John Woods, walked away because he saw a need that touched him deeply,and I know such condition can really hurt someone emotionally, and bring tears to your eyes immediately. These were very bad conditions no roads, no cars, 20 books, 75-80 kids in a dirt floor classroom, no telephone, poverty, very sad and painful for John. I also want to think that John may have had a calling for the higher being , and that would have to be something that he would have to be obedient to as well. Such a calling if this is the case John would not be able to ignore this at all, because to disobey a calling can be very unhappy for who had the calling. I wish John all the best because already his success is overwhelming.

Sincerely

Norma

hi there. i am touched that some people such as john woods would give up anything for the sake of humanity. i am not putting my bench off but i woukd say i rather do the same. I am a filipino here in laas vegas that tend to help people who I may say like me too. i am not as rich as the people you just guested in your show.

i am a catholic cathecist back in the philippines. a volunteer, without asking for something in return. and the most great thing i do, i teach music to children, for free,'

we all know that filipinos, even americans too, loves to sing. we love music..alot. i haven't even have proper trainig for my music skills: voice and stage performance, guitar and piano. i just want to share anything i know to people who really want them..all i know there is. i nerver collected fees for this. i even don;'t have money at all. i am just doing these things for the passion of it. as they say you'll do anything even crazy for the love of ehat you do. and this is what i love to do.

well thank you very much and i really want tp hear from you. i am not here just to be on the show or anything. i am just here to share and let ms.oprah that there are some people who like mr. woods that i may say be rich that can also help peopl i n need. thank you.

rikishi_batman@yahoo.com

Maybe it is just me, but this guy could have spent his vacation time doing this kind of thing and it would have accomplished just about the same goal. He'd also have the money to buy more books himself and just have them distributed. If the goal is really about getting books distributed and increasing literacy, it doesn't have to be done by hand.

I am offended by Oprah's comments about "When you educate a girl, you change a family because she will then want to educate her children." I DO realize that her point is that girls in some countries don't get an education and that is bad. She makes it sound though, when she phrases it in such a manner that because boys are educated anyway that they really don't count or make a difference. It seems to me that Oprah has a "perfect" mental image of the person who deserves all the help and and another "perfect" image of a person that does not. The first woudl be the following: dirt poor, black, female, and most likely African. The second is a much smaller description. This second group would be "Anyone who isn't dirt poor and most likely white". I'll never forgive her for saying that the only thing the average child would ask for, making it look completely awful, is a video game when she exhalts the type of those black poor girls at her academy by saying they would "only ask for clothes to go to school". She exhalts the poor and the downtrodden when they aren't always anymore deserving of anything than others. I generally like Oprah, but there are things like this that make me wish she hadn't ever learned that her life wasn't the only way as a child as she mentioned that she learned from books. Books, although having them helped Oprah, are a danger in some instances because they do give ideas that some people have no business having due to what they would do with them.

I admire someone like John Woods. He is willing to sacrifice his own personal needs to help others. He gets the point of life, not to accumulate things, but contribute something. We can all do things like this, even if we cannot afford to do it on his scale. For example, I went to Ecuador earlier this year and decided to add a tour of a local center that helps street children. I took extra bags full of things they need such as school and art supplies, hygiene products, and educational materials. I then used my empty bags to bring my souvenirs home. I challenge every world traveller to the same.

Books to Read is a wonderful calling.

I have a suggestion because of project started by the Non Government Organizations (NGO) The Friendship Force International. This project was to get used books from a county school system in South Carolina to Ghana. We expected to send 500 pounds but we sent 34,000 pounds to Ghana and donated 168,000 pounds to Hands Across the Water/World Bank for books to the former Soviet Union in 2005. This year we helped get 38,000 pounds to Liberia and donated another 80,000 pounds to Hands Across the Water.

When we started this project, the book donation NGOs thought it to be a poor idea since they wanted to only send new books when there was a pull (a request from a legitimate in country organization) and a push (available funds in the bank). Having been a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) teacher in Ghana I disagreed. I and other PCVs realized that many "schools" in underdeveloped nations do not have indoor rooms and books rot within a few years because of lack of climate control. However, there are more than 20 Million pounds of grade and high school text books are deliberately thrown away to city/county landfills in the USA each year! Many are not useful in non-english speaking countries except as toilet paper or scrap paper but when you have neither they are of some use. And English is very common in this world so than any reading or math book has some value to students wanting to learn some English.

