You're Making a Difference, Folks!

About a month ago, we received the following from John Gessner, in Afghanistan:

Afghanistan:  "These rooms at the orphanage are currently not used. The orphanage houses 70 kids. The others they have to turn away, back to the street, because there is no room. If we could get these renovated, they could double or triple their capacity....Our interpreter was so moved by the kids, he drove downtown and bought a 200 pound bag of flour for them.  We also brought along some clothes, soccer balls and, of course, lots of candy.  Some of our guys are talking about building some swing sets for the kids....."  John Gessner

This past weekend (November 24th) we received the following update:

On Sunday, November 24th, we traveled to the Charikar orphanage.  The contractor we had selected to renovate the 6 rooms had quoted a price of $4000.  More than we could afford at this time, we found that the wood he needed was the most expensive commodity of the project.  We were able to locate the wood on post so the contractor was able to reduce his cost to $1000.  

We arrived at Charikar with a truck load of wood and several boxes of clothes, school supplies, stuffed animals and of course, bags of candy for the kids.  The first task was to unload the wood.
	As we started, the older men on the orphanage staff waved us back and soon several little hands began carrying the wood in the gate.  One little guy was so excited, after helping to carry in a sheet of plywood, he literally ran back out to the truck and got to the head of the line to grab another sheet.
Another little guy was so excited, he hoisted a 2X4 on to his shoulder and began to go in the wrong direction. Soon all the wood was delivered and stacked.

	We then delivered the boxes of donated goods.
Two young soldiers with us were overwhelmed with the activity so I sent them back to the truck for the stuffed animals and candy with instructions to wade through the kids and pass out the presents.
	The soldiers were mobbed (in a good way) and were overjoyed at the prospect of serving these little ones.
One boy gave us a big purple smile, the result of some purple candy he had just consumed.
	The contractor expects to begin work tomorrow.  Once complete, another relief agency has purchased school desks in order to convert one of the rooms into a school.  As we left, we inspected the vehicles to insure we didn't have any extra passengers.
One of my sergeants already picked out about a dozen kids he would like to stuff in his duffle bag for the return home trip.  As we drove down the road, several of the kids ran behind us waving their thanks.	Re

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