Rachael told me that you all were asking her so many questions, that she wanted me to fill you in a bit more on this family group of 10. I’ll do my best. Remember I only know what the volunteer tells me and what the sheets says. I’ve not met them yet either.

So here goes.

This family of 10 is made up of what we might think of as 2 family groups, but they all live together in the same house.

First of all there is a lady (49) and her husband (55) and 6 kids (24-11). Then, the lady’s mother (70) (we’ll call her grandma) and her son (40) - this would be the original lady’s brother. He is handicapped - has mental disabilities.

So, we have more or less, two groups - the immediately family of 8 + the grandma/her son who share a room in the same house.

They live on a small 10 hectare farm - so that is about 25 acres as you know it. They raise milk cattle and sell their milk to a local milk production factory. As you can imagine, living off a farm that is only 25 acres would be difficult to do in the states. I’m not sure what is going on here.

What I do know is this.

They were starting to build a new house on their own property (people often do that here - paying for it as they go). The old house probably was very old - my guess. They had gotten as far as getting the new house walls up and dried in and insulated, but pretty much empty, otherwise.

When a fire destroyed the house they were living in about a month ago - thankfully no one was hurt - but it took all the personal possessions had collected through life to this point. Because they had that other house, they moved over to the new house and were basically “camping indoors”.

Between the time the volunteer first went over and saw them to the time she talked with them again, neighbors had come through and donated a lot of things to them. That meant, that they did get beds and some basic necessities such as a washing machine and oven/stove.

However, basic is really basic.

Apparently they do have gas in the house because for a while all they had was a free standing oven hooked to the gas - no cabinets at all. I’m not sure what the status is now but things are a bit better for them, but the volunteer told me that they lacked ‘everything’ in the kitchen - dishes, flatware, etc.

So - Who is in this large family?

The mom - is 49. I don’t know a lot about her yet.

The older three daughters are 24, 23 and 21. The oldest one works at the farm as she really can’t hold down a regular job (disabilities - I’m unsure exactly what - they are IQ issues, however), and the 23 and 21 year olds get occasional temporary work as they also have mental issues as well - I think it has to do with disability relating to IQ and not a psychological condition. The younger two are better off than the older. The problem with work is also relating to the location of these people - the town has 2000 people and they live outside of it.

Then there was a 6 year break. The next 3 children are 15 - a girl - who attends a school about 20 miles away and stays there during the week (a boarding school) esp. for kids like her who don’t live close enough to a school where transportation is an issue (no school buses here!) She doesn’t have any disabilities and goes to a regular high school. The next child is a boy - 13 and he attends a trade school to become an auto mechanic. I think school wasn’t “his thing” but apparently loves mechanics. The youngest child is 11, a boy, and also handicapped mentally and attends a special school for this kind of child here but comes home at night (it’s not a boarding school).

The grandma is 70 years old and shares a room with her 40 year old mentally limited son (the brother of the mom). I think the handicapped situation seems to be genetic from the mom’s side as the mom in this story also has some limitations. The dad is fine - and runs the farm and keeps everything going and brings home the money - at least most of it. (The problems they have are not alcohol related - which is what some might think - FAS.)

And here’s what we are doing. These are the three main things they asked for:

• A table for 10 people because they like to be able to eat together.

Now, this is a problem because if we were going to buy a new table - it is possible but almost all tables take weeks to make. And it is difficult to find a table this large with 10 chairs. We’ve located one used - and on Saturday we hope to go and get it - will take more than an hour to get there - a large oak table with a center pedestal with 10 chairs - all in good condition. We’re in contact with the lady who is selling it and won’t know for sure about it all until we actually get it.

• Cleaning supplies and personal hygiene items. Lots of it.

• Staple food. Lots.

So…what in the world am I going to do? Food that they want is basics - and the money I have would probably fill a store. I’m not going to do that. We will get quite a lot of macaroni and canned veggies and flour, sugar, etc. They want a lot of this type of stuff - and we will start buying this the day you read this.

In addition to these listed things, they also mention supplies like school supplies and they mentioned bedding. Since I had originally planned to get them all bedding, I was a bit disappointed when I heard that they had what they needed. They all sleep 2 to a bed since that’s what they can afford - so the beds are large. For now I’m leaving the bedding alone. I’m not sure what I will do about quilts as I still want to give each of them one of our special quilts.

As to the other things -

The volunteer told me to just imagine you lost everything in a fire and needed to start over - and while you had the main things - the small things that make life easier - you don’t have.

Anyway - here’s what I’ve ordered or purchased. I did buy some things today. Most things are ordered and will start to arrive tomorrow which is the day you are reading this.

• flatware (silverware) - serving for 24

• a set of dishes for 18 - like Corelle - white with subtle shaped edge to the plates - boy did I NOT want to go with white (too boring to me) - but it seems to be the prevailing thing here -

• multi-cooker - like a crock pot and a fast cooker all in one

• pots and pans - a set plus 2 larger pots since this is a large family

• 4 laundry baskets and 2 hampers - they match

• microwave - 23 liters

• electric kettle (these are common here - used multiple times a day)

• vacuum cleaner

• mixer

• food processor

• plastic containers to hold food

• games for the family - Monopoly, UNO, Pictionary Jr., Sorry (could only find it used) Charades, Dominoes and Dobbler

• kitchen knife set

• 3 tablets plus covers for the young people to use

• coffee grinder

• 2 nightstands (for the grandma and her handicapped son) - requested

• gift cards to Castorama - a building supplies store - enough so maybe they can finish their bathroom which is currently unfinished - it’s kind of cold to be using an outhouse right now!

