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Years
ago, before history was recorded, I competed against Southerners at
mixers held at Smith and Mt. Holyoke colleges, in Massachusetts. As a
Californian, I held a slight edge over the "preppies" -- too
uptight and status conscious, you know. I was, however, no match for
the confederates.
They may have lost the Civil War, but they are masters of civility. Even I was disarmed by the drawl and liberal use of "yes
sir" and "yes maaaaam". . Too
many hearts and minds were lost by the "surfer dude" to the "southern boys". The South has never been forgiven, until now. |
A year ago I was contacted by Reverend Billy Olsen from Goldsboro, North Carolina. He and his parishioners had decided to help Afghanistan by providing rice packages su pplied by Stop Hunger Now. www.stophungernow.org A packing party was held, and three hundred volunteers from the local community and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base showed up. 18,000 packages of rice were packed in plastic buckets and ready to ship in less than an hour. That's over 100,000 meals that were delivered to Kabul thanks to the USAID Denton program. End of story? No!!!!
THEY ROSE UP AGAIN!!!!! They held another packing party in October, and packed another 18,680 rice packages (112,080 meals). In addition they collected and boxed clothing, shoes, blankets and all the other items you and I have been sending for the past two years. Another organization, Soles 4 Souls, stepped up (pun intended), and donated shoes to be included in Billy's shipment. Soles 4 Souls' goal is to provide shoes to every person on the planet who needs them. http://www.soles4souls.org/
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Now for even better news. You, Billy, Stop Hunger Now, and all the donors who contributed 'things" created several problems. We received over 15 tons to distribute. We needed to find a way to distribute your gifts to the neediest families.  Who are they? Where do they live? How do we make certain we are serving the neediest of the needy? Enter Khaled Hosseini. Khaled provided me with the name of someone he knew who works with the United Nations refugee program in Kabul. A few emails later we have now made contact with the "UN team" and been informed that they would be happy to let us know what they will be providing this winter and where. They also have several locations, where conditions are "dire", that they will not be able to serve. They suggested we assist them by "filling in some gaps" We readily agreed. They have the expertise and knowledge we need. Problem solved. Now we work on logistics and security.
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And at the other end this Afghan mother heads home with clothing, rice and baby in hand.
The recent attack on one of the
living quarters for United Nation's workers was tragic and outrageous.
It made me angry and even more resolved to not be driven out. Together
we constitute a bucket brigade, supplying Afghans on the frontline.
We don't give up until they do. It's six years later and I can
confidently represent to you, that the thousands of Afghans we've met,
won't.
*Miles to go before we sleep.
Budd
* Thank you Robert Frost
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Trust In Education, PO Box 936, Lafayette, California 94549
www.trustineducation.org (925) 299-2010
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