Extreme makeover

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ladelfina ... I could write a book about Italy ...

You can write a book about your experience like Peter Mayle did.

For those who have not read his books, Mayle is a Brit who bought a home in Southern France, and wrote fondly about his experience living in Provence. He described the antics and idiosyncracies of the French southerners, who looked at the Parisians and other visitors with suspicious eyes. Mayle's style of writing was part of his success.

[Bestwifeever]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Running_Man Wow, I have been seeing thread after popular thread in the "Look how stupid these people are, isn't it amazing everyone hasn't taken the same easy road as I did, what fools" slandering individuals without knowledge of what actually occured as drug addicts or worse. It is my understanding they took a loan out and formed a construction company. With the present economy in that select area of business they of course failed and are now bankrupt. That does not make them drug addicts, it makes them poor.

If they were good at construction wouldn't their old home have been in good enough shape that they wouldn't have been chosen for Extreme Makeover? There's a little irony in their choosing that business, imho....

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever Loved how the Washington Post article says: Really, we all had this coming??

For giving a tribe of losers such a lavish house. My take is that it is only TV, nobody really wants to help anybody except for the naive volunteers. The recipients are gamers, the producers are gamers, on and on....

That is why my main charity is picking up old or handicapped people who have fallen. Literally fallen.

I did do a little of one Habitat project. I enjoyed it; met some nice volunteers, learned several new skills. An OK trade from where I sit.

Ha

Ha

[Zoocat]

My main charity is World Vision. I sponsor a child in Tanzania. I'd guess that the $35 I send every month probably keeps the family from incipient starvation, but little else.

I'm surprised by the comments about HH recipients. I'd guess most are not like that.

My main peeve about "charity" is the idea of volunteers "serving" the needy. There's a really nice homeless shelter in my town where people get a meal and a place to sleep. It also employs a few people and keeps some volunteers busy. I don't understand why it isn't ok to expect the homeless to help cook their own meal, serve it, and clean up afterwards. Ditto, clean up the place, even do some administrative tasks. Why the heck not?

I'm not bashing the homeless. I just think that able bodied recipients of charity could do something to give back for what they receive and make it financially easier for the charity to "serve" more people.

[Sarah in SC]

Old babe, regarding Habitat for Humanity, Nords and I have discussed this before: the real problem for me was that the income bar was set too low. For folks to qualify, they couldn't really have a decent job, or if both parents were working, they would make too much. This led to quitting jobs to qualify, or booting the husband out of the house so the "single mom" could qualify, get more sweat equity help from volunteers than if she had another adult qualifying with her, then BAM, the husband or often the boyfriend moves in after the fact or whatever.

Every single one of our homes had a satellite dish up as soon as they moved in, and most if not 100% had SUVs in the driveways way nicer than the employees of Habitat (nonprofit payscales). Very dismaying--as I helped out sometimes with budget classes and so forth. I worked there for several years, and actually ran the for-profit part--the so-called Resale store. Our store was tops in the region and I helped other affiliates with mainstreaming their stores to be run like businesses instead of freaky old thrift stores. That part was very satisfying but I often felt like Mr. Scrooge in the land of rainbows and soft misty fog with my charts and reports and projections, while everyone else sang songs.
Sorry, had to get that off my chest--totally off topic, of course.

[ladelfina]

Sarah, thanks for the inside view warts and all.

I don't see how it is OT since people are discussing recipients of charity, especially big-ticket charity in the form of a low-cost or paid-off home.