Day 7

Day 7 (I think..)
Today was our last day of distributions so it was a little sad. I will definitely miss making the kids laugh & smile but I'm also really tired! It was a little rough to get moving this morning as I think most of us were a little sore fro. The chimpanzee trek yesterday! My shoulder is hurting from my crazy fall but I took some advil & once I was around the kids I forgot all about it. 
This morning we visited a school of street kids. These kids live on the street but somehow manage to still come to school & learn everyday. They only get water at this school once a week so we opted not to wash their feet because we didn't want to use ip their water supply. Instead we just wiped their feet with towels & sized them. There were several little kids at this school & a few little babies running around. Two older boys were getting ready to go to college & were amazing to talk to. One of them, Bernard, wants to be a doctor. I talked to the other one more, Antony, and he loved to read. They both have sponsors which is allowing them to study and go to college. Antony said he has read all the Harry Potter books and other Americsn books like The DaVinci Code. I wondered how he got the books & he said that the books are not his but since his English is very good he reads them to other people who own the books who cannot read English. We asked him
 what other books he would like to read and he said he wants to read "Think Big" so one of the girls is going to try to send it to him. He was very impressive to talk to & we got his email address so we can keep in touch with him. At the end we all gathered around & they had a group of boys that were gymnasts perform for us. Then we all sang & said our goodbyes. 
The second school was small kids which was good because we ran out of larger sizes! When we got to the school all the kids were sitting in a room waiting for us & once we dat down to hear about the school they had older boys come in and dance for us. I took some video do I'll post that when I can! Since this was the last distribution we were all trying to give the last of our toys away. I still had a bunch of cheap jeweled plastic rings so as the girls came through the line to get sized I out one on their finger.  They loved them!! Some of the boys wanted them too but I gave them all silly bands instead. I also gave out several stickers. One of the girls had some little nerf footballs and had to show them how to throw them because they don't have those there. I also had some sunglasses left and again they created quite the stir but the kids didn't fight over them which is amazing because that would never happen here. There are so many things I have realized and learned on this trip and processing everything is going to be hard. We were all sad to leave this place but we have heard we have a "grand" dinner for us tonight! When we got back to the hotel we had lunch which was pizza. It was more like a quiche but they said it was Zanzibar pizza. After lunch we got free time. Several went to the beach to swim and hang out, others went to the pool. I opted to go back to the school where the mothers had items to sell with Michele & Wanda. We got a cab & one of our guides went with us so we would know where to go. It was nice to go with only a couple of people because we got to see more since it wasn't so crowded. At the school I bought a fabric basket and several necklaces & bracelets. The woman that had made them told our guide she was so happy when I gave her my 40000 shillings (about $40 in US). I was so glad to be able to support her. We also went back to the little market store & bought a few more things. This time I was able to take some pictures so you'll see how small it actually is. After that we came back to the hotel & I'm writing this post! 
Since I wasn't able to post this earlier I will just add to it. Tonight was amazing. First we met in the lobby for a group picture and a debriefing. We all went around the room & said what we would take with us from the trip. Mine is that the simplest thing makes them so happy. They would have been thrilled just to have us take their picture & show it to them. Not once did any of the kids complain about their shoes or that we didn't have their size. They were happy just to have us there. There was no fighting or pushing in line and when we rN out of things they didn't get mad. It's really unbelievable. There were a few tears shed tonight but it was really amazing to hear what everyone thought. After that we loaded up in a few vans for a quick ride to the beach. They had a bonfire & a table for our dinner! It was very cool to have dinner on the beach our last night there. As we were sitting around having drinks and eating plantains, kebobs, fish, potatoes, etc. someone noticed that there was an eclipse! It's so amazing that on our last night in Africa we got to sit on the beach and watch the moon go dark!! Our hotel made a cake for us which was so cute and after our bellies were full we all loaded up and went back to the hotel. We probably would have stayed longer if it weren't for the fact that we have to be up at 4:30 am tomorrow for our very very long (24 + hours of flight time) back to the states.