Being of Use in the US

While I was in the US, it was a good time for me to begin speaking about my experiences in Kashmir. I gave 7 presentations in Iowa in July and August. Churches, Rotary, Kiwanis, Dad's nursing home, and his apartment building friends. People kindly donated money to help Sami and the disabled of Kashmir, which was great.

Just as important to me was the opportunity to break down some of the stereotypes of Muslims among people who, like me, have been taught by the media to equate all Muslims with terrorists and misogynists. Most Americans realize that the mainstream media blows things all out of proportion, and is quick to create monsters where none exist. This approach sells newspapers. Since people know in their hearts that Muslims cannot possibly be as bad as portrayed, nearly all of the people who listened to me were open to my experiences with the tolerant, kind, peace loving and long suffering Kashmiri Muslims I met and lived with. And if there were any who were not open to it, they were tactful enough not to say anything to me.

The two churches I spoke at were most generous, and happy to help the disabled of Kashmir. The Anamosa Iowa United Methodist church members had many questions for me after my talk. My sister Sharon who lives in Anamosa saw that I would not be able to take orders for the Kashmiri embroidered items I had brought with me, so she stepped in to help. It felt like the whole congregation was buying something! Sharon also kindly offered to deliver the items when they arrived. It has been a lot of work taking the orders and keeping everything straight, but very good to know what people most like, for future sales on the Hope Centre website.

The good folks at the First Presbyterian Church in Algona, Iowa were also very generous. After my talk, they donated enough money to ship 7 boxes of donated orthopedic equipment to Kashmir from Iowa, and calibrate an audiometer.















Many of us went to lunch together, and I was able to share the photos on my laptop with them.

I gave 5 more talks during my time in Iowa. The churches were far and away most supportive and interested in what I had to say. Probably because I have attended both of them in the past. I enjoyed all the talks very much, and now that I really have something important and interesting to talk about, I plan on giving talks as often as I can in New Zealand and the US.

The medical equipment was given to me by Global Health Ministries in Minneapolis. I tracked them down by asking the hospital in Algona if they had any used supplies or equipment I might have for Kashmir. All of the hospital's used equipment and unwanted supplies were sent to Global Health Ministries in Minneapolis, they said. No problem. I was going to Minneapolis anyway, so I paid the organisation a visit. Global Health Ministries collects medical equipment and supplies from around the 5 state area: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North and South Dakota. Hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and medical distributors give the items. Volunteers sort the items, repair what they can, and eventually ship them overseas to Lutheran hospitals. Hope Disability Centre is not a Lutheran hospital, but Global Health Ministries kindly made an exception for me, since I was picking up the shipping cost and am, in effect, a missionary. And because they get more donated goods than even the Lutheran hospitals can use at times.

Scott Lien, the Operations Manager, loaded up a cart for me with everything I could think of that Sami might want.

I had to stop Scott after a while. I wasn't sure I could get all of these boxes into Dad's car! They just barely fit, and I spent a week at Kathie and Dave Gerbers, sorting them and finding out what Sami really needed out of them.












And figuring out the cheapest way to ship them all the way to Kashmir. I ended up using the good old US Postal Service, but it cost $600. Bob at the Algona Post office said "We made a profit today!"














I am now researching how else I can get these items to the Hope Disability Centre more cheaply. $600 is a lot of money to come up with for shipping.





Kathie and Dave were very tolerant of me taking over their living room for a whole week, as I sorted and re-sorted all the items. I got all the boxes filled and out of the living room the morning that their family arrived in town for a big get together. Just in time!

The next chance I got, I volunteered for a day at Global Health Ministries. I was assigned to Rough Sort - opening up the boxes from the hospitals and figuring out what categories of items they were, and putting them into the correct bins. I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of my co-volunteer, who was a nurse.












It was like Christmas, opening up these unlabeled boxes and seeing what was inside. Or like going through my boxes I have stored at the homes of friends and family around the world.

The day before I left for Portland, I returned to Global Health Ministries to pick up some hearing aids. Leo, a long time volunteer for the organisation, had a collection of used hearing aids which no one had wanted. 3 years worth. He arranged for someone to clean the wax out of them, and gave them to me along with batteries and a small tool to clean wax out of hearing aids. What a sweetheart! Sami can really use hearing aids. While there, I met Sue Stroebel, and her daughter. I showed Sue the photos of Kashmir, and she offered to contact nursing homes to collect more hearing aids for the Centre. Wow!! I cannot even believe how generous and helpful people are here. Every day I have been blessed with support and encouragement for the disabled of Kashmir.

So between selling and taking orders for embroidered goods, and giving talks on Kashmir, I made the most of my time in the US to help the disabled of Kashmir.