Cupcakes, Good Deeds, and Hope

Hey wanna...? Is usually how the trouble starts with Rhonda and I. Hey, wanna go to Africa? Hey, wanna take a belly dancing class? Hey, wanna jump into Victoria Falls and swim around a bit? The answer is always yes, and never even a moment of regret.

One Hey Wanna in particular makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. "Hey wanna take a cake decorating course?" Rhonda still curses me for this one... but in the end, it was one of my favourites - not for the endless sugar rush, or the futile attempts at embracing my inner Martha but for the good deeds that were made possible as a result.

Rhonda and I were off for another African adventure. That's a whole other very long winded blog. My apologies if I've held you captive while I gush for hours about Africa, but it has a pretty firm grip on my heart. This time, we wanted to do a little more than just sneak up on lions, we wanted to be able to return even a fragment of the kindness that we were shown during our previous African escapades. Enter the cupcakes...

I whipped up a few batches of cupcakes, decorated them all pretty with little flowers and polka dots, and then served them up with a gob of guilt trip charity request from my oh so tolerant friends. In the end, I scored about $135. Not bad, but Rhonda with her massage raffle (not that kind of massage, she's an RMT) raised a huge bunch more. Out of my little $135, I was able to buy bags upon bags of groceries delivered to a few families in a very poor area of Moshi, Tanzania, and bought a bike, a few soccer balls, flour and sugar for an orphanage in Livingstone Zambia. All from a bit of pretty cake, and a heap of generosity from my hungry friends.

Now, I'm not telling you this story to boast about how fabulous my cupcakes are, but to offer a bit of hope. We hear on the news about the absolute devastation being faced in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia at the moment, and feel helpless, or even guilty about our well stocked fridges. But I can tell you with absolute confidence that every little bit counts. For $17 in a Moshi market I was able to buy bags upon bags of beans, rice, soap, cooking oil and other staples, enough to make a huge difference for a few families.

Your donations are being matched by the Canadian government right now. Red Cross, World Vision, Unicef, it doesn't matter, the money will be put to good use. Your $17 can make a real difference to someone's life. The good karma points are just icing on the cupcake.