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waiting for that next post.
posted by
majroj
on September 3, 2004 at 7:19 PM
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benzinha - I'm going to look for them now...
posted by
Ca88andra
on August 31, 2004 at 3:52 PM
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ca88andra, we share a past history of African boyfriends, such interesting
fellows. Best wishes to you and our family.....Have you read my Alficene stories from about ten posts ago? They are childhood stories told by my fellow.
posted by
benzinha
on August 31, 2004 at 10:09 AM
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benzinha - my last boyfriend was from Cameroon on his father's side (mother from Barbados). Although he treated me badly in the end, his stories were the catalyst to my desire to visit Cameroon. Since then, Ive read a lot about it and my desire has not lessened at all.
posted by
Ca88andra
on August 31, 2004 at 3:44 AM
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Ca88andra, funny that you should say Cameroon. A French girlfriend just
sent her juvenile delinquent son there from the US, to stay with his wealthy father and relatives. He was rude and insolent, etc. and was not well recieved there, punished harshly , I hear. He called in a major panic, and she let him return to his old ways back at home. Moms are sometimes weak like that, but not knowing just what degree of punishment he was getting, he exaggerated it all of course, she decided to err on the side of prudence. Dunno what's right anymore myself.
One of my favorite parties here in the US was a wedding where I danced with six fellows from Cameroon, all night long. What a joy, I felt like Ginger Rogers on Broadway. The men were very very masculine and different from other West Africans in their group mentality. I cannot explain this well, sorry.
I wrote that I care for FAtou, but erred, it's the Christian Children's Fund that I send the money to. What a wonderful experience for your children. Congratulations on helping them to see the wider world.
posted by
benzinha
on August 30, 2004 at 11:12 AM
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benzinha - I have a couple of penfriends (or really email friends) in Cameroon. I've been told what a beautiful country it is and would love to go there. Tonight I sponsored three boys - one in Kenya and two in Zambia - one for each of my sons. They chose the country, the sex and age of the children. I hope they will also correspond with them.
posted by
Ca88andra
on August 30, 2004 at 4:26 AM
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That was supposed to be "Abuelita"
My video games are freezing up my fingers!
posted by
majroj
on August 28, 2004 at 9:41 AM
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Abelita, gather these and post them!
You would enjoy some of one of our former blogger's stuff (complicated sentence, no?). She recently went through the Romanian adoption nightmare.
posted by
majroj
on August 27, 2004 at 4:47 PM
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ca88andra, great, travel with children.....where in West Africa??
Nothing expands the mind like travel and nothing expands the heart like volunteerism.
Pick a country way ahead of time and pick the place that you want to help also, then you have focus and know just what to take and what would be redundant or useless over there.... Try to contact the Embassy from your country there in West Africa and get them to point you in the right direction.
I travelled to Guadalajara once with suitcases full of school supplies and craft supplies for a certain slum there and wore my Mexican sister's clothing while in town. We put things inside of back packs inside of the suitcases, so as not to piss off the custom's agents so much. They waved us old ladies on through with no real examination of our suitcases.
My Irani sister then shopped for things that she wanted and we filled the suitcases with her purchases for the return trip. I just wanted coconut and raisin candy and sugared pecans from Guadalajara. I ate free avocados off of my sister's trees until I wanted no more and felt satisfied. Mostly, I hugged and kissed family, the reason for my visit.
There are so many countries which need help, the mind boggles.
posted by
benzinha
on August 26, 2004 at 12:27 AM
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benzinha - what a wonderful story! I'm putting you in my favourites. When my children grow old enough I am planning to travel to West Africa to do what I can to help. I know its about 6 years away, but I can lay the plans now. Stay safe...
posted by
Ca88andra
on August 25, 2004 at 3:44 AM
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Temple, we all do what we can. I rescue runaways on my street....dogs.
I pass out apples and dollar bills when visiting our border town, all that I can afford when going down there for medicine. I gather up clothing for the Lost Boys of the Sudan here in town and help out Charley the Brutal gardener.
Small things, very small, but something, no? If I had tons of money, I would open a ceramics school and factory in a Mexican town near the border and then hook them up with shops in the US, etc. where they could sell their things. I don't think about which cars I would buy or what clothing I would wear, but what business I could start somewhere that lacked some business.