• The table and 10 chairs is planned for but not purchased yet (the set we are looking at is second-hand but in pristine condition) The same lady has 2 large rugs which we will probably purchase from her as well at about half of new price as they have no rugs in the house.

They do not know about all these things. I’ve not told them about the FUN stuff! there will be more fun stuff after I get a good supply of food and get it boxed up.

We bought more red boxes today - so I think I have plenty now for the food. I started buying Christmas preprinted boxes or else I have to wrap the boxes - and I have a hard time wrapping a box of food as if it is a really exciting gift. (I realize it is if you are hungry!)

We do wrap all the things I think of as gifts in pretty paper and put them in a box which we might then wrap in brown paper. If the whole box is full of one thing - we will just wrap the box in pretty paper. IOW, if it is a box of wrapped presents - the box usually gets brown paper

In addition to the things they asked for (the three main things) - table, cleaning supplies and food - the volunteer mentioned that each one needs winter boots.

So, because the dad does have a driver’s license, he can take them in shifts to the shoe store (25 miles) in the the town where his daughter goes to boarding school. We are going to give them gift certificates for each person (yes - I will get 10 of them) to get new winter boots. If they have leftover money on the certificates they can use it for socks or a belt or whatever else the shoe store sells.

They also encourage us to give each person a PERSONAL gift.

Now, let me tell you what the personal gifts they suggested are.

Just imagine this list:

All the ladies - a winter hat/scarf

All the guys - a winter hat/scarf except the dad asked for winter gloves.

Now, I’m trying to imagine an 11 year old and 13 year boy ONLY getting a hat/scarf for Christmas - out of all the things we are going to bring. My mind refuses to go there. It rebels.

So this is what “we” (you all) are doing. :)

So far -

• for the 11 and 13 year old, we have bought two nice Lego sets. I’m going to find a soccer ball as well

• the 40 year old handicapped man - I bought him a coat today and ordered 2 sweatshirts and a pair of sweat pants (to match one of the two shirts).

• the dad, 55 - we bought him a Leatherman multi-tool.

• The 15 year old girl - I ordered a very nice set of colored pencils and 4 ‘adult coloring books’ - relaxing - stress relieving

• I do not yet have personal gifts for the 21, 23 and 24 year old girls and the mom yet.

I do plan on getting each of them the hat and scarves they’ve asked for - but they can be had for about $11-15 for a nice set, I think. The man’s winter gloves might actually be the hardest.

The ‘Weekend of Miracles’ is next weekend (the 11-12), so I still have a week.

This family is opposite of that fam 5 - brother/sister combo - they have one cell phone for the family and they leave it on the kitchen table to be used by all as the main phone! Wow. That is so rare here in Poland. In Poland, kids were carrying phones to school in first grade before I even heard of it happening in the states. (To be fair - I was here in Poland and my family isn’t the first to jump on the latest trends type of family.)

I think it is safe to say this is not a techie group.

The day you are reading this Ewa is going to come over and we are going to go food shopping together.

She realizes how much work shopping for 10 people will be. I will probably go several times - to a few different stores to get a variety. The list is basic - but of course, what they are emphasizing is pantry items.

Don’t buy apples or lettuce.

Buy raisins and canned vegetables and fruits. I’d like to find big containers but we’ll see. They are pretty hard to come by around here.

The specific items they ask for are

• tea,

• coffee,

• rice,

• flour,

• sugar,

• jam,

• oil,

• pasta,

• grains like barley, oatmeal

• canned veggies and fruits and

• canned meat.

So we will do those things - but in a big way. I’ve been buying 10 kilos of sugar and a few kilos of flour for all the other families, so I should do that at least 3 times over for this family due to it’s size. But I won’t do it all at once.

Not only does buying too much make it possible that the registers flip out on you, but people stare when your carts are overly-laden and of course, you tend to take too long at the check out and the line backs up behind you.

I use this list as a starting point. I like to add other things like honey, nuts, tomato paste/sauces or puree, and some dried fruits as well. These people left off canned fish, so I take it they don’t want herring and sardines. (Truthfully, I’ve only been adding tuna for the canned fish part anyway.)

I will also add some sweets and things like cocoa - I try to think of things needed for baking when I shop. I’ve also added peanut butter as it is something people like - plus chocolate spread like Nutella.

And there you have it. You know almost as much as I know about these people. Here’s the plan. We are privately hoping we get invited down there to meet them as that would be very interesting to us. I’ll let you know.

Sigh. This is a long post. If you’ve read this far - you deserve a medal!

If you have a “something” in your house that you find incredibly handy that I’ve not mentioned, please put it in the comments below. Maybe I’m not thinking of it. That could include an ironing board and iron. :)

Have a great day wherever you are reading this! Thanks for coming along with me on my quilting/sewing journey!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!