CamemBear and friends

I've decided to stop feeling guilty that I cannot do more for people in Burma or Si Chuan. I am continuing with the donations/fund-raising on a regular basis, but I will stop beating myself up about the "just one thing more" that I ought to have done because it is quite simply not helping anyone. As the efforts move from relief towards re-building, there is a call for donations of children's books for one of the charities to start a children's school and creche within one of the large temporary camp. The idea behind that is that it is important to give the children some kind of steady, regular activity, which helps them to recover from the trauma easier, and give their parents a break to look for other missing relatives, or else moving forward to their next step.

Sophie and ayi spent a day today sorting through all her Chinese children's books to see which ones she wanted to give away. She was really hesitant at first, because we told her that once the books were gone, she had to say bye-bye, and they were not ever going to come back. I guess she understood the concept because she picked a few that she really liked best, and agreed to give the rest away after considering for a REALLY long time. I am so proud of her!

And on a happier note, speaking of books ...

Just in case he ever becomes a character in a children's novel, this is CamemBear - just so you know how the protagonist looks like