Desperate times

While we are often struck by the dire situations we walk into doing outreach in the refugee community, a family visit made by Aaron and Holli just before Christmas takes the cake.  Pu Lue was serving as translator and liaison that day, and mentioned that there was a family that needed some help renewing their food stamps application.  We do lots of food stamp and Medicaid applications, so we weren't surprised that they needed help with this. 

Turns out this family needed a lot more than food stamps.  When Aaron checked the fridge (a routine part of the visit, to make sure they had basic necessities), the picture above is what he saw.  I should mention that the two jugs on the bottom shelf are water bottled water.  Despite numerous attempts to explain that the water from the tap is safe in Dallas, we have yet to meet a Karen refugee family who is willing to drink from the tap.  This stems from the years they spent in the refugee camps where the the drinking water was unsafe and full of harmful bacteria.

In doing some further investigating, Holli found a total of two bowls, three plates, and one pot in the kitchen.  The closet revealed two live guinea hens, which, after much discussion, were to be on the dinner menu later in the week!  You can see one of the guineas in the photo below.

Holli and Aaron made a trip to the store to purchase some additional plates and bowls, and loaded up on fresh veggies, fruit, and meats (already butchered) to get the family of seven through the remainder of the week until their emergency food stamp application could be processed. 

That same week, our friends Beverly Black and Bob Bruce generously offered to provide Christmas presents for the family, which includes five children ranging in age from 1 to 10.  Below is a photo of the mayhem that took place as we gathered to open the gifts together. Our son Kai is in the striped shirt looking at the camera. :)

I wish that I could say that this family is an exception, but unfortunately we run into families similar to this one every single week.