Hard times VS blog times

For the last few months I have been too preoccupied by my own financial survival to actually blog. Since my last blog the entire global financial community has collapsed and has subsequently been propped up by governments who are struggling to keep economies rolling along. I myself have been experiencing serious financial hardships as a result of many factors. When I started the nonprofit, World Sisters United, I had planned on raising the startup capitol from my home equity line of credit and then selling my house which at the time had an all time high value and had plenty of equity in it for me to recoup the money I was spending on this organization and buy another house. I also had planned on getting the 501c3 status sooner and was planning on contributions and grants to pick up the operational costs for WSU. As well I planned on doing a massive ebay sales drive to raise additional money for building up this organization. But as I was compiling a huge debt of over a hundred twenty thousand dollars while building up the infrastructure of this non-profit I had no idea the housing market would collapse and the financial market would collapse. So now I’m in an extremely difficult situation. Along with all these hardships the county property taxes have risen and have added an additional two hundred dollars to my mortgage. So now with maxxed out credit cards and a second loan on my house of a hundred twenty grand, my monthly expenses are well beyond what I make. I learned fast that ebay and craigslist sales will not pick up the difference since nobody is buying right now and I am now left being three months behind on my mortgage and two months behind on every other bill I have. I may actually end up loosing my house as a result of all this.

I’m not entirely distraught about this situation because I figure I am right in there with one out of ten americans so I figure that I will have plenty of company if I loose my house. I won't be homeless because I also have a house in India and can always move there but I really don’t want to give up a residence in the US so I’m not just going to relinquish my house here without a fight. My strategy is going to be to rent out my bedrooms and move into my still unfinished downstairs. (I live in a fixer upper that is only half fixed up). One caveat concerning renting out in my house is that for whatever fated reason my plumbing in the main bathroom is out of commission presently so I cannot rent until I get that fixed and I don’t have the funds to fix it! So these are challenging times for all of us in our own ways. For me I have never before this time experienced a period where I actually go to sleep hungry. There is an interesting irony at my being in daily contact with poor people in the Philippines where all we can chat about is how neither of us have food to eat (yet we have internet connectivity). I do try to stock up on potatoes, rice and dal so I have some basic staple foods and my cat always gets priority. So many nights now in the last couple of months I have gone to sleep with empty belly while my cat purrs away with a happy belly. Why do we often treat animals better than humans?

Peace to all in this NEW YEAR!!!!
L