Refugees

Being from New England--and this goes for America in general--I was always surrounded by works for charity. There were the ubiquitous cake sales (did anyone ever really eat those bunt cakes?), the car washes, the candy selling (a few did fall the the cracks, but I later learned to call that "shrinkage"), and on and on. So, it is only natural that I spurred on the gang for pet benefits, sick draq queen fund-raisers, and our new-found interest: Refugee Young Men. (It may be toungue-in-cheek, but we have to keep busy.) All of these boys have good jobs, and they all came from a terrible situation. Our current charges:
Abbi came to Miami from Lebanon, and I have had to take him from the care of Thomas Barker. Barker holds too many "free drink" tickets to be not only a threat to morality, but a bigger one to my not getting free drinks forever.






Ethan is the serious one from Israel (although you catch a glimpse of an hidden humor when you make a crack that can be taken two ways). He is very, very bright. As Barker told me, "He says he'd rather be here than bulldozing down homes". Wouldn't we all.





And, Jarid has been stopping by for three weeks now and had to be elected, too, as he left New Orleans after Katrina, first for New York, and now to Miami. We gather every Sunday now, some for a while, others for just a "hello". But we feel safe in each others' company even though bad things are happening everywhere.