One of the many hats I wear is that of director of a nonprofit organization that supports a school and orphanage in Kenya. The kids live in extreme poverty that we can not imagine (no electricity or running water, squashed into one or two room shacks in the slums of Nairobi). We help in several ways -- finding grants, fundraisers, processing donations, and operating a child sponsorship program.
Last week letters arrived from the children to their sponsors -- three large envelopes full of hundreds of
letters!
This involved sorting, addressing and stuffing dozens and dozens of envelopes. I really don't mind chipping away at this project in the evenings
as I know how important correspondence is between the children and their
sponsors. Some people knit while watching TV in the evening, I stuff envelopes. It's a labor of love.
This also involved spending a good 45 minutes at the post office working with my friendly
postman on Friday to get them on their way to the sponsors. Some had to be weighed so
that took some time. I had sorted them according to USA regular, USA
with extra postage required (because some people sponsor more than one
child, their envelopes were fatter), overseas regular, and overseas extra
postage required.
Now
I HAVE to tell you a story about sending these letters off! Of course,
the post office line was growing longer and longer as I was monopolizing
one of the three postman. Just as I was feeling a little sorry to be
holding things up during the postal holiday season, the postman,
reading the
return address, asked me what Plant-a-Book International was. I
explained that we are a group of people from all over the world that
have joined together to support a school and orphanage in Kenya and that
the envelopes contained letters from their sponsored children. He was
looking at the letters going to Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Canada,
Australia, Croatia, Germany, Denmark, Scotland, Finland, The Netherlands, England, Ireland,
Spain, France, and all over the USA and he said, "So you are bringing
people from all over the world together to help these kids?" I said,
"Yes." He said, "The world needs more people like you!" My spirits
were soaring when I left there! I couldn't have received a more meaningful compliment.
Tis the season...for giving!
