I don't know why I worry every year about whether people will come to

 our packing parties and how much we will have to pack. Every year we establish a new record for both. We filled a twenty-six foot and a twenty-foot Uhaul truck.  What couldn't fit in the trucks, was driven and dropped off on my porch by several volunteers. Yes, my porch was runneth over again. 

        It's impossible to keep track of how many volunteers pack and adequately describe how hard everyone works.  Suffice it to say most of the food and water I brought was left untouched and we finished in four and one half hours!

        Fifteen minutes before we left, a young man ran up apologizing for not arriving by noon and told me he had brought soccer balls. I think they are from LMYA soccer teams. He readily agreed to bring them to my house. There were well over three hundred. But, they were inflated. 

        To deflate or not to deflate, became the question. For those of you who have never deflated a soccer ball there is a lot of air that needs to be forced through a very small hole. Strength and patience are essential. 

        The answer and solution arrived the same day in an email from Michelle Yeager. She offered to help along with her son, Noah, in any way they could. Michelle and Noah deflated 93 and recruited Nathan Yaegar, Joey Enos and Jorgie Cabrera to assist a few days later. 

They're deflated and ready to go! The soccer balls I mean.

        

        I've been in refugee camps when Basir handed a group of young boys a soccer ball and seen the joy one ball can bring. We also give soccer balls to leaders of refugee camps. That way they are made available to all children in a camp. 

        Our shipment consists of 35 pallets stacked six feet high, 464 boxes in all. The shipment includes 5,000 red vines provided by the American licorice company, 35 computers donated by people who upgraded, ladder ball games built by Boys Team Charity, and ten cornhole games built by boy scouts in troop 219, under the direction of Bradley Sides. This was Bradley's eagle scout project.  

 

Bradley (in the back), oversees the troops (literally).

	Ladder ball has become a sought after game in Afghan schools. Boys Team Charity added to the supply.

        A special thanks go to the SAGE club at Acalanes High School, members of GROW at Stanley Intermediate School, Boys Team Charity, and students at Walnut Creek Intermediate School, who along with SAGE held their own clothing drive.   Our packing parties would not be possible without the support of the Lafayette United Methodist church. 

       

         Fourteen years ago the name Trust in Education was a name chosen from its acronym. The acronym came first. The goal from the start was to "tie" our village to a village in Afghanistan. "Our village" now includes people from all over the United States. We've provided and continue to provide aid to several Afghan villages and refugee camps.

 

       

The fruits of everyone's generosity and labor wait patiently for government approval on Mary and Tim Johansen's property in San Leandro. The devastation caused by the hurricanes have slowed the approval process.

         

        Despite the increase in violence, our work continues without interruption or incident. Remember the statement by the Taliban captive who said "Americans have the watches but we have the time".  He must not have known about the watch that keeps on ticking. We're Timex with a case of backup eveready batteries.

 

Enjoy the weekend,

 

Budd