tell your friend Veronica

do you know how many Jewish friends i have?

so many.

i have so many its funny. my first super close jewish friend was Alan Grand.

all the kids at school teased him, they called him Jew Lock for some reason. dumb nickname.

i just called him Alan.

we hung out a lot throwing a rubber ball at stairs. we made up a whole game around it. before electricity thats what you had to do for fun.

three doors down from him was another Jewish kid our age named Nelson.

the two families couldnt have been more different, so when kids at school were all, omg Jews are this or Jews are that id say do you know Alan? theyd say yeah, id say do you know Nelson, theyd say yeah. id say what do they have in common?

and they couldnt come up with anything.

and i said they live on the same block. and they get ridiculed by imbeciles like you. now go get lost before i throw a rubber ball at you.

then alan and i would smash lego cars against walls to see which car was tougher.

ah simpler times.

Chappy Chanuka people!

see that pretty girl over there on the right

? the one surrounded by sweet little african kids. orphans and sick ones. thats my truest.

for two and a half years she was in uganda helping those kids at a place called Providence Home, many of whom were dealing with the fact that their parents have died because of AIDS. some of the kids were born with birth defects and were dying until they were saved by the sweet nuns that my truest volunteered with.

for almost the last two years my truest has been back in america. dissatisfied. trying to find work that was as important and valuable as what she was doing in uganda. but after such a life-changing experience where she learned the language, ate the foods, slept in the modest facilities, and most importantly bonded beautifully with all the people, she was unwilling to just get any old job at any old company doing any old thing.

so tomorrow afternoon she flies back to africa for a month and a half. literally for the kids.

over the last few weeks we have been shopping for little things that they would like: soccer balls, stickers (they love putting them on their sweet faces), candy for the nuns, pencils, pencil sharpeners, etc etc. the goal was to get as many small things that could fit two duffel bags so these kids can have a really nice Christmas.

now when the truest was in africa the first time she didnt do any fundraising because while in the peace corps her job was to help the community learn how to be self-sufficient. which she did. the ball began rolling, the orphanage learned how to raise and sell pigs, among other things.

but as you can imagine, it was just a start. recently the truest talked to the Sisters and the current Peace Corps volunteer, and learned that their usual resources aren’t meeting immediate medical and school supplies needs. so she is going to also be bringing some much needed cash so they can give the kids the most important things they need.

you can help by donating anything: $5 can go sooo far, so imagine what $20 can do.

click here and give the best Christmas gift you could give all year.

100% (minus the paypal fees) goes right to the needs of these sweet kids in uganda.

i will miss my truest for the next six weeks but i know she will be doing the right thing for the right people for a nice long time. she will have her bags of fun toys and sweets, and she will be collecting cash for the Sisters to heal and educate the kids. seems too good to be true, but thats who she is, a sweet angel.

awwwwwww