Theos-Talk Archives (November 1995 Message tl00194)

Dear Theos-l

I don't know whether any of you are interested in helping with this but I
thought I'd try.

Willies Tembo the Secretary of a small about 12 year-old Study
Center in Zambia Africa with whom I've been corresponding for
about 04 years now & have also been mailing TS books has
asked me for clothes... any kind of Summer of Fall clothes in good condition
for kids & grownups of either sex including shoes. He's never in 04 years
mentioned anything like this before because the correspondence is
meant to help the Study Center which incidentally has been visited by
Radha but now he tells me in his latest letter that his salary
as a teacher is just enough to buy food for his family of 07 or 08
and that if he had
some used clothes to sell it would supplement his income. He's
writtem something to me before re that new clothes are too expensive
where he lives. Apparently everyone lives in used clothing so
there's a market. He's also been growing vegetables in the garden of
his apartment house & that money hopefully is being set aside
to finance a
small business his wife & the wife of a fellow Theosophist are
hoping to begin one day which is to be an attempt at a TOS.
The fellow Theosophist who's an engineer in
the coppermine - they live in a mining town - is buying large
quantities of peanuts rebagging them & selling them in
small quantities. But if they're that poor that money probably isn't
being saved for very long. They can't. Willies Tembo also writes
that he couldn't correspond for a while because he had an attack of
malaria. I'm in the process of finding out whether something can be
done about that. Anyway ... clothes if anyone feels inclined to pay
the postage which may run about $10.- surface mail ... air mail
costs more like $25.- which is real crazy.

Address: Mr. Willies Tembo
Box 210462
Chililabombwe
Zambia Central Africa
On the customs form he asks to mark clearly
<2d hand clothes - gift>
Also if you could throw the stuff in the washer before sending would
be good. I bet the ladies wash by hand.
I guess he must have considered whether to write me this for a long
time. He made this letter special. There's an OM on the back of the
envelope.

I know this isn't something Theosophists usually do but I thought
I'd ask anyway. Any help will be greatly appreciated. You can tell me about
it or not as you wish. When I write to him airmail I always tell him
what packages are on the way & what they contain so he can expect them.

If anyone would prefer to mail me the package I'll send it on. Then
please ask me for my snail mail address.
Liesel