Your kitty rescue is what you do and if we all do something, things get done, good things, done by good people. Thanks for your comments.
posted by
benzinha
on August 24, 2004 at 10:15 AM
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LadyKenobi, I agree. There are so many groups of people who have
gathered to do some good and could use some help. A visit to the Hospital Civil helped my sister and her friends to see what could be done. They compared what their experience in an American hospital was like as opposed to what was before them at the H.C. They began to bring in what was not there. They had to convince doctors of some of their choices, like posters and children's books on anatomy. The doctors there felt that this was too much information for the children and would only frighten them. So, no posters.
My sister is funny. She speaks so calmly when she is frustrated and then goes home screaming in her car about what cannot be done and why. She is being given lessons in patience beyond normal endurance and this is good for her.
The Huerfanatorio (sp? proper word?) tore holes in their hearts. The baby room seemed to be a horror film movie set and they were so upset that they couldn't imagine how to start something slowly, when they wanted a new baby room and new procedures in there immediately, if not sooner. In their frustrating world, the baby room is actually the last room that the nuns are having redone. And the Junior League reminds itself that the babies are getting some form of baby care, which they would not have and this would soon kill them outside of the orphanage.
Life is good, even when it offers only small goodnesses, periodically.
posted by
benzinha
on August 24, 2004 at 10:09 AM
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It's so amazing what we can do when we all get together with one goal.
Reading stories like this both touches and frustrates me. I think...how wonderful that is that all the details can get wrapped up and create a whole new situation for those little kids. Then, I think, oh but what about all the kids I've read about on the streets in Romania? And the homeless kids I see out here? And the 9-year-old gang bangers? I get a little overwhelmed because I never know the best place to start. I rescue a kitty here and there, and help who I can when I can...always have, either personally or professionally. But there are SO many and it makes me sad. I can't remember who it was now, but someone, a person who is well known and with some stature, said...Americans have such a strange idea of what it means to be a millionaire...if all these wealthy people donated that money, we could collectively take care of everything. Amazing thought.
Wonderful story, Abuelita. Thanks for bringing it to us. Thank these wonderful people for having such big beating hearts and truck loads of patience. That can neither be bought or learned...truly a gift. 
posted by
Temple
on August 23, 2004 at 6:24 PM
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thanks benzi
I was asked once what kind of charity I would start if I had the means and I was stunned-- but there are so many out there that need us ALREADY!
posted by
LadyKenobi
on August 23, 2004 at 11:18 AM
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maj, of course you are right, the constricting armor and rigidity of
available responses to that office would drive her mad. She should be a paid 'facilitator' by US companies and foreign companies, as this is what she does best.
We are now talking about moving to Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point), Mexico (all of us sisters) and living out the ends of our respective lives, while having fun building something there, dunno just what as yet.
posted by
benzinha
on August 22, 2004 at 1:07 PM
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If they made your sister ambassador
it woud bring her effectiveness to an end.
How about "Minister Without Portfolio But With A Pocketbook"?
posted by
majroj
on August 20, 2004 at 9:04 PM
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LadyKenobi, when in Guadalajara, or planning your trip there, make it
a volunteer vacation and my sister will whip you into her schedule of baby hugging. I don't think that they need any more money, of course they always do, but my sister has everyone hooked into the system, I think.
I thank you for your offer. They are called the Estancia de Maria Orfanatorio, I think, can't remember, but the Junior League is gathering up the funds and dispersing them to keep everything moving along in a more organized and 'gringo' way. I would suggest that you find a good organization, like Feed the Children or something and send your money there. I have a little girl named Fatou in Gambia who gets my money monthly through Save the Children. It's been fun to watch her hair turn from starvation red to healthy black over the years and to watch her grow. She is photographed with her new chickens, cement floor, windows and goats for me as new things arrive in her family's life. They have dug a well and planted cooling trees and community gardens and started a day care center and begun immunizations and malarial treatments in Bijilo Beach.
