Recycling - A Story That (hopefully) Has No End!

I have not looked at this Ghana Blog in a while.  We have been home from Ghana almost 3 years!  Riley married Morgan after we returned from Ghana (and they are expecting our first grandchild next month!!), Raegan married Calin Duce in July 2013 and Ben is currently on a mission in the Philippines.  Michaela graduates from high school this year!  There's been plenty to blog about but I just want to share one little story while it is fresh in my mind.

The Recyclables --- Some Stories (Hopefully) Never End

Sunday nights at our house are a much anticipated event.  Our son Ben (19) is serving a mission in the Philippines and he is permitted to email home early on Monday mornings – which is Sunday night for us.   He has been in the Philippines for almost 9 months and will return after a two year stay.     He paints a picture for us through email of all the wonderful as well as hard and difficult things that have happened each week. 

An excerpt from Ben’s email on Sunday, March 16 read as follows:

Sad story, so Joseph is an 11 year old boy, super cool. His mom is paralyzed, his dad is dead, and he has a younger sister and an older sister who is severely disabled. So guess who makes the money for this family? and guess what he does? Joseph goes to the garbage dump every evening and picks through things he can maybe recycle or scrap wood he can sell. What a nasty, sad job.  One day I went over to his house and he was trying to fix his table that they cook on. He started yelling at his mom because he was frustrated trying to fix this table, and his mom starts yelling back (this is when I showed up).  I said,   “hey whats wrong?”  and mom goes off on a tangent but I pick up  enough to understand her telling me that Joseph is behind the house. So i go back there and he is under a blanket crying his eyes out. I put my arm around him, calmed him down a bit and asked what was wrong. Well he went off on some fast Tagalog but I picked up he was frustrated of course, He said things like “I'm only 11 and I support this whole family, my mom cant move, we don’t have any food, I can’t go to church because we spend our money on food when we have money, what does God expect? I want my mom fixed. I want my dad back." like sheesh by this time I was crying too. But what a nice experience to just be there with him and just comfort him.  I told him God knew his situation and understands and things like that but what 11 year old boy is that awesome? then he just got back up, and we fixed the table in 20 minutes and all was good. 

The story was heartbreaking. We have no idea of the hardships the Filipino people face each day while we go about our mundane tasks with every comfort and convenience imaginable.   Ben is not permitted to give money to the people he meets – he is  there to help and serve the people but for obvious reasons ‘hand-outs’ are not part of the solution to the poverty he sees.  I wondered what we could possibly do from our end for this young boy and his family.  There had to be something.  And then something happened.  Something unexpected and something that helped in a way the world may not define as ''helping''. 

Two days after receiving Ben’s letter I was visiting with a good friend from a neighboring town.  I forward Ben’s weekly letters to friends who like to follow his adventures.   As we chatted  she said to me, ‘’ I love reading Ben’s letters – the one he wrote last Sunday about the young boy looking for recyclables reminded me of a boy I met at school yesterday...’’ 

She went on to tell me that she noticed a young boy – 11 or 12 – picking up recyclables on his way home.  She saw a juice box and picked it up and walked over to him.  She asked him if he was saving for something special.  He said, ‘’Yes, my dad’s birthday is coming up and I want to buy him a gift’’.  She was impressed with his motivation and told him she had two big bags of recyclables on her deck that he was welcome to have.  His face lit up. He was so excited!  He said he would drop by that Friday after school to pick them up.   Interestingly enough, just that morning, I was grumbling because I had to AGAIN take my bag of recyclables out of the back of my vehicle and put them BACK in the garage because I needed to put the seats up to transport kids on a school field trip. The bottles had been in my vehicle for over a week.  They landed in my friend's van that night! Yay!  I now knew there was a reason that my bottles had not made it to the depot.

I went home that night and thought to myself, ‘’I’ll bet I have friends with bottles that they would be willing to donate to this young boy.  Wouldn't it be fun if there were more than just a few bottles when he comes on Friday for the two promised bags?  So I posted the story on facebook and asked if anyone wanted to participate in this little mini project.  The response was immediate and amazing!  The following day was a cold, snowy, blizzardy Thursday yet there was a steady stream of traffic plowing down our otherwise very quiet street.  The drop offs just went on and on.  I tried to go out and thank each generous person but had to leave for a few hours.  When I returned our garage was filled to overflowing.  By Friday at noon I had THREE truckloads of bottles.

Suddenly I sensed a potential problem.  What would this boy’s family think?  We knew nothing about him or his family situation.  We assumed they might be struggling financially but this was not necessarily so.  The family might be totally offended at this pile of ‘’help’’ that they did not need or ask for.  The parents might wonder where their son had gone to find all these recyclables and if there was some sort of luring or danger involved.  So I called my friend and told her she really should go talk to the mom and explain what had happened before the boy showed up the next day for his TWO bags of bottles.

