Lots of nice people are messaging me and thanking me and Maria for trying to help out at Bejosh Farm while Ed is sick. I appreciate, but the real thanks go to Ed and Carol for what they did for us. Ed came with his giant hands and saw and opened a path from our house to the woods we own out back.
He made a bench for us to sit on and dragged it all the way out there, over the bridge he built and the trails he cut. Last winter, Maria took a photo of me and Red sitting out on the bench by the stream, mulling life together.
It will be a nice place to go and sit when I want to remember Ed.
The gray hen died suddenly a few months ago, as chickens are wont to do. We know little about the interior lives of hens.
But Minnie and the gray hen were good pals, they both loved to hang out on or around the fiber chair and were often spotted resting and napping together. Minnie does have any chickens friends right now, but she still loves be around the fiber chair.
Some of you might recall a posting her from Saturday, I wrote an emergency meeting with Ali at our convenience store “office” halfway between Albany and the farm.
Ali got an early morning phone call from two members of the soccer team, Thin Yat and Ka, above, they were scheduled to leave on Sunday morning for a two-week stay in the summer camp run by their Church.
They thought their parents would be able to get them a number of items required to get on the bus, including hiking boots but at the last-minute, they learned from their father that the family just couldn’t afford to help.
So they called Ali, and he called me, and I gave him $300 from our refugee fund. Ali went straight to Wal-Mart with the boys – both on their school honor roll, as Ali requires.
We rushed to our “office” to make sure we could get them what they needed in time, they were due to leave the next morning.
At Wal-Mart, Ali bought them each a pair of Timberland hiking boots, two pillows, two blankets, two backpacks, soap, bug spray, body spray and wash, deodorant, water bottles, two drawing books, and with the $40 left over, some snacks for the trip and to have at camp.
The Church provides the camp and counselors, but the campers have to bring all of their personal needs and effects. If they hadn’t called Ali, they would not have been able to go. This is the kind of work Ali and I specialize in, small acts of great kindness.
The soccer kids are notoriously reluctant to ask for help, and they never complain. These two boys spent most of their lives in refugee camps and had not ever been to camp. Ali checked on them yesterday, they are having a blast.
I am very proud to think of them taking hikes on their notoriously rugged and dry Timberland shoes.
Since cell phones are banned at the camp, no photos until they get back. Thanks for helping their dream come true this summer and helping to give them some rest and recreation in a hot summer.
Your support makes this work possible. To support the soccer team, you can send your donations to me, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].
And thanks, if you want to feel good today, just think of Thin Ya and Ka, swimming and hiking and enjoying their first summer camp. It is so much better to do good than to argue about what good is.
