So. Amazing internet site of the moment.

Librivox.

Given my recent penchant for audiobooks (it's much easier to listen while riding bike doing dishes crocheting cleaning house etc than to hold a book while doing things, and I'm in one of my hi-devouring-books-like-whoa phases), this is a godsend. Granted, I can find torrents of things, but.. most are techy, self-help, or mp3 ports of ancient cassette tapes of scifi books. I've found some decent things (like all of Orson Scott Card's Ender books, including the Shadow series), but, good lord, no comparison to this.

Librivox is completely free, and legally so. All open-source, volunteer, free content, public domain, everything that is good and free in every sense of the term. It makes me so freaking happy. So basically, like Project Gutenburg, only a little more consumer-friendly. I've whipped through, what, four or five things so far, I think (the few mentioned on the sidebar, plus T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"), and the readers are all at least good and often excellent - "The Importance of Being Earnest" was especially delightful, the two male leads are wonderful actors. LOVE when attention is paid to good quality in vocal things, decent voice actors seem to be so scarce. There are a few times a tiiiiny bit of background noise filters in, or someone's mic isn't crystal clear, but, even the very worst (a handful of the narrator's short lines in "Earnest", where there was noticable static), it was really comparable to the afore-mentioned cassette tape rips. And it's all free! Legally! No guilt! Wooooo!

...I think I finally made it through a first pass on the list of books last night, and finished bookmarking everything I wanted immediately. I have sixteen downloaded so far, four listened to, three just put on my mp3 player... and probably a dozen more bookmarked. The range is pretty impressive, there are of course many of the classics (Dante's Divine Comedy! maybe I'll actually get through it all this time!), and there are TONS of fairy tales oh my goodness I am so happy, plus some delightfully diverse random things thrown in, like, oh, a whole book of all sorts of random secret old hiding places all around England. *gasms* Hi fodder for my next NaNo. <3 Currently downloading an assorted collection of old newspaper clippings, which should prove highly entertaining for me. (I'm so freaking odd.) And I now have lovely audio of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales, read in a British accent, as they ought to be. *somuchlove*

I freaking love open-source people. I do I do. (And these are so open-source people - they do deign to use mp3s and zips, BUT, they also provide oggs. Which means, audiophiles and/or nerds. <3)

 
So, the last check I sent to Childcare Ministries, for the kid I sponsor and the one I co-sponsor with Kellie, I noticed something odd on the paperwork. There was a different name and number, instead of Sunil's (the little boy in India I've sponsored since 2001 or so, who occasionally sends me little drawings). I made a note on the receipt, asking if there was some mistake somewhere?

I was doing a bit of cleaning just now, and came across an envelope from Childcare Ministries I'd overlooked and forgotten to open. The now-familiar cream paper with maroon writing, and what looked like another child info pamphlet - I glanced at the picture, and thought "wow, Sunil's gotten bigger!"... but that wasn't it, the name was different. I quickly found the main letter enclosed.

"We have been informed by our Field Coordinator that the child you have been sponsoring, Sunil [#] has been cancelled from the Child Care Program. The reason that we received is Sunil is ill and has withdrawn from the program."

---I have no idea what that translates to, but they've given me a new child to sponsor, another boy in India, only a year younger than my sister. I don't mind, that's wonderful, but...

What happened to Sunil? If he's in a program where people help provide for him, why would he withdraw when he's sick? (I can only think of one answer, and it terrifies me.) ...I'm really worried, and scared, and sad, and I know there's nothing I can do but pray that he's alright. He's still not very old, I think 11 or 12 by now? An organization like this, I know they've got to be overwhelmed all the time, with all the kids they take care of, and everything else, so I doubt I'll ever get more of an answer than I already have. I hope he's alright, I hope---

All I can do is pray.