December 13: True Christmas?

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Perhaps this is a secret code of some sort? Nah, just PeBUH walking across the keyboard to position himself next to me while I blog. He inserts himself with total confidence that he is welcome in the middle of anything we are doing, be that playing ping pong, or sleeping.

As we eat our cheeseburgers tonight, a school night after a busy work day; we will light the third advent candle. I almost forget that it is Sunday, let alone Christmas! Driving through the city, the only decorations on display are the colored flags of the nations attending the Gulf Cooperation Council summit for the next two days. About 2 weeks ago the city started laying tile, planting flowers, and draping flags in preparation for this event (that is planning ahead for this place!) I think they may have even swept up some trash. However, the only place where Christmas decorations can be found are in the malls, salons, private homes, etc. The occasional strain of Christmas music or smell of pine is a rare delight.

Amid this, I find myself once again at the Philippine Embassy Labor Office with a couple hundred disillusioned women in waiting. This poem in "Watch for the Light - Readings for Advent" put my time with these ladies in a different perspective.

No one can celebrate

a genuine Christmas

without being truly poor.

The self-sufficient, the proud,

those who because they have

everything, look down on others,

those who have no need

even of God - for them there

will be no Christmas.

Only the poor, the hungry,

those who need someone

to come on their behalf,

will have that someone.

That someone is God.

Emmanuel. God-with-us.

Without poverty of spirit

there can be no abundance of God.

Oscar Romero

When I arrived at the small room where we meet on Sundays, there were two ladies filling out forms while tears splashed down their fear filled faces. New arrivals, fresh pain, raw emotion. As I tried to comfort & assure them they were safe, one sobbed "but I don't have anything" as she had escaped with just her handbag. Her employer had forced her to strip off her clothes and told her they could be alone since the wife was away.... One lady confided in me that she was hungry. Fortunately, we had brought home baked Christmas cookies to share and I could give her something to hold her till the next meal.

Many of these women were grieving the loss of Christmas as they were used to celebrating it. We talked of these memories. Yet, I could not get away from the thought that women away from home, trapped by circumstances beyond their control, living in a temporary shelter dependant upon others...this was much closer to what the birth day of Christ was really like! Mary could not have dreamed about birthing her baby in a smelly barn away from the comforts of home. There were no twinkling lights and steaming mugs of hot chocolate. Into our neediness comes God-in-flesh! The "poor, the hungry" are most able to appreciate the gift of Christmas I suspect. While I had an overwhelming urge to "fix" the immediate problems of these women, I had to just be with them, hug them, and pray with them as we formed a circle and held hands. God was there among us. Blessed are the poor in Spirit. We were blessed.

During the morning, there was also laughter and rejoicing; 21 ladies had received word their cases were being dropped. They would be transported to the police station, and from there, they would be flown back to the Philippines without their documents on a special flight. It is encouraging to have been there long enough to see that situations do get resolved, even though it seems to take forever.

One very precious girl who is only 22 was among those leaving. She has been there many months and is the one who carried the "Trash to Treasure" project when we were not there. She poured her heart & soul into the creation of these beautiful ornaments. She presented us with the most lovely necklaces she had made for us from beads taken off a pair of jeans. They are such a treasure to Molly & I as we remember this dear girl. She is a Muslim and I saw much of God in her. She hugged me and held on for a very long time while her tears wet my shoulder. Her gratitude was such a gift to me. She was very optimistic about her future: I just hope all the current conflict in her part of the Philippines does not dampen her can-do spirit. I wish I could bring her home with me.

Road Rage

December 6, 2009

This was just too funny not to share. As I was driving home today in the taxi, we came to a crawl near my home as there were several cars stopped in the middle of the road at random positions. It was unclear if one of them had actually hit another car but several people were out of their vehicles. As my eyes took in the scene, I could scarcely believe it: a Kuwaiti man was lunging into the passengers window of a car while wildly swinging his black coils (egal) used to secure his red & white head scarf! His scarf and dishdasha were blowing in the wind while he used his head accessory as a weapon against what I think was an Asian man. While he was whipping his coils, other drivers had exited their cars and were leaping to pull him off of his victim. How sad is this??? The insanity of these roads never fails to astound me.

