This week, I delivered food parcels to needy people

A deeply moving experience. Report and photos.

In the days before Christmas, I delivered groceries to desperately poor people in my village. This has been a deeply moving experience. Some of the old ladies hugged me and clung to me like to a lifebelt. The cried at my shoulder with gratitude and relief.

I live in Bulgaria, the poorest country in the European Union, where many people are so poor that they can’t afford the basic necessities, and have to choose between heating and eating in the cold winter months.

I bought lots of groceries - mostly staplefoods like bread, milk, rice, pasta, lentils, and also cans of tuna and vegetables and more, packed them into cardboard boxes, and brought them personally to the people in need.

For this I had assistance. A woman who knows everything and everyone in the village advised me who needed most help and of what kind, and she showed me where they all lived and organised the distribution plan. A young lad who knew some English translated and helped with the loading.Since I don’t have a car, the mayor of the village volunteered his services and drove us with his jeep, and he also carried heavy boxes.

And last but not least, several of my fans, social media followers and newsletter subscribers contributed funds so I could buy more food for more people.

There’s an interesting aspect to the international donations. I gave the recipients greeting cards which said, “Some of the gifts are from [name] from [country].” Bulgaria used to be a Communist country, and these people were brainwashed to believe that all westerners were evil capitalists without kindness and mercy. Now that they are in need, they receive kindness from ‘capitalist’ westerners.

This is a big surprise to them, and it changes their world view. They see that ‘capitalists’ can be caring and that kindness can be found in all humankind. I think this insight is in the spirit of Christmas.

All in all, we got two jeep-trailer loads full of food aid parcels, and distributed them to the sixteen extremely poor individuals and families.

Personally selecting, packing and delivering aid goods is a very different feeling from donating to a big organisation.

It was a lot of work - far more work than you can image. All the planning, buying, sorting, packing, storing, carrying, delivering took days, and I was exhausted. But it was a good kind of work, and a good kind of exhaustion, because I knew it was worth it, and would make a real difference to those people. In some cases, it may make the difference between surviving the winter or not.

For me, this is what Christmas is about.

I’ve already written to everyone who contributed, and told them the story of the person whom they’ve helped, how their gift was received, with photos. I hope that this way, the sponsors also get to experience some of this personal connection that feels so rewarding.

I wish you all blessed holidays - whatever you celebrate and whatever it means to you, and I hope you experience kindness and can give kindness.

I wish you a New Year filled with kindness, health, success, peace and joy.

Rayne Hall

(aka Christine Hall)

in Kirilovo Village, Yambol Province, Bulgaria.

PS, just for clarification. The people in the photos all agreed to have their pictures taken and shared. :-) (In the case of the little girl, I asked for the mother’s permission as well.) Some others didn’t want to be photographed, and I respected that.