November 23, 2009

Student Gift packages - lots of great gifts inside!!!

We put all the students’ gifts into backpacks and separated them by students’ classes. Each student’s gift package included a pair of shoes, a pair of socks, a pair of gloves, a sweater, school supplies (5 pencils, 3 pens, a ruler, two pencil sharpeners, an eraser, 2 notebooks, an Afghanistan map and a World map), a hygiene kit, a stuffed animal, and a school backpack. We put students’ names on each backpack to make the distribution easier but more importantly to make sure each package gets delivered to the right student since the clothing items and shoes were carefully prepared according to each student’s sizes provided by their teachers.

Then we put the teachers’ gifts together which included a winter jacket, a hygiene kit, a toy for their kids, several pairs of shoes according to family size, a couple pairs of socks, and a teacher’s kit (2 notebooks, 1 box of motivational stickers, a pencil sharpener, a ruler, and a color chalk set).

Teacher's Gift Package - pacakged according to teacher's family size!

We did not forget to prepare a gift box for the owner of the land who currently manages the school. We put a couple of winter jackets, three pairs of shoes, and a few other appreciative gifts in a package.

Then, we brought 4 chalk boards, 1 bag of chalk, 3 soccer balls, 2 air pumps, and a new large tent for the school.

Many of these gifts were donated by Mr. Gary Sinise and the U.S. Army. Thank you!!!

The night before the Daman project, CPT Kramer requested Dr. Rafi to call the school to make sure the kids were all there. And we made another call on the morning of the distribution to confirm one more time.

Oh, there was a nation-wide swine flu warning and all schools were closed for three weeks across Afghanistan. However, very fortunately, the schools reopened a couple days prior to the distribution. Isn’t this amazing? Daman is a small private school, so regardless of the public schools’ closures, we already arranged with Daman to work with us on this distribution event. We just had to inform the date a day or two before the actual distribution date.

Daman - teachers kit which was included in teacher's gift package

CPT Kramer said that for last three days suddenly the attention towards this little event increased very much and some very high ranking officers were flying in on the day. Wow, even more amazing. To tell you the truth, at that point, I got a little nervous; I did not want to make any mistakes. I could not sleep much. I rethought everything that should and could happen during the actual distribution process all night long. I barely slept a couple hours and got up to make sure nothing was missed.

Daman - Land Owner's Gift Package - packaged according to his needs!!!

- The final Part (Part 3) continues tomorrow with lots of pictures of the kids, me, and, of course, Mr. Gary Sinise!!! –

** Did you miss SPECIAL – Gary Sinise – Part 1? Just click the blue link!!! **