The Kirghiz Chicks

I've written a bit about the three women from Kyrgyzstan who were on the cruise that SuperK and I took.  I'm friends with two of them on FB and one of them sends me thoughtful emails from time to time.

First of all, the GDP of Kyrgyzstan is under 8 billion dollars per year with an average salary of $1200 for each resident.  The GDP of Los Angeles County is 700 billion dollars.  So one of my buddies celebrated a birthday and she asked that in lieu of gifts that people contribute to a non-profit fundraiser to help protect the world's oceans.  The amount she was trying to raise was . . . $50.  I immediately contributed $50.  Now I see that with only two days left she has raised a grand total of $50.  

Maybe I shouldn't have made that large donation so early in her fundraiser?  That is the equivalent of two weeks worth of wages in her country.  I didn't mean to be showy - I just wanted her to make the goal.  Here's this 25 year old, traveling 10 months out of the year - straight! - asking that people celebrate her birthday by protecting oceans.  I mean . . . blew me away.  I live in the richest country in the world - by far - and I've never heard of such a thing.  No one that I know has ever requested something like that.

One of the other women casually mentioned that she spent a year volunteering in a school in Brazil.  Let me repeat that: volunteering - for free - in a school in a poor area of another country.  

I just can't believe these people.  Who are these people?