The F.I.R.E. This Time

Maybe I’m just a social troglodyte, but the number of people I’ve kept up with from my high school = 0, while the number of people I’ve consistently kept up with from college = 1. That’s my dear friend Anne in Oakland, who vies with Sarah in Portland for the title Funniest Girl I Know. Actually, in my universe (maybe that should be multiverse), they both are. I have a weak spot for hilarious, smartmouth women, ones I can call knowing I’m going to laugh so hard for 30 minutes I’ll need to lie down after just to catch my wind.

But a hilarious, smartmouth woman who’s also extravagantly generous? A word to my single mates out there who are not necessarily up for a life of celibate religious devotions: find one and marry her. Failing that, find one and stay friends, because one day, when you’re living in Mongolia on the cusp of an endless, sub-zero winter, with your essential coffee supplies already in the red zone below “E,” (though somewhat replenished by a Giant Albion from Idaho) you’ll open your P.O. Box and find a mysterious slip of paper covered in jots of inscrutable script. After finding the right counter to present said paper, you’ll be trotted through a bewildering set of official documents to sign, at several other counters, just to present your $1 (really) Customs fee. Finally, you’ll be presented with a box that, I swear, you smelled before you saw. Elongating the anticipation, you’ll carry it home unopened. Then, ignoring the cat’s pleas for dinner, you’ll gently slit open the packing tape and, after glancing toward the heavens to glimpse the angelic source of the Hallelujah chorus you’re hearing, you’ll turn back to behold five – five – gleaming black bags, each bulging with a different blend of Peet’s freshly roasted coffee beans (dig it – they've got a Buddha pictured on their home page, and they're hip to Pu-ehr tea!). You’ll feel inexpressible gratitude and understand that, with friends, the key is not quantity, it’s quality. But with coffee, it’s quality and quantity.

This morning I savored two cups of Peet’s Major Dickason’s blend but, as before, there was no need to warm myself. I felt some relief for a tantalizing 24 hours when the Glorious Central Heating System of the People’s Revolution was turned off, but I think someone just inadvertently hit the switch with his rear end and, upon realizing the error, quickly flipped it back on.

Anyway, speaking of heat, let’s talk about F.I.R.E. (the measure of a masterful writer is his skill in the art of the seamless segue). That’s the Flagstaff International Relief Effort, the good souls who will distribute the 12,085 hand-knitted items to needy Mongolians that were generated by hundreds of individuals for this year’s Dulaan Project. Are you not familiar with The Dulaan Project? Simply put, it encourages “Knitting to Warm Mongolia.” My Cuzzin Ryan, the wonder woman who for the past two years has assumed all the organizational and cheerleading labor for my little brainchild, just launched the effort for 2007. Do you knit or, if you knit not (thank you, Franklin), do you know someone who does? Everyone knows someone who knits, and those someones need to know about The Dulaan Project! Check it out. But that’s not all…well, I’ll let F.I.R.E.’s Executive Director, Meredith Potts, explain:

“Dear Friend:

The Flagstaff International Relief Effort (F.I.R.E.) needs your help now!

We have over 50 tons of warm winter clothing, as well as educational and medical supplies on their way to Mongolia — for thousands of needy children and their families, medical clinics and impoverished schools. We still need the funds to cover the costs of personally distributing the containers’ contents.

These costs include local translators, transporting the donated items and volunteers to the distribution points, warehouse rental, customs fees and general operational expenses. We try to reach the most remote areas possible. This makes our gas and overall transport costs very expensive. F.I.R.E. volunteers pay their own way to Mongolia and their own expenses in-country.

We need to raise $10,000 by September 30 and we need your help – urgently!

One container is full of 8 tons of winter clothing. The second container is full of 6,000 library books and medical supplies valued at over $237,000. The containers will be met by volunteers and personally distributed throughout Mongolia over two weeks in November.

We need your help to hand deliver:

• 12,000 hand knit items we have received from all over the world to the children of Mongolia in the face of another frigid winter.

• wheelchairs, crutches and medical equipment donated for the disabled and ill.

• the shared knowledge and supplies of our medical distribution and training team.

• 6,000 books to the rural communities that have requested reading centers.

I am confident that with your help we will be able to complete our 5th successful distribution trip to Mongolia, continuing to help the most vulnerable members of society improve the quality of their lives. Please help us in this time of imminent need to get these supplies to the people of Mongolia.”

I want to urge all of my DODR readers to make a contribution to F.I.R.E.’s worthy efforts before the September 30th deadline. I’ve seen their work firsthand. It’s really necessary and it really helps. You can make a secure, tax-deductible donation online here.

And, if you want to get a better sense of what F.I.R.E. does and why it’s a wonderfully special organization, they’ve put up a five-minute clip culled from a documentary produced about their work in Mongolia last year, called One Steppe at a Time. Watch it here.

This year, I’ll be one of their volunteers, and I’m helping them organize a distribution trip to my beloved Eastern Gobi. There, they’ll offer warm clothing to the Sainshand orphanage and other needy communities, medical supplies to the hospital, training at the medical college, and books to reading centers, including the new school and community center at Khamariin Khiid. And, of course, I’ll document all of it and share it with you here!

Comments

[Carol]

I don't know what I can do money-wise, but I have recruited a warm body with a nursing degree who is willing to go in my place, and one of my co-workers has another friend who is planning to go. Let me know if you need more coffee, or supplies from the states, and I'll send them along with one of these angels.

[Lynnela]

Oh Konchog, I sent you cheap coffee. I like cheap coffee best myself. And I sent it late. And I only had $50 in my Paypal account for the sweaters. I sent Mooj a pretty cheap toy too, but maybe he'll like it!
That's a really nice thing for you to do, the clothes.

[Angie]

I sent $$ for F.I.R.E. is there some kind of coffee/tea I can send from Illinois for you?

[Gretchen]

geez smart mouthed smart women hun???? CHUCKLES>>>> I guess that this is not a good time to send you Strawberry Icecream???? Gretchen

[Ryan]

Thanks bunches for the plug, cuzzin. We have a big job ahead of this year! And it's all your fault. You DO realize that, don't you? ;-)

Looking forward to photos from the Eastern Gobi!