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MckMama is no longer in Kenya and has flown with the GHNI crew to Ethiopia. She will be asking her readers to commit to "adopt" another village and will be looking for another 99/100/101 readers to participate in this campaign. Readers will be asked to contribute $12 per month for the next 3-5 years while the village learns to self-sustain.

In the meantime, many questions about how GHNI teaches the villagers to self-sustain have not been answered. The most common questions that still remain are: What does GHNI provide to the villagers? How much of the monthly contributions directly impacts those villagers? How does that money impact the villagers? Do the villagers receive food, supplies, etc. from GHNI or just guidance and support? In the week that MckMama was in Ola Nagele, did anything get done besides the installation of the pipe? Does social media really play any role in all of this other than helping to spread awareness and solicit donations for the cause? Why is MckMama there? Couldn't someone from GHNI, etc. have provided MckMama with photos and videos to post on her blog? Couldn't she have done that from home? Why was it necessary for her to be there? Is any work (other than blogging, taking pictures, recording videos, tweeting, posting on Facebook, etc.) actually being done by all of those individuals who are on this trip? Are they just there to document and report back?

As she is now in her second week of this trip, I would have hoped that her readers would have the answers to most of these questions above.

Again, I would always encourage everyone to do their own research before donating to any cause or charity. I think this is even more important when the donations are ongoing. Charity Navigator evaluates over 5,500 charities and is a great resource when you are conducting research about organizations you are considering.

Amy over at Naptime Crafters has been hosting an American Crafters competition. I entered on a whim and discovered that out of 130 people I was chosen 2nd in the audition round! Crazy! I've made it to round three and would really appreciate your help. I'd love to go to the finals...but I need your vote. You can vote for three projects and if mine happens to be one that you vote for I would very much appreciate it.

This round we had to make something "vintage". I really struggled with what to make and when I finally came up with something it came together really quickly. I went with a little diorama and think it turned out really cute! Hope you like it. Would love to make one of these of my house! So if you'd like to vote for me you can do so...here until Sunday at midnight.

MckMama's still in Africa.

Despite the fact that her current trip to Africa is with GHNI (Global Hope Network International), MckMama was able to arrange a visit with two of the children that she sponsors through Compassion International. MckMama arranged these visits at her expense. Per her blog post, she was going to travel 4 hours to meet up with the children and one of the children was going to have to travel 6-7 hours (each way) to visit with her.

She also posted on her blog today with a Q & A post where she answered questions that have been posted by her blog readers. Unfortunately, those questions and answers don't address the more common questions about this trip: Why is she there? What does GHNI really do? What type of work is being done by the individuals who are on this trip? How will teaching social media (Twitter, Tumblr, Skype, etc.) to these villages help them? There are a lot of vague descriptions about the protocols and practices of GHNI, but there are not any clear answers about the methodology that is used.