Someone for Terres des Hommes showed up here. Perfectly fine with the organization, but while she was holding her story I was thinking "SHOO, go AWAY, dammit, ow!"

The ow since I was actually in pain at the time, dumb tummy. Anyway.. I said:

"hold on, is this for a one time contribution or is this a longer period thing"

It is only for three months, she says.

Ok.. not interested.


You come by my door with this collector tin thingy that I can stuff a few euros in, fine.
You come to my door wanting my bank account number, taking money out of my account, not fine.


Not to mention the scam possibility (which is rare here, so you don't have to bring that up ), I just don't want to be stuck to giving to some charity. Sorry, but it just doesn't feel right. *shrug*

Maybe I am silly or something, but I just never do.



Anyway.. how do you fend these off.. and.. have you experienced 'reluctanttoleavies'? Do tell

actually, my system is rather simple: if i look out and i don't know who they are, i don't answer the door!

i used to answer my door and try to be courteous, but it just got too weird after a time...there was the moonie, with a long stemmed rose, waiting for me. that was really interesting. she came back one more time to show me her wedding picture because i was astounded that someone would get married en masse. and when i say 'en masse', i mean hundreds of couples, coming to the altar, couple after couple, after couple.

then there were the jehovah's witnesses, who were as persistent as soldier ants.
you cannot reason your way out of anything with them without being met with more and more persistence. eh, whatever. everyone thinks that their church is the one.

since i've been living at my current home, i've noticed that people don't knock so much here. they seem to like to leave pamphlets: chinese food, seventh day adventists, etc.
it's probably because i live in shotgun country!

p.s. what kind of organization is terres des hommes?

Google is my friend for you: Terres des Hommes.

It is a widely known organization down here.


The Jehova's are easy.. I show them my pentacle and they scoot like the devil chases them.

anti-jehovah's witness device: pentacle doorknockers.

i think it depends on particular congregations; some are probably more persistent than others. i used to have a client that was a witness and i was told that they actually keep written records of the different households that they visit and how those people react when visited. apparently, they only gave up after numerous tries, if you were curious or courteous. you either have to be rude, drool blood, or sport a pentacle or inverted cross to scare them away altogether; any kindness whatsoever labels you as a possible convert. they're actually coached for numerous situations, like telemarketers and they have to feel threatened in some way to back off. they also keep track of fellow witness' amounts of door-to-door witnessing, they have a quota like traffic cops. almost everyone is expected to spend a certain amount of time in the field witnessing. kind of sad, really...
they were in my old neighborhood so frequently that to this day, i can spot a witness or a mormon at 500 paces or so.

mormon: clean cut, black pants, white shirts (frequently short-sleeved), ties, a daypack, travels in pairs of men.

witnesses: clean cut and well dressed (men wear suits, women wear dresses), can either travel in pairs of women or as a man/woman couple. sometimes a teenager will be with them, in training. one will carry a briefcase or a leather satchel. they love to talk current affairs, anything that demonstrates mankind as a failure: wars, social injustice, famine, disease.

I think my ex hubs may have seen an exception of a witness. A young man, on his own.

He rang the bell and my very Christian hubby opened the door. I thought he'd shoo him away quickly enough, but no.. he stays at the door. Huh?

After 30 minutes (!) I go and peek my head around the corner to see the two of them engaged in an obviously interesting conversation. Quite fun to see actually.

I just grinned and shut the door again, to welcome hubs back 15 minutes later. They talked about lots of things and compared faiths.

Only in the Netherlands.. if you ask me

Fortunatelly nobody knocked at my door yet (I wouldn't respond anyway) well... people can entry my building only if they have a key.

Usually when somebody is selling something, I tell them I don't have any money. Then they usually tell me that they take checks and I tell them that when I say "I don't have any money", I mean that literally.

The jehova's witnesses have been coming to visit me for YEARS. It used to be the same girl and she never put any pressure on me to come to their church, she did her thing, I listened--figuring if she believes that she is doing the work of God, who am I to stand in her way? But she left, I suppose to some third world country. And the ladies who have come since have tried to get me to come to "the hall". I finally told them, "You know, I just really like your little magazines." and that has been that.