Today, I started off with the one activity that I dread the most during mowing season – weed eating! But, I took it on like a champ! From there “Sal,” who can best be described as their version of “Craig Loper” and I tackled some shrubbery that was out of control. We were relentless and by the time we were done with our trimming, the front of the building was pristine!
From there we went and picked up several boxes of books donated by the public library. It was so gratifying to hear the librarian sing the praises of the work Global Samaritan is doing!
One thing that is consistent with all of the non-profit organizations I have worked with over the years, is that they have to be resilient. Funds and personnel are always tight, so they squeeze every ounce of value out of anything they own. Today, we took a trailer load of scrap iron, metal, aluminum and copper to the recycling center. Sal had even crawled on top of their building and disassembled an old air conditioner, just so they could get some value for the metal and copper in it. After everything had been unloaded from the trailer and processed, we came away with almost $600…which thrilled their business manager!
We wrapped up day two by figuring out how to ship a pontoon boat to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yes, a pontoon boat! Actually, this is a pretty cool story. A church in Amarillo donated the pontoon boat, and took the time to disassemble it and create assembly instructions so that it could be shipped over to central Africa. Then, when it arrives the mission team will assemble the boat and load the relief materials onto it so they can travel along the river of the jungle…stopping off at villages to deliver medical supplies, food, books and school uniforms. On the subject of uniforms, I was shocked to learn that in the area of the Congo where these uniforms are being shipped, the government does not allow children to attend school unless they have a uniform! That’s crazy! And it was sad to learn that the kids who do not have uniforms crowd around the outside of the school building, hoping to eavesdrop a little so they can learn something from the teachers. The great news is that we have 1,000 sets of uniforms that will be going out in the shipment for the kids! As the husband of a school teacher, I relayed this story to my wife so that she could relay it to her high school students…hopefully, it will make them stop and think of how good they’ve really got it!