We had cafeteria duty this week. Our job is to make sure that the smaller kids take some veggies, and drink some milk, and in general, don’t waste food. Again, all the negotiations that I have done in my career have not prepared me for this:

Me: You need more than two peas.
Them: OK.
Me: You need more than THREE peas.
Them: How many?
Me: 25.
Them: How about eight?

This can go on a lot longer than you can imagine. I always lose.

But it doesn’t come close to matching the case of the dismantled meatloaf. I walk by this kid, and there are thirty round balls of meat and three glasses of water on his tray.

Me: What is that?
Them: Meatloaf.
Me: Meatloaf?
Them: I hate the taste so I crush it into little balls and swallow them like pills. Wanna see?
Me: Excuse me!

We had a Kenyan preacher this morning who just returned from studies in Chicago. He told us that the church in Chicago offered its greetings: `Say hi to you guys!’ He told a familiar story about the young boy at the seashore who was throwing starfish back into the ocean and the man said: `There are thousands of starfish on this beach. You can’t throw enough back to make a difference.” And the kids looks at the guy and says `It makes a difference to this one.”

It really put things into perspective for me. I am so aware of my limitations, and the overpowering need here. And I can’t come close to helping, or really understanding the cause of lots of the problem. But I feel like a senator from Illinois once said about trying to stop the destruction of the sand dunes in the state. He said, ” When I was a young man, I wanted to save the world. When I was middle aged, I wanted to save the country. Now, as a old man, I just want to save the dunes.”

There are three things I would like you to know about.

1. We work with an orphanage nearby. There can’t be too many rougher blows in life than to be an orphan in Africa. You just wouldn’t believe how they live. I can’t change that, but I would like them to have a gift for Christmas. A perfect gift would be a Magna-Doodle. They are a kid’s toy in the states that doesn’t need batteries or much explanation. I would love to see the whole orphanage, each kid, get a Magna-Doodle.
2. We work with a Crippled Children’s Hospital. In Africa, one of the saddest facts of life is children with problems are often hidden away, because they are an embarrassment to their families. Often, when they are brought in, something that would have been an easy procedure when they were infant’s turns into a big problem when they are older. The kids there play with rolled up rags. I would love there to be lots of crayons and coloring books and matchbox cars and children’s books; nothing big, but so they would have something.
3. The famine continues. We would love to distribute more maize and beans in the valley. A 70 pound bag of maize costs about $30.00.

Lots of folks have asked if they could do anything for us. We really don’t need anything, and we are grateful for all the support we have received.

But we would love to be able to give the kids with nothing something this Christmas. If you would like to send toys, would you send them to Steve Peifer AIM 135 Crooked Hill Road PO BOX 178 Pearl River, NY 10965? They will forward them to us in a way that will prevent items from being stolen. If you would like to donate to famine relief, you could send a check to Steve Peifer RVA PO Box 80, Kijabe, Kenya East Africa. Make the check payable to AIM Famine Relief and you will get a receipt that you can write off.

I hate to ask, and so early, but we expect more power outages and email problems, not less, and I wanted to let you know so you might have time to do something if you wanted to.

Please note When I was in the States, I got 2 billion requests like this everyday. It won’t hurt my feelings if you are already giving and don’t want to hear anymore requests. But I thought you would want to know.

YOP

Steve Peifer