We have sent a 40 foot container, 34,000 pounds to used text books to Ghana and a 40 foot container, 38,000 pounds of used books to Liberia. The NGOs in the USA and in Ghana and Liberia agree that we should send more. It costs only $6,000 to pack, warehouse, load and ship such a container. Since the school systems and volunteers help with the packing and loading the costs are greatly reduced. Since the distribution is handled by the NGOs and schools in the host country the costs are greatly reduced.

Talk to your school system and your school board about sending books to other countries. Note, many school systems have contracts with publishers to buy back books at about 4 cents a pound but it costs the school system much more in packing and warehouse costs to fill this contract. So, they also dispose of books to the trash because it is cheaper than recycle.

Before 2002, several USA NGOs got free shipping from the Department of Defense on a space available and port match assessment. The DoD stopped this program. It should be started again. Contact your congress persons. If shipping were a program of the US government, packaging, warehouse and shipping cost to the taxpayer and NGO could be less than $1000 per 40,000 pounds.

You are actually very negative and read into things and take them very personal, this is not a very healthy positive attitude to have , this can be very stressful on you, the way you read into things instead of taking time to understand or maybe even do a little more reading on cultures. In some parts of the world example Africa girls clitoris are removed without them even having the right to say no. This you and I know that it's their culture but in life it causes a lot of problems for these girls when they want to have a family. They did not realize that this was going to create issues until they come to there senses. They needed to be educated in order to know that this would later cause a lifetime of health issues especially to get babys, because did they know that these procedures need all the medical care to prevent infection or even have the medicine. If these females dont have books and education they would not even realize how aids is spread, I watched Oprah in Africa and she was visiting a hospital with a little girl whose mother was dying of Aids and only one doctor no medicine except KAOPECTATE to take care of diarrhea. If these girls knew better they would realize that only the male has a right not them and they would be able to realize that women in other parts of the world have a say, and they dont. What Oprah says is correct the the male only have an education. I agree 100% with Oprah's statement. There are many other countries in this world where women are meant to be wall furniture and locked away from knowing the real life necessities. I suggest you start reading some books yourself and get enlighten on a few countries, I meta girl from Ethopia and all she could do was cry to me that she wants baby so badly now and all she could do is cry now because she is married and they remove her clitoris when she did not even realize and now she is in pain and cant get pregnant. She call this very selfish,and it is because she is not suppose to get any feeling just the male because he has education. Girls in many other countries need to be educated because they dont know any better that this is not normal treatment. Think and read some books to learn more about what Oprah says, and please pick the sense out of the nonsense.

I watched the show and was very intrigued about how one can use coupons in such a smart way. My question is, how does one get the store to double or triple the value of the coupon? It was not very clear to me while watching the show. Can someone please clarify for me how to use coupons like the Coupon Queen?

Thanks!

Hi, thank you for writing. At the top of the message board section there is a link to the show page (See what happened on The Oprah Show). There you'll find all the information presented on this show. I'm including a link to the section that talks about the Coupon Queen: http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/oprahshow1_ss_20070403/9

I hope this information is helpful. Have a great day!

-HarpoBear, Oprah.com Community Producer

I'm not negative. I'm what I believe is realistic. I'm well aware of clitorectomies, BTW. I've seen them done in documentaries. I don't need enlightenment. I realize women need education. I think you misread my words, especially not understanding what it means that not everyone needs to know certain things. Health is not included in that. There needs to be a way that we can keep people from information that he OR SHE would misuse. BTW, the clitoris isn't part of allowing a woman to get pregnant, so the Ethiopian woman that you speak of has to have some other problem. Also, following Oprah's words as if she knows everything, and you do act like she is some sort of Guru like thousands of others, isn't always right. She DOES make mistakes.

Thank you for your quick reply and the link. I have viewed it and read the story. However, during the show, the Coupon Queen said something about "doubling the value of the coupon". During the show, Mrs. Franklin said that "what most people dont know is that........and that the store will double the value......if you have a coupon that says save $0. 40, it can do....and it will save you much more. " But it wasn't clear to me how she did it or what she did to get more bang out of a $.04 coupon.This still remains a mystery to me. Can someone explain how the Queen reduced her grocery bill to $3.02? what is it that she said/did in order to get the value doubled in the store?

I hope my question is clear. Thanks in advance for your reply.