I am definitely overdue for a report out to everyone who helped with the Christmas project for the Afghan the family. First, I wanted to thank everyone who donated, it was such a diverse group of friend and family, neighbors and total strangers. It was touching to see that love, humanity, and trust that still exists in the world. I also want to give a special thanks to Don Ward to opened this opportunity to me. It is not too often that when a man learns he has cancer that his first instinct is "whose life can I make better." Definitely a man whose influence will ripple throughout generations.
In sharing what I have below, I hope that all of you can see the difference you make in people's lives. The chance to show the goodness of mankind. I was going to type the "goodness of Americans," but it was truly an international effort with donors from Mongolia, Brazil, the USA, likely Canada (you never can tell with Canadians). So from the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone for all you gave.
Since I am a numbers guy, here is some data. We receive more than $400 in monetary donations, six large boxes of used clothing, eight blankets, six pillows, five dolls, one remote controlled car, lots of boots, shoes, coats, gloves, hats, a small boutiques worth of handmade jewelry (thanks Mom), a used Wii, and loads of other stuff.
With the money we bought one honk'n big cooking pan, 60 pounds of rice, 30 lbs of mutton, gifts for the kids, utensils, winter boots for the grown up, new clothes for all the children, and coat for some uncle who was in need. Old Navy made that dollar stretch pretty far, through braving an Old Navy holiday sale is a bit like rugby scrum. I even picked out the outfits for the teenage girl myself (plaid pants and stripped shirt go together right?).
My kids helped sort all of the donations and each child was assigned one of the children from the family to get all their donations and gifts collected and wrapped. We didn't wrap the diapers. That would just be cruel to have a kids open a big heavy box to find something that you, by design, want to poop on.
There were so many donations that I could barely use my office for a few days. On the Sunday before Christmas, we loaded two vehicles with all of the gifts and kids, then headed up to Salt Lake to drop off everything. It kind of felt like that moment in Miracle on 34th Street where the postmen kept dumping Santa letter on top of the judge's desk. We probably spent 10 minutes just hauling everything into their little apartment. When we were done, the front room was completely full. Then they invited my entire family in and fed us traditional Afghan dishes, including a spicy vegetable with yogurt dish and a sweet rice dish. It was amazing. Everyone got a kick out of when I gave Ronin a spicy chickpea and he beelined for the bathroom yelling "water, water, water!"
They were such a sweet, kind, and hospitable family. With seven sisters and the family there were literally women everywhere.
With all of this femininity, it was quite appropriate for grandmother to preside over the family sitting in one of the only two chairs they owned in the place of honor, I wisely took a spot on the floor below her. She was the boss, no missing that. She was a proud, intelligent, and wise woman who is also very kind, though she thought Ronin to be a bit rambunctious, which is an accurate assessment of the child. Like I said...wise.
Being the family's first holiday season in a country that celebrates Christmas, we thought it would be fun to take the light-rail downtown to see the Christmas lights. They were all excited. The boys donned their new coats and we took them up to see the lights.
The kids were flabbergasted by the sheer number of lights at Temple Square.
There were LOTS of pictures taken Every so often we would have to go look for a third of our group who had loitered behind take pictures.
Kids are kids, no matter where they are from...and, no. The oldest son does not need eye surgery. Just really bad red-eye editing.
All in all, it was a wonderful experience for me, my family, and I'm sure for all of you who gave. Thank you everyone who helped, for the smiles you gave, and the new lease on life to this family who's going to do just fine in its new country.
So what is next, the family of 7 daughters, 1 son, 4 grand kids, and grandma? They are moving out of three apartments into one large house they can all fit in. Three of the women are working full time to support the family. The others are talking about opening up a boutique of Afghan and other handmade products (Christmas and Capitalism - Welcome to America). What I loved about the project is that this family won't be in need a year from now, the help everyone gave gave them that life when they were down. From there they will keep moving up.
So once again, thank you everyone who helped on this project or helped some in you own way this Christmas and each and every. Merry Christmas from all of the people behind the scenes here at Brett's Big Bad Blog.
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