I am not sure I ever felt happier or more satisfied than I did yesterday, when I went to RISSE (the refugee and immigrant center in Albany), and saw how your gifts from the RISSE Amazon Wish List have transformed the struggling RISSE after school program.

The Army Of Good is…well…good.

There are things on the walls, bean bag chairs to sit on, a new library and music room taking shape, toys paper, pencil, games, puzzles, jars, bins,  learning software, lamps and a dozen big boxes waiting to be unpacked. “It’s like manna from heaven,” said one of the teachers, a mother of two students from Algeria. “It seems like a miracle, these gifts are coming out of the sky.”

When I first saw the school,crowded on the upper floors of an old church in Albany, I saw a somewhat drab and dark place. It is now a bright and busy and engaging place, full of the sound of kids working on puzzles, painting, and reading books in the very warm and bright new library and music room.

It is, as the teachers have said, a miracle.

As I was taking photographs, a young man with a piercing gaze and shining eyes came over to me asked me if I would take his picture. All of the parents and guardians of the RISSE children have given signed permission for photographs, which I much appreciate, but I always ask the children and the teacher. The girls always say no at first, then agree. The boys almost always say yes right away.

The teachers explain that in their home countries, women are not supposed to be photographed by anyone but their husbands and future husbands, it is considered shameful. That, they said is changing slowly.

The boy simply said: “Could  you take my picture, please?,” but it surprised me, I saw it was difficult for him to come up and speak with me.

I took a photo of the boy, and he asked if he could “take it out” of the camera. I showed  him the photo in the big screen the Canon has to show photographs that have been taken. He liked it. I know the story of this boy, it can break a tough heart, I won’t repeat it here without asking his permission.

I asked him what he wanted to do with the photo – he seemed very serious.

He seemed reluctant to approach me, and was very soft-spoken. I was curious.

He said he wanted to send it to his grandma, she was living in a camp in the Middle East (a refugee camp, I understand) and had not seen him or a picture of him in a long time. He wanted to send my portrait of him to his grandma. He had sad eyes, he said his mother told him his grandma could not get permission to come here.

I told him I could do that, I would print out the picture and bring it to him, with envelopes and stamps.

I suppose in a way the RISSE Amazon Wish List is political, in that many people do not think this boy should be here, he came from a shit hole country for sure, and many think his grandma should never come here. I’ve been told that many American born students in the public schools ask these children if they come from one of the “shit hole” countries. I wonder if the people who say things like that have any idea how many other people are listening?

I prefer to think of the manna from heaven image, I feel lucky to know him. He is my little brother, in a sense, he seems very American to me. I could, of course, so easily been him, and so could so many of us. I am fortunate to be helping him.

I went on the Wish List this morning, as I usually do in the morning. I bought a Rubik’s Cube (($6.89), a Paper Towel Holder/Dispenser ($9.99), a Scotch Tape “Magic” Dispenser ($12.39), and am eyeing the Poster Frame Kit ($34.99). I happen to know they will need some shortly.

Thanks for browsing the Wish List, you can check it out here.