May 17, 2005
Children Helping Children
(Wednesday Update: Since my posting schedule for this week started out wonky, I'm keepin' it wonky. So, most likely no posting until Friday, unless, of course, some deliciously tittilating gossip comes my way, in which case I'm all over it.)
Sorry about yesterday's absence. My usually smooth ride on the blog train developed a little hitch in its gitalong.
I am so happy to be able to share this with you, the most remarkable email I've received during the course of the Dulaan project:
"I'm over the moon about the Dulaan Project and have a big box-o-stuff to send. I'm a pediatric occupational therapist and I've had virtually every child I work with help making fleece blankets. It's been awesome for blind kids, kids with cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, psychiatric conditions, Fragile X, autism, you name it, to be able to help. I even have a child who was born with only a brain stem get involved. It's been fantastic for the moms to see their kids on the giving end of things for once. Very empowering! I have some very touching pictures if you're interested.”
I read this message in its entirety umpteen times because I had trouble wrapping my head around the magnificence of the idea of mentally, physically and learning-challenged American children happily making fleece blankets for Mongolian children. Needless to say, I took Marylee, the author of the email, up on her offer to post some photographs of the children or, as she refers to them, her “sweet peas." (Note: If you're anything like me, you'll have to ignore the urge to haul out the fire extinguisher. If that fleece doesn't keep the Mongolians warm, I don't know what will.)
Photograph 1: Per Marylee, “First we have Addy. She wanted to know if the kids in the flyer ever have lemonade parties.” (Side note from your blogmistress: "Lemonade parties?" Doesn’t that just kill you?)
Photograph 2: “The 3 Amigos.”
Photograph 3: “This is Jacob. When he says "Mongolia," he puts the accent on the third syllable and it sounds downright Italian! He now asks every week about 'the babies.' " (Side note from your blogmistress: Now Jacob has me saying “MongoLEEa,” too. It’s a hard habit to break once you start, although "Mongo-frickin'-LEE-a" can be a real tongue twister.)
Photograph 4: "In the power chair is Colten. He has cerebral palsy and uses an electronic communication device with an infrared sticker dot on his forehead. He is brilliant and I love him."
Photograph 5: "This is Andy. He has a seizure disorder and attention/frustration tolerance of about 20 seconds. I bet he could have made 10 blankets all by himself!”
Photograph 6: “Can you even believe all the cuteness packed into Brandon (with the tinted glasses)? He has a rare disorder called Rubenstein Taybi Syndrome. He is non-verbal, but clearly wayyyyy expressive!”
Photograph 7: “Finally, my mom, Rosie. She's 87. Now tell me I don't have a million-dollar gene pool! Never too old, never too young, never too slow, never too busy.”
Lastly, Marylee says, “Everyone can help. And if this is not joyful proof that Cuzzin Tom has it precisely right about the fullness bestowed upon the giver...I mean...look at their faces!”
Thank you, Marylee, for your emails and the photographs. And thank you, children and Marylee's Mother, for your work on the blankets!! I am sure F.I.R.E. will be thrilled to receive your box of cozy blankets.
More good news! For those of you who thought that Cuzzin Tom lit the Dulaan bonfire under us and then scarpered off to MongoLEEa, abandoning us and the project, nuh-uh. Until yesterday, there was some particularly potent spam protection applied to the blog which did its job so well that it prevented even legit readers from posting and, in particular, one legit reader from MongoLEEa. However, the spam protection has now been toned down a bit, and Cuzzin Tom is able to post, so I hope we hear from him more often, although I hear the Internet connection from the middle of the Gobi Desert is a little iffy.
Two more folks have signed up for the Dulaan Garden Party, Feralites Andrea and Karen. Looking forward to seeing you there! Now, everyone, get down on your knobbly knees and pray for good weather! Sunny and 70 will do just fine, thanks.
(Note to The Mysterious K: Rebecca has threatened us with bodily harm if we don't serve one of our infamous tofu chocolate pies. Well, it may not be Rebecca herself who rains the deadly blows upon us, since she's such a girly-girl, but she says she knows some people who know some people. Are you scared? Nuh-uh, me neither.)
(Big sigh of happiness) Those photos were worth the wait!
Posted by: daisy on May 17, 2005 09:59 AMHey! I'm super strong here! You should be scared! Really!
