Barbara's Dream , continued:

The first was to avoid associating with people who are unpleasant because they not only don't help, they pull you off course and slow you down. The second was to replace them with the wonderful people who truly like to help others. That gave me back my energy, and I swung into action, madly in love with the project once more.

On March 8 I called a talented web-page designer who immediately saw the whole picture and fell in love with the idea and gave me a great break in price to put up this website. I used my last frequent-flyer miles to book a ticket to Turkey, bought a couple of laptop computers on my credit cards, called my friend Ahmet in the village (his mother is one of the master-weavers) and asked him to find me a store and get me an internet hookup.

That's where we are now. I'm sitting in New York, sending letters like this to my webmaster so he can put them on the site. The website is a work in progress at this moment. My webmaster has wisely decided to include a chatroom here, and I hope anyone who wants to know how to follow a similar dream, or who has advice on how to succeed, or who just wants to complain about similar problems, will come on and do so.

How to be a Maverick Philanthropist

Comments? barbarasher@kilim[deleteforspam]women.com

Back to the Main Page