You should go to Eschaton and read the whole post, but I wanted you to see this.
It seems that the children of Afghanistan want nothing more than they want a pen.
It was explained to me that the villages through which I traveled (near Kandahar, where I’m based) are so poor that a pen is like a scholarship to these children. They desperately want to learn but, without a pen, they simply won’t. It’s a long story. I won’t bore you with it. Trust me, though, when I say that it would be a big deal if even a few of you could put up the call for pens for me. Anyone interested in helping out could either send some directly to me or go to these sites and send them, where you can find them for as cheap as $.89 a dozen.
You can send them to me at this address:
Terry L. Welch
105th MPAD
Kandahar Public Affairs Office
APO AE 09355
Atrios edited the sites Welch included but says Office Max works.
This isn’t just Afghanistan. It’s pretty much universal among 3rd world children. Anyone who ever trekked more than 10 steps in Nepal knows you hear “Namaste, pen?” from almost every small child.
I was asked for a pen by a man checking medical records at the Zaire border checkpost a few miles from the Ugandan border. He was sincere. He needed a pen and had no way of getting one other than charity.