Thanks Tamara!

A note from my friend Tamara Starke O'Shaughnessy:

"Hey, you can chalk up another $50 toward your fundraising goal. I just did an online donation to Raising Malawi. I attended an AMA conference this week on non-profit marketing and there was someone there from CARE, who mentioned her recent trip to Malawi and the work they're doing there. It reminded me of your cause and thought I'd give you a little help :-) Good luck!"

It's so nice to have friends who a) hear Malawi, b) think Julia plus one million little orphans and c) donate to Raising Malawi. It gives me such a huge sense of purpose in the world. Otherwise, there's a chance I'd just lay around watching a lot of trash TV and cuss at commercials. A small chance, but it could happen.

Tamara and I used to work together at a research company in Chicago. Some of our cooler projects had us going to Disney Epcot Center a lot.

Oh, and then there was the Norman Rockwell museum project in Stockbridge, MA that afforded us a stay at the ever-so-charming Red Lion Inn, built in the 18th century. I believe a squirrel in the attic kept Tamara up all night. I slept OK. (I'm more of a W girl myself, though). Anyway, all sorts of good memories of and with Tamara. For whatever reason, the one that really sticks with me is the one she used to tell about her conversations with her grandma. They'd go like this:

Grandma: What did you have for dinner, Tamara?

Tamara: I had [insert meal here]. What did you have Grandma?

Grandma: A really nice piece of fish.

That's it. It cracks me up. Evidently, every dinner her Grandma ate consisted of a really nice piece of fish. I still have Tamara's Grandma in my head whenever I eat dinner. As a fish-aterian for the past 17 years, I almost always have a nice piece of fish.

Oh, and then there's the time I crashed her and her sister's trip to Italy. Here's a :59 clip of that very extraordinary trip! (Note: I am passed out on the stairs in the opening scene, but I swear that is totally posed).

Trailer for Tuscany 2K

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All that's to say, THANK YOU, TAMARA!

This brings our the total dollars raised to date (7/18/08) to $33,896.29.

Keep it coming, and thank you everyone for making a difference to not only end the horrors of extreme poverty, but for helping to build the systems to create prosperity in Malawi and the world over.