During the week before Christmas, my husband Ian got an extra day off, so I knew it was time to spring into action and deliver donations from Greenbelt to Afghans setting up an apartment in Northern Virginia. Two different people had offered couches, and the Afghan family had chosen the larger couch. Fortunately, we could still fit it into a regular Toyota passenger van, lent to us by Amy Hansen and Bobby Candey. Bobby removed the seats from the van, and Ian and I drove over to Westchester Tower to pick up the couch. Our son Jamie met us there, but lo and behold, some delivery men who were moving the new couch in, kindly helped us get the old couch out.
After Jamie and Ian wiggled the couch into the van, we drove around Greenbelt picking up other useful donations, including a vacuum cleaner, a nice teak chair, a bar stool, a coffee table and a rug. I was very impressed by how fast the folks on the Greenbelt Buy Nothing Facebook Group responded to requests that the Afghan families had sent. One very happy donor even went to Marshall’s and bought brand new bedding to donate to the family. We couldn’t fit everything that was offered into one trip!
Delivery
It took about an hour to drive to Northern Virginia. With the Christmas holiday rapidly approaching, we did not know what traffic might look like, but it was not that bad. When we arrived at the apartment, a young man who spoke excellent English came out to meet us. He and my husband successfully wrestled the couch to the second-floor apartment. “That was tiring,” the young man said. He was in his early 20s, but my husband, in his early 50s, agreed. Meanwhile, I scurried about with the cushions and the sundry items that were in the van. We soon had everything moved into the apartment. Some of their community members had provided a mattress for them – they had been in the apartment for just two days. The young man hospitably offered us tea, but we declined, citing that there was bound to be traffic on the Beltway.
Refugee Services Slim
During 2021, as part of my training to become a deacon in the Episcopal church, I volunteered with Lutheran Social Services for nine months, learning about refugee reception and placement and coordinating donations. This was helpful experience when August brought one of the largest refugee settlement challenges the U.S. has ever seen. This challenge has been exacerbated by the fact that very few refugees were allowed into the U.S. during the past four years, so that the resettlement agencies lost most of their staff. Now, local Afghans who are already U.S. citizens are reaching out to their friends and relatives who are coming to join them, largely without the aid that the U.S. usually provides, because the resettlement agencies are so overwhelmed.
Greenbelters Pitch In
I am certainly not the only Greenbelter reaching out to help Afghans. I have seen trucks full of donations that friends and neighbors have gathered going out to help our new neighbors. Greenbelt Community Church has been especially responsive to requests. The trip I made last week will not be the last, as many hundreds of people are still trying to find and set up apartments in the already crowded local housing market. It is a wonderful feeling to see how eager Greenbelters are to help
“We brought these things to you from Greenbelt, Maryland,” I told the young Afghans.
“Thank you so much!” they said, with big smiles.
