Weekly Report on Refugee Situation

This last week was more mellow with regards to our help with the refugee situation.

Our holdup was this - We have a load of stuff in the garage at the church building waiting to be picked up. They were supposed to come and then supposed to come…and then finally on Friday they came and looked at how much we had. “Yes, you do have a lot!"

I added a bunch of quilts for them to take - if there is room in their vehicle. If not, they can leave the quilts here and we will distribute them.

There is probably at least a ton of stuff here.

But no transport. Not yet.

This particular l load “THEY” were supposed to come and get. We are having to work through someone else to contact the group that is coming, so it isn’t quite as easy as when we are contacting people directly.

Yesterday my husband got a word from a lady named Sophia that if they didn’t come today (Sat) they would come on Monday to get it - with a big van. So. We will see. As soon as they load it up, the garage will be available again and I can start buying.

I do not want to buy groceries, haul them all up the stairs into our living room, and put them there to wait. I’m already filling up my living room with quilt related stuff - and making kits for the packages we are making with the boxes we’ve received. I’ll try to find a photo that won’t scare you too much!

And this was actually before it got worse.

Note - I think if Mike’s back/leg hadn’t been hurting him so badly, we would have been frustrated. However, due to his situation, we knew he couldn’t take a load in this week anyway as his body needed a break and rest.

So…this week was much more quiet. I mostly stayed home, worked on inventorying boxes from FL I’ve received (12 so far) and processing them into the beautiful packages that look like gifts. I can’t wait to start getting them moved on out! I mean, I can wait - but it is exciting!

The only reason I don’t have all the quilts processed into packages at the moment is because I ran out of pillows. It’s one of those situations that I’m trying to not stockpile pillows as they are take a lot of space - so I want to buy pillows “as needed”.

As such, I should be getting another 20 or 30 on Monday (the day you read this) and can process the rest of the quilts we’ve received. By “process” I mean, match up a pillowcase, and then prepare those vinyl cases with the three items (quilt, pillow/case, microfiber blanket) and the sheet of paper in the front.

We are measuring each quilt and putting the size on the front as we do this.

I don’t have a store nearby where I can just go buy pillows like this - I’m ordering them from our on line website which ends up being like an Amazon/Ebay combo.

I wish I had a Walmart nearby that carried pillows like I need. Sadly I don’t. But it’s okay - we’ve got things to do.

On a different day I’ll show you what I’m doing with the baby quilts.

 

I did order 3 more bikes for refugees to use while here in the area, and have ordered some inexpensive, but hopefully good enough quality bags with wheels for ladies who are moving on to other places but have acquired things and need to take them with them. I will get them in a few days and will take them on over to the place where they need them (locally) as I get them.

Since the box was breaking anyway, I just decided to take it in the house bag by bag.

But it’s been good for me to have a little break from so much purchasing. I needed it. I was getting pretty sick of buying huge amounts every time I went into a grocery store.

Here I am sorting what I am calling 1. quilts 2. baby quilts 3. other quilts 4. fleece/microfiber 5. pillowcases

I did have one afternoon where 3 ladies helped me pack up those vinyl bags. I had to prepare quite a bit to get ready for them, though. As soon as we finish up those, I’d like to get the baby quilts finished. I am not putting a pillow with those, as I read babies don’t use pillows til about 2 years old, but I’m including a receiving blanket and a hooded towel and other appropriate things as I have them. Sadly I don’t have a beautiful presentation bag - but am using clear plastic bags at the moment. I’m trying to come up with something a little nicer. The vinyl bags are simply too big for the baby quilts without the pillow to fill up the space.

While working on it, Albina and Lena noticed the note to the Ukrainians that someone put on some of the quilts.

They thought it was super sweet and read it.

If you are reading this and did it - ‘fess up’!

They loved it!

I was also glad for a little reprieve as allergy season is here and I’m feeling it a bit.

Rebekah helped by putting pillowcases on pillows and then running around cleaning up, bringing supplies and generally trying to make order out of chaos. She also took the finished vinyl cases to the vehicles where my husband and I later took them all to church and put them in a room we have there.

This week my husband hopes to take another load into Ukraine. That will mean more buying.

There are a lot of things I’ve learned through this.

Amazing, huh?

Example - buy a LOT at once. it is easier to check out buying 80 kilos of flour than a few of this, a few of that and the other thing. If I buy a few of many different things, checking out takes longer and I end up needing to back and back.

Also, where I can, I’m trying to buy a whole box of stuff as boxes stack much more easily in the trailer and in the van.

Shopping early in the day at the regular stores works better - I like to be done by noon simply because the stores get busier as the day goes on. Shopping at the wholesale place for things that I can get there is helpful as they aren’t as busy and I can shop in peace without feeling like I’m causing a traffic jam at the checkout. So, at the so-called ‘wholesale’ shops is where I can go in the early afternoon because these stores don’t seem to be so busy.

Lena was so thrilled to be able to match up the Mickey pillowcase with the Mickey quilt. Later, after packing it up, we found a mouse ears blanket, and she went and hunted this one vinyl case down and changed out the blanket! They thought this was so cute!!!

Then, naturally I needed to move some of the things on out of my house. I donated about 25 of those shrink bags - and one lady came and got them right away. I’m keeping about half ‘just in case I need them’ - but I can’t keep everything - it’s just too much. No space. I wish I could “wish them back to FL” like a space traveler. Sadly, I cannot.

Cardboard is taking over! Recycling comes only once a month here. Up until now we’ve been able to keep up with our trash by burning, but I am admitting defeat. We will need to put this pile into recycling. I’m trying to give the better BIG boxes away - but so far, no takers.

They tell us “do not throw this box away”.

Hmmm. I am happy to recycle it. I would rather let someone else use it again - those that are in good enough shape. However, I really can’t keep them in the house and don’t really have a good storage place for them until I find that person.

I would rather use my space to store these beautiful quilts than cardboard boxes! Truthfully, I am not keeping these quilts in our house, though - at least not any longer than I need to.

I suppose carrying these from the vehicles and trailer into the church and then stacking them didn’t really help my husband’s physical situation. We put cardboard in the window to block the sun as this window faces the west and gets afternoon sunshine.

That window is on the north side of the church and never gets direct sunlight.

Here I am working at the table by myself - this is early on so I could get a feel for what I wanted to do and what would be necessary to have a sort of assembly line with several ladies helping.

And now you know.

My husband does have some medicine, but some days are better than others. Those of you who pray, we’d appreciate continued prayers for healing for his back/leg. We do believe it is a pinched nerve. The doc said to stay off it as much as possible.

Albina really loved this black and white set. She asked me today (Sunday) if I was going to have any more to do because she has two friends who would love to come and ‘do something to help’! I chuckled and told her, “Yes”…lots and lots!

The day you read this, I am planning on taking more food to our local ‘white tent’ to help local refugees.

I’d say this past week was a bit of a recovery week AND one dealing with quilts and more quilts. They are so pretty - and represent so much work, I get overwhelmed when working with them. But all I have to do is open my mouth and say, “OK, if you are a Ukrainian refugee and need a quilt, come and get one” and I will be inundated with requests. So, I will wait a bit longer. If we get 6-10 more boxes in this week, I may do that, however. :)

I am hoping to see the ones shown above in the garage photos head to Ukraine the day you read this.

Becky Petersen19 Comments