Surprise at the Welfare Orchard!

Oh how I wish I had a picture to accompany this post! I'll try to recreate for you the picture in my mind. Here's the story: Monday morning, we had a welfare orchard assignment to pick apricots. I haven't been able to help with welfare assignments for a very long time because of my silly knees. I long to help and give in that way. I know I'm about to get worse before I get better, so I decided to go and participate and work for as long as I could. We arrived in the Hurricane orchard at about 6:00am. We had been working for about 45 minutes when several large vans pulled up- and out of the doors poured bunches of polygamists! There were tiny children, older children, teenagers, young adults, and adult women and men. Picture all of these little girls and teenagers with long dresses with pants underneath with braided hair. Many of the young men had stilts. They grabbed harnesses with buckets and went to work. I have to admit that I was sure they were there to pick up fallen fruit for themselves, but soon realized they were there to help! Even the little children- too small for the harnessed buckets, had little buckets that they picked into. Those young men on stilts were amazing- literally running from tree to tree. Ken talked to one of the farm managers and he told them that our church had allowed them to pick apricots for themselves from trees that the fruit was deemed too small for the cannery. In payment, they offered to help with the picking. This was the second day they had come to help. It was a sight to behold! My favorite memory is of this beautiful, little girl with golden blond hair. Her hair had escaped the mandatory braid and was streaming behind her. It looked so beautiful in the morning light. With all the recent negative press, I wanted to share a positive experience we had with these people as we joined forces to help those less fortunate!