And why am I in this handbasket? Come let me tell you: this weekend we went to an artisan fundraiser. (keep reading it's gets better...er...worse) Along the tables we stumbled upon a table with small handmade bags.

Handmade by orphan children in Rwanda (can you feel where this is going?...) You know Rwanda -- as in Hotel Rwanda - an amazing film (really you should see it) and Shake Hands With The Devil: The Failure Of Humanity In Rwanda written by Gen. Romaeo Dallaire (have the book - if you ever want to read it). You know Rwanda right?

So this artisan table was selling bags handmade by poor, unfortunate, Rwandan children - there were photos of the orphans making the bags (wait it gets better) along with the NUN (see!) who was selling the goods at the artisan fundraiser. Dear blog - we have a moral obligation to buy a bag from the Nun and the Rwandan girl behind the table. We must!

An a-ha moment hit: Dear blog - we should get 8 bags and give them as loot bags for Thing 2s upcoming birthday party. Damn the "made in China machine!" - no one needs any more dollar store crap in loot bags. Let us buy one good item as the required "loot bag" - and give our money to those poor orphans.

So I ask, in French (did I mention it's a French artisan fundraiser?)

Me: "Combien ça coûte?" (How much does this cost?)
Nun: "Payer ce que vous voulez" (Pay what you want).

Swept up in my A-ha moment of saving the orphans and keeping an eye on Thing 1 getting a henna tattoo over there and Thing 2 pulling me over to the henna table - I gave over the entirety of cash in my wallet (@ $30). I paid all that I had. And then borrowed the last bill - $5 - from Thing 1's treat money.

The nun took the money and thanked me. She said the orphans are no longer left-overs from the genocide - they were are AIDS orphans. Left parent-less because of AIDS. Apparently, if Rwandan orphans don't go into an orphanage; they may become child soldiers, could be sold by adults into the sex trade or could be sold by adults for their organs (this is what the Nun said - I did a quick google search and couldn't confirm any child organ harvesting - but Nuns are pretty reliable sources).

Dear Blog! (no words).

I came home with the overwhelming guilt that $35 was not enough to give (and especially not for 8 bags). "Give what you can" was lost in translation and in the motion of the moment.

I - Caroline - have ripped off a nun/the orphans/the moral point. I am in the handbasket and I know where I am going.

The term: going to hell in a handbasket: derives from the use of the guillotine and the decapitated heads being caught in woven baskets - the victim, presumably, going straight to hell. [for those who want to be "in the know"]

Labels: Parent Club, Parenting