My friend went to the boy’s home and asked the mom if she was aware that she had offered her son some recyclables.  The mom said yes and thanked my friend for being so generous.  My friend told her that there were actually a few more than two bags (but did not tell her how many as she herself had not seen my loads yet).  The mom said that was great and that she would come with her son and bring her van.  The family lived in a tiny home and it was almost a relief to hear the reply when my friend mentioned the band concert that night at the school.  She asked the boy if his parents would be attending to watch him play and he replied, ‘’No the tickets are way too expensive’’.  The family was not destitute, not starving or homeless but there was likely a small need. 

The story exploded on line.  The local newspaper somehow got wind of it and called me wanting to do a story on it.  I declined.   It was a heart-warming story but enough hearts had been warmed and we certainly wanted the family’s privacy respected.  Friends told friends and the bottles were adding up. Envelopes with cash were handed to me.  Someone even left a $20 bill tied to the top of their garbage bag full of bottles!  It was just amazing to me.  No one asked for details about the family – no one cared if they were poor money managers, lazy or wealthy or needy or anything else.  It was all about the boy who wanted to buy his dad a gift.  People just wanted to help. 

The next day I dropped off the 2^nd load and filled my friend’s deck with bag after bag of bottles.  The truck was loaded to the brim – the front seats and crew cab stuffed to the roof as well.  My friend texted me  and a few hours later I was able to post this to my facebook page:

“”My friend called this evening so thrilled to be able to share with me the boy’s reaction when he came by for his TWO BAGS of bottles this afternoon. She said she wished she could have videoed and shared the look on his face when she showed him the humungous pile. "All of that? For me?? From who? How? All for me? All this?"  The boy was near tears as she explained how just a few friends wanted to help him with that special birthday gift for his dad. She asked what he planned to buy. He said, "A tool... but now...!"  My friend could see the wheels turning in his mind as he surveyed the mounds of bottles.   He immediately started talking about ways he could share his good fortune with his family and even mentioned that an elderly neighbour was having a birthday soon and he could buy HER a gift too! What a great kid. My friend reminded him that Mother's Day was coming soon too. His mind was just racing. His mom was with him and she could not believe what she was seeing. She was soooo grateful and said they would be sharing this amazing and unexpected gift. I have since had further drop offs this evening and will take them to the boy tomorrow. Thank you all for supporting this little cause in such a big, big way. This family will never forget this day and neither will we. We all win! Good night and happy spring everyone!””

Over 300 people responded to my post.  I found it so interesting to click on the 300 responders to see their names and how I knew them.  And that is when I felt ‘’connection’’ like I never have before.  It was a wonderful feeling.

Of the 300+ people, I only knew personally, about 150 of them.  There were about 100 whose names i did not  recognize but beside their name (if you are familiar with facebook) tells how many mutual friends you have with that person.  Of those 100 people I had between 1 and 20 mutual friends with each of them.  I did not know them personally but we had at least one friend in common.  The other 50 people I did not know at all and had no connection or mutual friend – they had just seen the post and responded because of their goodness with no knowledge of me or any of my friends.  This was so inspiring to me.

The following Sunday I was able to email  Ben the story of what had happened all because of a little Filipino boy.  My friend would have never thought to tell me about the boy in her town if she had not read Ben’s letter.  But because of this little boy half way across the world, another young boy the same age, doing kind of the same thing (looking for recyclables to help his family) was blessed.  I told our son he had to somehow try to relay the story to the Filipino boy and assure him of his worth and what a great thing he was part of.  Not only had the boy here benefited but 300+ other people were inspired and uplifted by the story.  Ben said he didn’t know how he would be able to explain that to him – his Tagalog (Filipino language) is still rusty and the boy knows no English.  We are currently trying to think of a way to help the young Filipino boy without simply sending money.  Ben tells us money is just ‘’hard’’. It does not solve the problem and sometimes exasperates it.  Perhaps we can send a package of some sort and a translator can read the letter we send with it.   Ben says he will think of something to help the story make sense to the boy. 

 I know as much about this young boy as any of you who are reading this do.  Very little. But I do know that we are all connected in ways we can’t even comprehend and it is a pretty cool thing. 

Just today (April 4, 2014) my friend tells me that the boy was aware that the widow neighbour was saving for a particular item – he also knew her birthday was in April.  So he surprised her with the juicer she had been wanting for several months.     The mom and boy could not keep the story hidden from dad.   Dad’s birthday present came a little earlier than May this year in the form of a brand new ratchet set.    The boy also gave his younger sister $40.  I would love to meet this young boy someday – he has discovered the joy of giving at a very young age.  

The boy was hoping to collect enough bottles for a small gift  for dad.  He ended up with over $500 and his first thought was to think who he could share his good fortune with.  

I would love to follow this story till the end of time…what will the widow think and what will it motivate her to do?  And then the next person who she feels inspired to help?  The ripple effect goes on forever – I’ve always known that but never felt it like I did last weekend. 

  The day Ben met Joseph in the Philippines  was a hard day for him.  He wondered if it was really worth spending 2 years trying to help so many seemingly hopeless situations.  But the small moment of doubt ended with an inspiring story of the worth of one soul and how anyone can make a difference.  Anyone.