Community

Tragedies happen, unfortunately, and this week saw one in our village.

One of the boys in Leo's class lost his father three years ago in a river flood. Last week his mother died too. There are four children now orphaned.

The kids have been taken into new homes. Three of them (aged 1 1/2, 8, 10) have moved in with relatives who have no children of their own. And Leo's friend (aged 6) is now living with a different relative (because they are particularly close), who has several other children. The two homes are near to each other, so it is almost like staying together.

Both families are very poor, so we all got together to see if we could help with the practicalities of a swelled household. The kinder garden moms went round all their neighbors asking for contributions. Our village consists of about 50 households, between two and thee hundred individuals. It is not a rich community, and yet people did not hesitate to give. The response was overwhelming. You can't really tell from the photo just how much food was given, but it filled bags and bags and bags. The picture of the back of my truck was just half of it, as everything was divided between the two households.

Abe posted this story on his facebook and was equally overwhelmed by people wanting to give. Mailing stuff to us is not an easy thing, but if you want to help, find someone locally that needs it (I'm sure there is no shortage, no matter where you live). The silver lining of this story, for us at least, is a deep pride in knowing that our community cares and will come together when the need arises. Hopefully that will count for something for these kids.