giveaway!

I've seen this done on loads of other blogs, and yesterday the thought struck me for my very own; why not do a giveaway? The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. You all have given me so much. You share verses with me, you write poems, you send packages from the other side of the world. In all that, you are Aaron to me, holding up my arms as I fight these battles. I think Aaron should jolly well have gotten some appreciation after all that.

(At this point in the entry, my mother might want to stop reading, because what follows is a blatant disregard for life and limb.)

Today, two friends and I headed out to the artisan market in town. Frustrated by our absolute lack of success at hailing a taxi, we opted instead to ride zemidjahns. That's right; I braved West African traffic on dirt roads on the back of a spluttering motorbike, driven by a man who may or may not have a license but who most definitely could not for the life of him keep his eyes on the road. I held on for dear life as we navigated inches away from other cars and had to duck to avoid getting hit by the back of a cement truck. And I did it all for you.

There's a jewelery maker in the market. We stood in her tiny shop while she sat at her bench, blow torch in hand, smoothing out imperfections from another necklace. And when I saw this one, I knew one of you should have it.

So here's the plan. If you want to be eligible to win what I am reasonably sure is a locally-crafted silver Africa necklace (although she could have been fooling me with that torch), say so in a comment on this post. While you're at it, tell me something dangerous you've done for no good reason. (Although, in this case, getting the necklace definitely counts as a good reason for risking my life on the back of a zemi, so I suppose I should probably mention the time I walked across hot coals because the guys I played frisbee with dared me to...) I have to approve all comments before they show up, and my spam filters are set tighter than a pair of support hose, so if you don't see your comment within twelve hours or so, e-mail me at alirae[at]quist[dot]ca.

And just to make things more interesting, I want to throw in even more chances to win. You see, we're planning on sailing to South Africa in just over three months to have our generators replaced. The ones we run on now are so loud that we've been unable to use two of our operating rooms and two of our wards this year. Not only will the new generators allow us to open the entire hospital, but they'll be much more reliable and much less of a struggle for our engineers to maintain.

So here's the other plan. If you want to be even more eligible to win a little piece of Africa, head on over here and donate to the Power the Vision campaign. Every donation, no matter how small, is another chance to win. Once you've donated, either leave a second comment or just e-mail me and I'll add your name to the list a second time.

I'll draw the winner on May first, so get your comments and/or donations in by five PM eastern standard time on the thirtieth.

Send your friends over, and we'll make a week of it. And if this turns out to be fun, we will most definitely be doing it again!

EDIT: The giveaway is now closed. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner!