By Padre Ants Hawes in Afghanistan
12 December 2007
Have you ever seen a wee girl go from very shy, to amazed, to excited and back to shy in about 3 seconds flat? I had that awesome experience the other day. I was in a tiny class room with mud plaster on the walls, dirt floors and a tree trunk & mud ceiling that nearly scraped my head when I walked.
What was I doing? I was at the Bamian Charity School handing out giant chocolate chip cookies made by Coupland’s Bakery in Christchurch.
Huh? Well, you see, the Salam Biscuits were sent to us by a group of Christchurch High School students who wanted to reach out to Muslim kids with a sense of support and unity. They had the biscuits made, calling them “Salam Cookies” then sent them over to us to distribute to school kids over here.
Endorsed by the Women’s Muslim Group of Canterbury, the Salam biscuit concept was a collaborative effort. Couplands Bakery provided the mentoring and facilities, and had two of their Muslim workers to vet the ingredients to ensure it was Halal compliant.
I had the privilege and joy of going to a special sort of school over here called a “Charity School” which is funded by the local community in a limited way to educate children of poor people.
The school is very basic - consisting of a walled compound with tiny school rooms built into two sides of the walls. They have no glass in the windows, just plastic nailed over the window holes. There’s a drainage type stream running right through the middle of the compound and a well in one corner.
As I said, we moved through the rooms handing out the cookies and explaining that they were sent to them by the children of New Zealand. I’m not sure the kids totally understood but they were pretty excited anyway. As one of the guys who was with me said, “beats any day working back in New Zealand”!
Have a peaceful and safe Christmas and we’ll catch you next year.
Ends