Special Delivery

My post box is rarely empty. Friends and family are good about sending letters and pictures, books and DVDs, school supplies, stickers and other American treats. There are things to keep for myself, and others to share with the kids. Items to use with Girls Club or on other projects and causes. It’s nice to feel loved (especially when that love comes in the form of novels and M&Ms). The contents are always different, but the names and places they come from are usually the same.

This week, however, I received something I wasn’t expecting: a package that truly tops the charts. It wasn’t sent by my mom, my best friend, or a former colleague. Instead, it came from two little girls, ages four and six. Names I didn’t recognized, but from a town where I used to live.

The box—mammoth in size—came wrapped in brown paper bags, and was filled to the brim with picture books and craft supplies. The contents were fun to sift through, fingertips touching Green Eggs and Ham, Clifford, and other childhood favorites. But the letter was by far the best part.

It was written by their mother, who it turns out, knows my former editor. One of her daughters, she said, had just completed a unit on Africa in school. After learning about the continent and seeing pictures of children in Khorixas on my blog, her two girls decided they wanted to help somehow, too.

So they collected books, crayons, stickers and beads from their own shelves and cabinets. Treasures they were somehow willing to part with, because these items, they decided, could be better put to use by children half way around the world.

They packed them up and shipped them off. And today, their gracious gifts have become the prized possessions of learners who, until now, have never owned a book. Stacks of their favorite stories have become a library for the orphanage, and a seashell bracelet on the wrist of an HIV positive girl actually makes her feel she’s beautiful.

I’ve seen a lot of things as a volunteer. Things that have made me question the system, myself, and at the worst of times, humanity.

But then these two little girls came along: proof of the kindness of strangers. A reminder that even the littlest ones among us have the potential to do big and selfless things.