I guess I'm a little slow, but I failed to put 2+2 together regarding the lack of addresses and the "poor" mail delivery in Kuwait. I'd heard the mail was "unreliable" but this week I realized I've never actually seen a mailbox OR a post office here! When our travel agent needed to send me our tickets from Egypt, he sent them by a colleague who I had to track down by phone, then meet him on the street by the Philippine Embassy where I was working to collect my tickets. Once again tonite we planned to go to a Christmas concert and I even had an address. Sadly, our GPS did not recognize the address and we couldn't even find it on Google Maps so we took off our party clothes and settled into the homework routine with the kids instead. No mailboxes...that should have been a clue!!!

Christmas Spirit

Ethan helps pack 1500 winter warmth bags

December 4, 2009

The photos are in random order but show a pack up of winter clothes bags at Operation Hope, a distribution of bags to hospital cleaners, ornaments made by the housemaids, and some of the ladies who worked on "Trash to Treasure." There is also the set up at the Movenpic Hotel where we sold the ornaments at a bazaar.

This week, Ethan & I helped to prepare for a big distribution to hospital cleaners. Socks, gloves, long underware and hats were packaged to give away. I also got to go on the ditribution where bus loads of workers were dropped off in the lot, they filed through in orderly lines, and recieved their bags with such gratitude. I love greeting the ladies because I kiss them (one, two on each cheek) but I always worry if I'm offending a man if I shake his hand.

After several weeks of working with the Filipino Run Away maids in making ornaments, throwing out "practice" ones, and supporting their efforts to produce good results: it all paid off! At the British Ladies Society Christmas Bazaar Operation had a booth and sold both our ornaments and baked goods. It was decided that ALL the profits of the day would go back to the Philippine Embassy, so instead of the 60 dinars from ALL of the ornament which sold, we earned 145 dinars = 522 US dollars!!! I was so amazed that the ornaments generated such interest on their own merit. While some people were excited about the HOPE that was represented in each piece of artwork, others just really liked the recycled magazine ornaments and purchased handfuls of them at a cost of $1.80 - $4.00 each. The ladies had expressed their desire to have socks as cooler weather is upon us; they also wanted more over the counter medications for the sick ones. With the money we earned, I went shopping with an Indian lady & her husband who know just where to purchase wholesale. We got 260 pair of cute, warm socks for the ladies plus a box full of tylenol, cough syrup, and other meds, AND we still have about a third of the money left.

Sunday:

The Labor Attache' came down today for the photo op and congratulated the ladies on their hard work before they passed out socks to every one of the 210 women in the shelter. The smiles were so rewarding. I was so proud of them: this is empowering them to do something that boosts their self respect and allows them to make a difference even while they are living in such difficult conditions. As I got to speak again with Mr. Jimenez about our work, he assured me we would have more space in 2010 to do what we do because he sees its value.

Home from Hajj

Molly returned late last night from her church youth group trip to Dubai. We were so very tired and disappointed when we saw her flight delayed. Aside from shopping in the airport, we were entertained by an entourage of "Pilgrims" returning from their Hajj trip to Mecca.

We didn't learn until later what the fuss was about. First we heard what sounded like animal calls coming from others who were waiting to greet the arriving passengers. A high pitched "la-la-la-la-la" with a trill is the best attempt I can make to describe it, followed by a shower of fresh flowers, coins, and candy coming over the barriers. The black clad women with heavily accented eyes were welcomed like rock stars by the cheering, crying, photo-snapping crowd of greeters. As family members emptied their baskets into the path of the Pilgrims, immediately there were uniformed "cleaners" underfoot to scoop up the small change from the floor into their pockets. While the hugs & greetings were going on, grown men (the Asian cleaners) eager for a few fils (money) scrambled shamelessly between the flowing abayias like boys grabbing candy from a broken pinata. The flowers and candy were swept up as quick as they landed on the floor. The barricade which was erected just for the occasion of the Hajj, extended all the way to the parking lot to keep the crowd of greeters separate from the returning Pilgrims. I assumed this was to prevent congestion but it was a very awkward arrangement.

Around midnight, our own tired and bedraggled little "pilgrims" emerged with bags and bed sacks. Molly had been able to skip through the passport procedure in Kuwait ahead of others; this was only a small consolation after her diplomatic passport caused such a stir on arrival to Dubai that the whole group was delayed by 2 hours.