The earthquake that hit L’Aquila, Italy was devastating. The number of dead keeps increasing and so does the rubble.
A 98 year old woman was trapped within the rubble of her home for 30 hours. How did she survive the ordeal? She crocheted! Maria D’Antuano was rushed to the hospital for further observation.
Well, she didn’t have anything better to do with her time! I can imagine this unflabble attitude in the face of crisis is what has lead her through her 98 years.
What do you think your future would hold if your grew up in Southern Sudan? How about if at the age of 7 you family was torn apart by war? Now what if you were taken away from the violence to another country only to find yourself forced into fighting someone else’s war? Do you think if you escaped you could then make something of yourself and help others in the process?
That is Emmanuel Jal’s story. Jal is a former child soldier who grew up in Sudan. He saw his Aunt raped before his eyes. His Father went off to fight the war and his Mother was murdered. His future was pretty slim.
It gets worse. Jal was was taken to Ethiopia for a chance at a better life. But it didn’t happen. He was forced to join the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) and found himself back in in Sudan. He was a soldier at the age of seven. And, that was his life for the next five years.
Emma McCune, an aid worker from England, entered his life in the early 1990s. McCune saved his life by smuggling him to Kenya. He was maybe 13 at the time. She raised Jal and gave him a chance to survive.
Jal saw alot of violence during his childhood years. His exposure to rap music gave him an escape from the horrors of his past.
Jal is now a recording artist. He also speaks before such esteemed bodies as the United Nations. He spends his time making music and spreading the word about his life. There is even a documentary about his life.
In an interview, Jal says he has no choice. In Jal’s own words in a Huffingtonpost.com article, “”The way I look at it, I’m writing down history. I’m bringing what happened in my life to the international community. I feel responsible, I’m like the voice of those people.”
If you are homeless in Jackson Heights, New York, you probably know the local bus driver who delivers home cooked meals. His name is Jorge Munoz and he’s been doing it since 2004.
Munoz is an immigrant from Columbia. He came to American in the 1980s to meet up with his Mother. He has since become a citizen.
In 2004, Munoz stared the An Angel in Queens program. His goal was to pick up meals that business throw away and hand them out to those in need. Soon, he and his family began cooking meals too.
His operations started feed 20 homeless people a day. He’s up to 140 meals a night! Munoz works as a bus driver, yet he delivers food daily rain or shine.
The 43 year old spends about $400 a week delivering food and his family spends their own money to help him. They also take in donations.
Munoz is just giving back to the community. For many of the people he feeds, the meal he provides is the only one they will eat that day.
There is a little unknown project going on at Utah State Prison. The medium security facility houses those convicted on drug charges, theft, and so forth. These inmates with nothing but time on their hands are being introduced to genealogy. It’s producing some amazing results.
The LDS Church, known for their genealogy practices, have a program going at the Utah State Prison where they hope to turn inmates on to the obsession known as genealogy. They’ve set up family history centers within the prison confines. Approximately 600 inmates are being taught how to research their family tree. They are using the older records available at the family history center and they are allowed to contact facilities by mail to find records not at their disposal.
In addition to this, they are helping on record extraction projects. This work is valuable to all genealogists. And, very much appreciated! Anyone who has strained over a microfilm reading trying to understand handwriting from the 1800s knows how difficult this can be. I was surprised to see that inmates are extracting 500,000 to a million names a year! Wow!
Pains are taking to ensure that identify theft is not an issue. Access to more recent records is prohibited. Inmates can only view those records from generations past.
It appears they are also learning skills that might help them get jobs once they are released. The research skills alone will be invaluable.
So many times you hear of parents getting involved in their children’s sport teams for the worse. Then you hear about kids who behave badly out on the field or after a game. These people from Danville, California, know the meaning of true sportsmanship.
Two high school basketball teams made it to the NorCal Division I Championship game. One team, Monte Vista, comes from a well to do school district. The other, McClymond’s, comes from a cash strapped barely have a sports program that survives district. In the tournament, McClymond’s beat Monte Vista 46-43. Monte Vista went home to Danville dejected and defeated. McClymond’s went on to the California Interscholastic Federation Division I State Title game.
McClymond’s didn’t have enough money to get the kids to Sacramento for the over night stay. The coach had been spending his own money on the team all season and couldn’t pay for the trip. The team would have to drive up to Sacramento the same day of the game and drive back home right after. The money wasn’t there.
Some parents at Monte Vista heard about McClymond’s problems. The parents and students arranged a donation drive and collected $1,100 to help the team that beat them get to the State Championship.
It turns out the district had enough money for the trip and that there was some sort of miscommunication. They have sent back the donation with a big thank you.
It goes to show that people have a heart. Hopefully, the kids on both teams came away with a positive message from this incident. It isn’t always about winning. It’s about helping each other out.
I’ve attempted to play Guitar Hero, but evidentally I’m over the legal age limit for coordination. I’ve watched my nephew play for hours and he’s pretty darn good. But, Danny Johnson of Texas has taken the Guitar Hero game to new heights. He just set record for playing Guitar Hero and has gotten himself in the Guiness Book of World Records. Check out his story:
Every now and then you come across someone who completely amazes you with their talent. A friend sent me a link to a YouTube video of Jonah. Jonah is 4 years old and he taught himself to play drums. And, I mean play drums! None of that beating on coffee can stuff for Jonah. Jonah plays AC/DC, Green Day, the Who, and many more.
Johah started playing drums at the ripe old age of 3 1/2. According to his YouTube profile, he’s never had any lessons. He learned how to play drums by watching others.
Amazing, isn’t it? I expect great things from this kid some day in the future. And, I can say “Why, I saw him on YouTube when he was 4!”
You can see Jonah’s video’s from the beginning of his career: Jonah on YouTube
Lily Kaufman has decided to call it quits at the age of 85. The preschool teacher nicknamed the Mighty Midget (she’s barely 5 feet tall) has retired from the Castro Valley, California preschool she has worked at for over 40 years.
Kaufman was a housewife and stay at home Mom. Then at the age of 49 she decided to go to college. She got her certification and was able to teach at a preschool.
She was considered an expert in handling problem kids. That may come from the fact that growing up she was an outsider. She lived in a German copmmunity but wasn’t accepted because she was half-German.
Kaufman says this about her talents, “Now I can relate to kids, and nurture them in a way they should be. They need to be loved, regardless of their background or ethnicity, or whether they are clean and well-dressed or kind of dirty”
An alliance between an Iraqi organization and 9/11 families hopes to bring about a more peaceful Iraq. The Iraqi organization is called La’Onf, which means “no violence”. The founder is Ishmaeel Dawood. They’ve joined up with September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows to achieve their goal. This group is made up of people who lost loved ones in the terrorist attack.
The groups got together in January 2006 to study non-violent movement leaders. The read up on Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela to name a few.
They then set up nonviolence weeks in Iraq to spread the message of peace. In 2007, committees worked in 18 Iraqi provinces.
October 11th began the third annual peace week. The focus of this years effort was democractic provincial elections.
Pingping of China is considered the world’s shortest man. He is just 2 feet 5 inches tall. He has a form of dwarfism that lead to his small size.
Svetlana Pankratova of Russia has the record for the longest legs for a woman. Her legs are almost 4 feet long.
The two met for the first time this week. They both are in the Guiness Book of World Records and were publicizing the newest edition. Pingping can be found under “shortest man who is mobile”. Though Pakratova is not the tallest woman in the world, she has the longest legs (that we know of!)
