Snowcarpet, Antigen, Baker PM’s sent.
Can I sneak in one for the Brits?
The first box of mine is on it’s way! Soccer balls, crayons and colored chalk. (Thanks Reepicheep!)
I also am recruiting some promotional merchandisers, and one of my pen suppliers I know to donate pens to send over. Supposedly there are some other items coming as well, we’ll see.
People are very generous and helpful in my experience.
Can’t wait to get the boxes and start handing stuff out. To hold you guys over, here’s a couple pictures from a recent patrol through a typical Afghanistan village.
The pictures are not really that good. They’re pretty shitty, actually, but I didn’t take these, so don’t blame me. I promise my pictures will be better.
Plus, these kids didn’t seem to like the camera at all. As soon as one of my guys pointed a camera at them, they’d scatter.
I don’t think it’s a Muslim thing, so much as it’s an unfamiliarity thing. After all, the grown-ups love being in pictures:
(That’s my new buddy with the RPG…)
Some of the kids were simply indifferent. Like this one here in front of a shop:
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/8638/p1000139.jpg
I tried to stay positive, though. Here I am waving at some cars as they pass.
More pics of the kids hanging out in the market:
I’ll post more pictures (and better ones) as soon as I can!
I have some books here that were going to get put out for “take 'em if you want 'em,” I’ll send them over instead!
I know they’ll be grateful.
I just mailed my package! It’s a big heavy one!
I put pens, pencils, notebooks, etc into cheap backpacks.
fisha, I’d like** Bear**'s address, please. PM me.
Bear_Nenno, stay safe, you.
Snickers, Surly, PM sent.
Glad to see everything is going well, **Bear.**Great pictures.
Nice to see you posting, Bear. The differences between your Iraqi and Afghan pictures are striking.
fisha, are you still accepting Paypal donations? If so, could you send me your address? Otherwise, please PM me Bear_Nenno’s address and I’ll see if I can get a package together.
Thanks for organizing, fisha and thanks for making the effort Bear. Stay safe.
That’s great. If I get some packages that have huge quantities of stuff, I will take them straight to the schools to hand out. There is an all boys school and an all girls school really close by. It would be good to swing by there and hand out school type stuff.
Bear, you want pens, you’ll get pens. When they ask “How many can you take?” it makes me a little scared.
Another package sent out today.
Greetings everyone! I’ve been away from my base for 17 days, so I finally came home to a room packed with boxes and packages. I finally got to open my Christmas presents! lol. There must have been a dozen packaged waiting for me.
4 of the boxes were from you guys. I got three from KayT stuffed with pencils and school supplies and (WOW!) the box of backpacks from snowcarpet. I am really excited about handing this stuff out. This is going to be fun!
I’ll post some pics soon. Thanks everyone!!
Packing boxes tonight. I had one poster donate enough for 10 soccer balls. (Isn’t that amazing?)
I have 3 boxes filled with 6 balls and pens addressed and ready to go out tomorrow. I’ll send the other two boxes out late this week, so Bear doesn’t get overwhelmed at one time.
From Bear-
" Here are two pictures to hold you guys over. I had to shrink them to ensure I’d be able to upload them. I’ll post more pictures and narratives soon, promise. For now, maybe you can recognize your Beanie Baby or Jolly Ranchers?
Thanks for participating everyone!"
Link isn’t working for me.
Sorry.
I’m a horrible slacker, and for that I apologize. I’ll be getting on this toot-sweet, for certain.
One question, though: what about stickers? Are stickers OK? If so, are there some I should shoot for over others? (As in, yay for sunshine and nature and balloon stickers, nay for Hello Kitty or whatever.)
Made an album.
Bear_Nenno, you are such an awesome guy! My sons’ classmates and teachers STILL talk about the toys, games, etc, that they put together for you to hand out, and the pictures you sent of the kids.
Good work.