It was frigid on the farm this morning, yesterday I bought some booties for Gus.
There are two things I swore I would never do in my life with dogs – buy a sweater or booties.
I was inundated with pleas and warnings from small dog people, and so I relented and bought a sweater. When I saw that the weather forecast called for -14 tomorrow night, I relented and bought some booties at a pet shop.
But Gus is not co-operating. He does not seem to notice the cold, does not shiver or rush to go inside. This morning, he shook his booties off in seconds – there are serious stay-on issues with these things – and chase Fate all around the yard.
When his feet got chilly, he simply came to the back door, went inside and went to sleep by the fireplace. I don’t think the sweater or booty thing is going to work.
Some people think that the refugees who come to the United States are not “the best people” of the countries they come from, but they are meeting different refugees than I am. The refugees I am meeting are brave, hard-working and often heroic, risking their lives, sometimes for years, to get their children to safety and the promise of a better life.
Many have endured unspeakable horrors, and the refugee kids live and go to school in an environment where everybody around them has more than they have. We are trying to balance that by funding selective clothes – like winter boots – and trips to the movie, skating rinks, and indoor soccer tournaments.
America once was united in its commitment to welcome refugees to our shores, but that has gotten more complex. Last year, the RISSE office building was burned to the ground by arsonists, they have never been caught.
None of these kids and none of their families have the money to do the things that even poor American kids get to do. Today, the Army Of Good is funding an excursion to see Star Wars. Later in the week, bowling and ice-skating, inexpensive things they love to do.
We are also buying gifts for a young woman at RISSE who was mistakenly left off a holiday gift list donated by a local hospital. She was left out, she will get her gift. Those are the small things that can mean so much.
Being a refugee is one of the hardest things in the world to be, because by definition, a refugee has lost everything and faced death and awful persecution just to be eligible to come here. Many people in my family were refugees, and faced persecution, many were saved by people who cared enough about them to help.
I wish to be one of those people who helped these people when they needed it. I see I am not alone in this.
I had a long talk with Ali this morning, and we talked about the families of the soccer kids. I asked him what they need – many have no fathers at home, they were killed or died or forced to stay behind – he said it is his fantasy to bring groceries to some of these families once a month.
And I said why not?
Our first Grocery Campaign recipient will be a woman from the Congo, who came to America after years in a refugee camp. Her husband was killed there and she has eight children to support. She could use our help. We are planning the first drop the first or second week of January.
This is something I would support and the Army Of Good would support. We talked about taking $150 each month and going to a supermarket in the Albany, New York are and bring it to one of the refugee families, I am learning that many refugees struggle to buy enough groceries each month, and the government programs that once helped them are being cut or eliminated.
So I suggested that after the New Year’s holiday, we launch a once a month Grocery Campaign, buying $150 worth of groceries for a single family, and then doing the same thing the first week of every month. He said that would make a staggering difference to these families.
I will go along with Ali and buy the food and help deliver it, and I will take photos and you can see just where your money is doing and what for, something I work hard to do all the time. I am also committed to getting uniforms for the new RISSE women’s basketball team, but that will come in a few weeks.
Ali says this grocery trek would make a profound difference and I can see from my first visits to these homes that he is right. The refugees are proud and rarely ask for help. But Ali knows from the soccer kids that there is sometimes not enough to eat.
We just sent truckloads of winter clothes for them to wear, I’d like to get them so warm and nutritious food.
There is no more basic thing than food that we can offer these good people – they are some of the best people I know – than food for them and their children to eat, to take some of the awful pressure off of them.
In previous years, the refugees received support from the federal government to help them adjust, that support is vanishing, so there are a lot of holes to fill. My idea is we identify the small holes and work to fill some of them.
If you wish to support the First Week Refugee Grocery Project, you can donate by sending a check to mat P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected]. Thank you.
It’s -8 degrees tonight, and it’s going to get a lot colder over the next week and beyond. The hard winter showed up early, I’m eager to take some photos.
The Mansion carriage ride was postponed until Spring, the refugee kids are coming today, and also next Wednesday to join in a New Year’s Pizza Celebration at the Mansion, funded by the Army of Good.
RISSE is putting together a girl’s basketball team – the girls were not interested in playing soccer with the boys but a small number are interested in a women’s basketball team, I hope to help them get their uniforms and support them in their new venture.
Ali will be coaching the team, details to come.
Regarding Gus, we have made some progress dealing with his Megaesophagus, a disease of the esophagus that makes it difficult for him to digest his food. One thing we have to do is hold him upright for five to ten minutes after he eats, and he and Maria have taken to this, he loves to sit in her lap or mine and get his stomach rubbed.
Gus is a grounded, agreeable and adaptable dog, it makes exploring this new disease simpler and hopefully, more effective. In the past four days, he’s regurgitated his food three times, and some days not at all.
The fact that he is eliminating in a normal way tell us that the bulk of the food is going through the digestive tract. We’ll meet with Dr. Fariello, our vet, next week and see how things are going.
This is not a breeding or genetic issue, none of Gus’s siblings have it, nor do his parents. It just happens sometimes.
I’m going to miss Maulidi’s bird carvings, we will be shipping them out today and tomorrow. Maulidi (that is the correct spelling of his name, I was given the wrong one and using the wrong one) had to cancel his visit today, he was called into work at the bakery where he makes bread.
His next batch of carvings has been painted, and the wood is drying now.
Maulidi plans to come out this weekend to get more wood and drop the carvings off. Maria’s waiting list is up to 60 people now, Maulidi has touched a deep nerve with his carvings, it is wonderful that he is carving wood again.
Today, the RISSE soccer team heads to Pompanuck to meet another soccer team, this one refugees from Burma. It’s too cold to play soccer, they will sled and have lunch with other, there’s talk of a snowball fight. I’m sure they will find plenty to do.
I’ll hang out for as long as I can stand the cold.
Thanks for supporting Maulidi’s work, we are eager to help set him up as an independent artist, more and more we are liking etsy, the online art sales community, as a good place for him to sell his carvings. He’s not ready for that, and neither are we but I think this could be a good permanent home for his work.
Maulidi is new to the United States, he speaks little English, has no car and does not know how to use a computer, nor does he own one. He commutes to work by bus – it is a long ride, an lives in a very tiny apartment.
There is a lot to do between now and then. If you wish to get on the waiting list for his carvings, e-mail Maria at [email protected]. The new ones should be coming here next week.
