runlindsayrun

Small World After All

I did something kind of cool this afternoon, definitely worthy of a little blog mention. Geoff and I joined a few of the young adults from his church at MCC for an afternoon of volunteer work.

It was actually really cool to be there. I've done a few little projects to collect items for MCC to donate around the world, but I've never seen what happens to the stuff after we drop it off. We worked on labelling and packing pallets full of school kits and health kits, and then learned how to wrap bales of blankets bound for Serbia and Lebanon. A few other people sorted through bags full of donated items from The Inn at the Forks, a local hotel that donates their used linens and towels to MCC - who in turn passes the items on to people who need them, both locally and in troubled areas around the world.

We also had a chance to play a game that MCC has developed for distribution in schools and refugee camps - a version of snakes and ladders that teaches children (in their own language) about spotting the danger of land mines, and what to do about it. The game is being supported by a bunch of other organizations including, oddly enough, the Lebanese army.

I'm not used to spending Saturdays doing things that might cause me to break a nail, but it was actually pretty fun. It was especially interesting to see where all these items were going. There are so many place names I saw and thought to myself, 'the crisis over there ended YEARS ago, didn't it?' But that doesn't mean that life is back to normal there. It just means that we've forgotten, and that made me really sad.

And really determined to harass everyone I know about donating those health kit items ;)

L

Labels: My Life

posted by Lindsay @ 11:52 PM