookies

One night when I called one of my close friends she rushed me off the phone because she was in the middle of cooking. When I asked what was on the menu and whether or not see needed any taste-testers she quickly told me she was ruining the fortune cookies and had to go. Fortune cookies? Huh? Who on the planet makes fortune cookies? I thought a machine did that… How do you make fortune cookies? You can make them at home? After talking with her I wanted to look up a fortune cookie recipe to see what step she could have been at to be ruining the folded cookie like treats. After checking it out I’m not sure which it was and I’m sure glad she didn’t needed a taste-tester.

I won’t try this one, but FoodNetwork.com has one from their Sweet Dreams episode if anyone is interested. In summary the prep time is what gets you in making the cookies. They take an hour of prep, 24 minutes to cook and yield about 20 cookies. This could be a fun way to travel to Asia by way of food with friends or family on an evening stuck in the house.

Gay Travel Phrase Book

Everyone here knows I’m into learning as much and many foreign words as my brain can possibly soak in, which is why this particular book caught my eye. I’m a straight woman so I don’t know how far some of the phrases in eight different langs will take me in some place like Portugal, but I find it might help someone. I saw this one over at Get Lost Books and laughed at first because I don’t know any of my gay pals that would use this book. (Unless they’re secretly doing so.) According to the short blurb on Get Lost Books the most interesting part of the book are the euphemisms for being gay in different lingos with literal English translation. For example: “he’s from third parish” or “slipped an okra.” That was in English and I’m still confused.

Oh well.