Oh, you're still not? Well THEN!
I still want that pie. It is SOOOOO Gooooooddd!
Posted by: Rebecca on May 17, 2005 09:59 AMWell, Rebecca, I wasn't *planning* on making the tofu pie this time around. I thought everyone might be getting a little tired of it showing up every fricking potluck. But, since you asked so nice (read: threatened me), I guess I'll be making at least one more this year. ;-)
TMK
Posted by: The Mysterious K on May 17, 2005 10:11 AMOh, Rebecca, if you only knew how sick I am of that damn pie...
Posted by: Ryan on May 17, 2005 10:13 AMI wish I could come, but Seattle is a long way from St. Louis. I've caught Dulaan Fever over the last couple of weeks. Pics on my blog. I wish I could say that I was as productive as all those fantastic kids. How wonderful! How cool would it be if the kids in MongoLEEa could see the kids who are sending them such great blankets?
Posted by: Jenn on May 17, 2005 10:15 AMHey TMK, can I have Ms. Ryan's piece of pie? You can just overnight it to me. I'll pay for shipping. Please? Pretty please? I'll send you chocolates and a woodworking book.....and some Texas goodies. Or something. Yeah. :o)
And the pictures are amazing. Truly inspiring. Must go make another hat.
Hope everyione has a great day!
Posted by: Stalker Angie on May 17, 2005 10:28 AMAngie, the pie has to be chilled. I don't even want to THINK about what the slice would look like after a trip in the cargo hold of an airplane followed by exposure to the Texas heat. Euw.
Posted by: Ryan on May 17, 2005 10:34 AMtmk & ryan-
then post the recipe.. simply for those of us too curious for our own good. :)
Posted by: anj on May 17, 2005 10:56 AMAnj, the recipe be at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_14312,00.html
TMK uses a little less honey than the recipe calls for (maybe a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon) but, other than that, she follows the super-simple recipe to the T. It's soooo funny to watch people first take a cautious nibble of their slice of pie because they are put off by the idea of the tofu...and then pure lust dawns in their eyes and they start scarfin'. We've seen this play out over and over again, and never tire of it!
Posted by: Ryan on May 17, 2005 11:15 AMThanks for the recipe - that looks yummy. Do you know if leaving out the coffee liquour works? (I know. Just try it).
I have 3 hats to send!
Posted by: melissa on May 17, 2005 11:52 AMOK, you are really going to have to stop posting such cute photos because I'm already knitting as fast as I can. (hee hee) Thanks for the continued inspiration!
Posted by: Jane on May 17, 2005 11:55 AMGeez Ryan,
The sniffle sniffle tearing up that happens when I look at yer blog recently and am confronted with pictures is SO not helping my not-a-total-pansy reputation at work.
THanks for posting the pictures. It is great to see who is getting involved, and who we are knitting for.
Wish i could be there for the garden party, especially since we have had nothing but rain in Minneapolis for the past two weeks or so.
cheers
d
My kids were squeeling when they saw their pictures on the computer! I'll get busy now and let the moms know to take a peek. Thanks, Ryan, for being the "path".
Posted by: marylee on May 17, 2005 01:15 PMOh HOW I love the TMK! She is the bestest! SEE RYAN - SOMEONE loves me :)
Now I'm going to have to be super nice or something. Geesshh! This is going to be hard work ;-)
Posted by: Rebecca on May 17, 2005 02:33 PMWow! These photos really brightened my day. What a great reminder to keep looking at the big picture of life!!! Little things that have been annoying me just melted away when I saw these photos.
Posted by: Karen on May 17, 2005 03:46 PMI approve of MongoLEEa. I LIKE it! Wouldja send me a piece of (or a whole) chocolate tofu pie?
Posted by: Norma on May 17, 2005 07:19 PMAgh! I'm a mess! Tears welling up from the pics of those beautiful kids while I can't stop giggling over the sentence, "I live in MongoLEEa"! I'll never say it the same way again. Oh lord, now its morphing into song lyrics: "I left my Maria in MongoLEEa..."
As I said in the comments below, soon I'm going to have a pretty intense story to tell about some Mongolian kids. It'll be especially dedicated to the "scam accuser". And I've just heard from a Mongolian man who knows that the situation for children in North Korea makes Mongolia look like sunny Disneyland. I'm cooking up ideas for ya'll for next year but it'll have to be genuinely clandestine. Cue music: "Secret Aaaagent Monk..."
