Wow. You know sometimes I’m very humbled by what people do. Check this out. (CNN Online Article: Tech Gurus Use Power of Web to Help Veterans) It’s about some Silicon Valley dudes that wanted to give something back to the military who served and were wounded– people who lost arms and legs and more in this war. They’re using Craigs List and another program I hadn’t heard of, Kiva.org, which was originally designed to help put investors together with people from needed circumstances (like third world countries). It’s tres cool. You can check out some of the stories on their homepage — www.USAtogether.org. I’ve posted the one below. This guy’s an ex-marine who’s gotten laid off from his job (I’ve deleted his prof experience part except for the military piece–he’s quite experienced if anyone wants to look it up–and his education–and yes, he has some engineering from college). The pages tell their story and they are only looking for the bare minimum from what I can see. Some don’t even WANT money, like this guy I posted about. Sounds like a good dude. He’s in construction.

You’ll see on here that many of these folks are suffering from PSTD. Many of you know I’m a soldier’s wife. He’s been over there three times. I know how hard it is. Yet we barely hear about the suffering that our soldiers have. Yes, for a war, compared to the past, we’ve lost fairly few. But the injuries haunt us and will continue to haunt us as a people. You and me. These folks come home scared and often end up as homeless. And that’s what we give our soldiers who’ve fought the fight we’ve asked as a country? Whether you agree with the war or not, the grunt, the soldier, only follows orders — those duties he/she is told to do by the people we elect.

Ok, enough off my soapbox. Whew! Anyway, check these guys out, and the Kiva guys too. It’s really neat to touch someone so intimately–even over the web.

~ Lise

_______________________A PAGE FROM USAtogether.ORG________________________________________

Tags: Action, action adventure, adventure, CNN, danger zone, Danger Zone Authors, Disabled Vets, Help for Disabled Veterans, Help for Veterans, Iraqi War, Lise Fuller, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley Gurus, Silicon Valley help, Silicon Valley volunteers, Veterans, War in Middle Eat

Well, the country’s much more upbeat I’m thinking with the inauguration. Obama has asked that the country get involved and I found a link on the new website for the white house to do just that. Here it is:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/opl/

And check out the new website–just updated right after Obama took office. It’s www.whitehouse.gov. (Make sure it’s .gov!)

I’m thinking I might actually do this when we move to the DC area…

Lise

Tags: action adventure, getting involved in politics, Lise Fuller, politics, white house, writing

Eighth article of my trip to Guatemala.

As promised, here’s some closer pics of the town we worked around.

Here’s some local flora and fauna–a flowering plant of some kind, the chickens that ran everywhere, bananas and a coffee tree.

To the right is a picture of a waterfall which feeds into the Chocola stream.

And here’s more pictures of the town. The town even sports an Alcoholics Anonymous.

First is our crew on a tour–see the cobbled street?  Then a small corral. The next is a picture of a few of the small monuments commemorating the water project that had cleaned up the water at one time. The next is part of the row of stores that were on the main street.

This next one is a picture of one of the bars.

As I mentioned before, everyone liked to play soccer at the end of the day.

And this last one is a back side of part of the plantation. The plantation had a pool at one time and was filled by the canal system the Germans had built.

Next time ~ the plantation.

Blessings,

Lise

Tags: action adventure, archaeology, chocola, Guatemala, pictures