So many babies, so little money and time..........My favorite old boyfriend and friend, Dionisio Perreira Barreto, helps to run World Care, I believe, in Guine'-Bissau and he does wonders with the money there, as he is one of the few honest men in charge of money that I know of in any country. They are recovering from their recent coup and are the poorest or close to it, nation in West Africa.
Aguas Santas Ocana de Maduro, the Spanish born wife of the president of Honduras is doing wonders with orphanages and women's issues there. I would try to find out how to get money to her offices and official hands as she manages money honestly also. They are the poorest nation in Central America or close to it....
posted by
benzinha
on August 20, 2004 at 7:52 PM
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Do they need a volunteer
to just go and hug the babies? I could very easily make a full-time career of this. And is there an address where I can sent monetary assistance?
posted by
LadyKenobi
on August 20, 2004 at 5:29 AM
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Frair Tuck, I try to make photos with words when I have no photos to show.
I feared that you might find my criticism of the nuns a bit hurtful. It is just that they seem to have never been hugged nor indulged themselves as children and think that it isn't necessary in life and are totally untrained, which is totally unfair as their tasks are beyond enormous. My sister sometimes goes home and screams on her way there in her car and pulls out her hair, but understands that circumstances are what they are and she must find her way within their understanding and worm her way into their hearts. They like her, though they roll their eyes at her sometimes.
posted by
benzinha
on August 19, 2004 at 11:33 PM
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telynor, happy to bring faith back to you. Most people are decent, it just
fails to make the papers or CNN. Thanks for stopping by and getting a small dose of belief in people again.
Also, with my sister Mercy on you, you cannot fail to do her will nor fail to help to fulfill her visions. She started with the pediatric floor at the Hospital Civil and keeps on going.....we just obey orders. They now have incubators and burn unit beds, posters, books, toys, toilet paper in the toilets, Kotex for the newly delivered mothers and blankets and nighties for their naked babies to wear home. She's a whiz.
posted by
benzinha
on August 19, 2004 at 11:28 PM
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beachbelle, we sisters decided that we had made the mistake of not
forming a formidable force and taking over the world in our youth, but we never understood our powers back then. Sigh......Thanks for the props.
posted by
benzinha
on August 19, 2004 at 11:22 PM
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yes maj, good works have their particular agonies. My sister has only
lived in the US for about ten years of her life or so, maybe fifteen, so she's as foreign as they come. She knows everyone and has learned to work the culture down there, being more like them than like us 'gringos' and so, she bugged us into getting things gathered, bugged the right person in customs, tickled the ears of higher ups, used her connections and got the whole thing shipped free and customs cleared within four days.
You need connections for stuff in Guadalajara, she'll put you in touch with the right people. Most charitable works in the US don't understand the whole Mexican side of it and get very, very discouraged. In this case, no things made in China could be shipped to Mexico. As they went through the gathered toys and supplies, they were amazed at how much of it was made in China and couldn't be shipped.
I haven't the patience that she has. She can wait in lines and go from place to place and wait, leave and come back and remain polite and then make the people like her while they do her will. I'm amazed. She should be our next US to Mexico ambassador. So much would get done and communications would improve because she explains each culture to the other in their own words and ways and has everyone laughing with understanding and tolerance.
posted by
benzinha
on August 19, 2004 at 11:20 PM
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Again
you've created a wonderful photo album in text.
posted by
Friar__Tuck
on August 19, 2004 at 10:26 PM
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Oh my. Every now and then I get to read something that helps me to believe that there is decency in people after all.
posted by
telynor
on August 19, 2004 at 3:32 PM
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Benzinha. What an inspirational story. Sisters are doing it for themselves
posted by
beachbelle
on August 19, 2004 at 1:22 PM
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Don't send Charley to tend the lawn!
I had a coworker who collected, packed and sent shipments of medical, clerical and emergency/firefighting equipment to a town near Guadalajara. The last time, she and her husband had collected two full semitrailers full. Due to demands for "licenses" and "fees" and the need to hire a local hauler to deliver it (not just switch trailers, mind you, but unpack one trailer onto an other), it was hung up for a year until some wife of a U.S. diplomat with Mexican connections received their email and facilitated the whole thing with one telephone call to a local official. As I said, this was "the last time", in both senses.
posted by
majroj
on August 19, 2004 at 1:10 PM
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