Posted by: Cuzzin Tom on May 17, 2005 09:08 PMOK. I am normally a very dry-eyed girl, but I was forced to reach for the tissues due to the story about the kids making blankets. (AND I'm nowhere near PMS time.) Truly inspirational. Back to knitting now...
Glad to see you back in the comments, Secret Agent Monk!
Posted by: Kristen on May 17, 2005 09:16 PMRyan-
Those pics and the story were awesome. I have been putting down my knitting lately because of work and some other things going on in life, but tonight I am going to finish hat #3, and start on a scarf!
Thanks for the recipe. I am leery of the tofu word, but Anj helps me to 'expand my taste horizons' (as we say), so there will most likely be another taste revelation. Perhaps we'll take a pic of the transformation for Anj's blog.
Posted by: sue (anj's enabler) on May 18, 2005 06:23 AMTom, my mind always hears the refrain to that song as "Secret Asian man." And, hey, wait until we're frickin' done with the frickin' Dulaan project for frickin' MongoLEEa before you frickin' start hatching new frickin' projects for frickin' North Korea! Oy.
Sue, you don't really "know" us but trust TMK and me on the pie (and TMK is the Queen of the Land of People Who Hate Tofu. However, she is also the Queen of the Land of People Who Love Alton Brown (who's recipe the pie recipe is)--so that's how she got up the noive to try it). Do send a picture of the pie or, er, what's going to be left of it.
Oh, and note to Melissa: We've never made it without the Kahlua but I think it gives the pie a richer, more sophisticated, more grown-up taste--which at a recent party, we discovered that kids aren't big on. But you can be darn sure they ate the chocolate cookie crust, leaving just the mangled and gooey pie innards on their plates.
Posted by: Ryan on May 18, 2005 08:43 AMWednesday post COULD have been about slugs and spiders . . .
Posted by: Patti on May 18, 2005 11:05 AMDear Readers, Patti is referring, tongue-in-cheek, to the conversation we had at Ferals about how we each do, or do not, kill, or don't, or remove from our houses, or don't, spiders and slugs. The blue ribbon for grossness goes to Andrea who says they cut slugs in half with scissors. (I feel nauseous just thinking about it.) And the blue ribbon for funny goes to Patti who regaled us with a story about how a baby tarantula escaped from her son's classroom and showed up at the nearby senior center during aerobics.
Posted by: Ryan on May 18, 2005 11:44 AMOh, my.... no need to worry about the fire, because I'm crying enough to damp it all out. FABU pics, Ryan. MongoLEEans are lucky to have you....
And since I went ahead and got me a copy of that book... hmmm... maybe some more hats will be forthcoming to you soon...
Posted by: Amie on May 18, 2005 02:26 PMI was getting all misty-eyed over those pictures (I liked marylee's comment about you being "the path", Ryan - that is so true....). And then I read the slugs comment and laughed out loud. I will stoutly defend the right of all spiders, ants, and other assorted bugs to live free and be removed outside with a piece of tissue. But slugs, now that's another matter. I have been known to scream in an unhinged manner when slugs are just pointed out to me. If I ever touched one, well, I might just expire on the spot.
Posted by: Diana on May 19, 2005 04:20 AMAs if I weren't hanging on the edge as it is, I am confronted with these photos! Weepy eyes for sure. What great kids! What a great teacher!
But moving on to the chocolate food group discussion, because I am a non-drinker, I sometimes replace Kahlua with very strong cold coffee heavily sweetened and with a smidge of vanilla.
Looking forward to attending your garden party virtually--we might need to have one down here. Although a garden party at my house could be themed Little House on the Prairie in Berkeley--we haven't mowed the back yard in weeks...
Thanks for your loving support recently, my dears.
Posted by: Janine on May 19, 2005 08:19 AMWhat a great story! Hugs for all the wonderful kids who participated!
Posted by: Palzang on May 19, 2005 09:47 AMWonderful photos. What a reminder that it really is a small world after all.
Wanted to let you know that my box will be mailed to The Dulaan Project tomorrow. It contains 9 items (1 sweater, 3 hats and 5 pairs of mitts.)
Happy knitting!
Posted by: Carol on May 19, 2005 06:37 PM