It is 4:25 pm now. I am enjoying some chai and biscuits on my bed with my computer while Kathy talks to a dear little girl named Reecha through our kitchen window. Reecha is in the 7th grade, has lighter skin, a bright smile, often wears pigtails, and has quite good English. Her older sister, Shivani, is in the 8th grade and is similar to Reecha in many ways. Shivani often serves as the table translator when I eat with the 8th grade girls, which I do frequently.
Today, Kathy and I were introduced to the Clothing Room, the place where parcels that arrive as gifts for the children are opened, recorded, and stored for Christmastime, or a given day when a child needs more clothes. Although the room's appearance was sufficient and even normal by local standards, to my Western perspective, it was small, and...shall I say rugged? The far wall was lined with cement shelves halfway piled with clothes. Against another wall were several large steel chests, each big enough to fit 3 0r 4 people inside. Each chest was padlocked and filled with clothes. Atop one chest, I noticed a large new-looking box with the words "Operation Christmas Child" on the side. I knew from a previous conversation that it had probably been received this past August. It was fascinating for me to be on this end of the process, where gifts that are bought, packaged, and shipped from the USA are received and cataloged for distribution to these poor children. Careful records are kept by the Home staff of what items are received and distributed to the children so there can be no accusation of business transactions taking place instead of the items serving their intended purpose as gifts to the children.
We observed as two parcels were opened and their contents recorded and stored. After leaving the clothing room, I thanked the two staff women for showing us the intake process. One of them responded, "We no show. You help!" Her words brought joy to my heart. They evidenced the warm and welcoming heart of the community here. Although I often feel like a helpless but observant bystander, the people here are warm and helpful and show no evidence of our presence being a burden to them.
Later this afternoon, the manager of the Home and his wife drove us to a local town to purchase a washing machine! Kathy and I are looking forward to the water pressure in our apartment being fixed tomorrow so we can initiate its first use! First item on the laundry list: curtains!
(If any of you are inclined to send clothes or anything else for the children for Christmas, or for no special occasion at all, --maybe you simply had a wonderful Goodwill find!-- gifts are very welcome and used! Let me know if you would like to send anything and I will give you instructions on the best way to do so.)
Much love.
Audrey, You might try using XnView to reduce the size of your pictures. It is a free download. If you are using a Windows based computer, using the XnView Shell Extension allows you to right click on a picture to convert (reduce) it's size.
ReplyDeleteHi Audrey, thanks for updating your blog so we can find out what you're up to. I miss you and hope we can talk on Skype sometime soon! So glad that you're "getting your hands dirty" in the business of serving such wonderful children with Kathy! <3
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bonnie and uh, whomever! (if any of you are using the generic reader log-in, it's helpful if you can put your name when you comment,..if you want me to know who you are. If you're rather be mysterious, that's fine too. ;0)) I'll have to wait till I have good enough internet connection to handle a download. But my pictures from packbacking today are a good incentive for me to make this happen!
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