today so many things happened, it was like a week full of memories shoved into one day!!! we went there and brought all of our gifts with us. we pulled everything into the widows room to sort it out. Yesterday six boxes arrived and we opened them today. they were filled with chikumbuso school shirts with the butterfly in the middle as their logo, and two huge boxes were full of balls, jump ropes, Frisbees, wiffle balls and bats, soccer balls, foam balls, foot balls, yo yos and so much more. the toys were overwhelming.
first we handed out the "school uniforms," it was meant only to go to a small group, but like everything at chikumbuso it got crazy before you knew it! the first kids to get the shirts were going to go and surprise their teacher with the new shirts, but their teacher saw them and brought her class and the others to all get their shirts. As all the students were in the room putting on their t-shirts, we opened the box of playground equipment. so we then handed that out. Linda was explaining to them where the toys came from, and the rules.
all the kids ran outside and started playing with the toys. it was so funny because they might have been playing with a soccer ball, but they had a jump rope in their arm. they all were carrying around toys that they didn't know how to use. so i ended up running around trying to teach them how to play one game, then running to another kid and teaching them their game. it was so funny when i saw a kid trying to kick a foot ball, and it was flopping around on the ground because of its odd shape. so i picked it up and ran really far away and threw it at him. he stood there in shock, like how did you do that, then i tried showing him. and explained that i America it is the really strong men who play this game, and that they wear huge pads and beat each other up. i told him to play with a friend. then i showed it again to another boy, and had him throw it to his friend, and it was so funny because the little boy ducked when it came at him. he was so scared! i also taught them how to use the big jump ropes, that you need a partner to swing and a friend to jump. i cant explain how crazy it was, there were kids jumping rope every step you took. they were waking each other in the faces with them because there just wasn't enough room for them to all jump rope! sophila was carrying around a HUGE football, i mean it was the size of her torso, but she just held it under her arm like she never wanted to lose it. all the kids were so cute. i even played hand clap games with the kids, it started with two of us and turned into a big circle of about 20. we were playing a game like "down by the banks" only we passed on two rocks, and the two people who ended up with it had to stand in the middle while they sang a rime, and they were doing these motions and whenever they stoped they either had to kiss or hug. it was so cute!
after we finished playing, all the kids ate and then went back to their classrooms. then Linda and i brought chocolate to each classroom and took pictures of the kids enjoying it. it was so cute because some of the kids ate m and m's and they would eat like two and then they would want to save the rest. one boy hid them in his pocket and i had to explain to him that they would melt and then he wouldn't have any to eat! they were so cute, they loved the chocolate!!!!
after i went to each classroom, we took the littlest kids and gave out the elementary school sweatshirts. they looked so cute in the sweetie's, they all put their hoods up, and looked way to warm for Africa. i was standing there in my tank and they had pants, a long sleeve shirt, and a sweatshirt that was zipped up to the top! but none of them said anything about being hot!
then we handed out the rest of the clothes that we brought, and the pencils from the high school.
then the best part came! we got to hand out matrices to our sponsored children. we went to mrs. stienagels boys house first, it was so far away, and the roads were bad. his house was so small but very organized. i could tell just like Linda had previously told us, that in the houses there was a sense of their past life. they had a bunch of pots and pans, and plates on one side of her wall but you could tell they they didn't get used. the next house that we went to was Mary's, it was very close to chikumbuso so we walked. however her house was not good at all! it was really small, i mean small, and there was practically nothing inside. there was a "couch" but the cushions were just foam, and there was no backing to them. and there was a table, but that was it. we couldn't find her mother, so we were standing there for a long time! it felt like we were in a christian children's fund commercial, there were kids all around us, baby's up to 10 year olds, and they were all by themselves. they were scraping nishma out of a pot! it was so sad, but when her mother arrived, she was really old. and we found out that the Marys mother is the mother of mrs. steinagels sponsored child. so even though Mary was like 8 she was the aunt of agripa, who was 15! then we brought a bed to Christine, she had the nicest house, it was very small but neat and very well taken care of. both her parents are dead so she lives with her aunt, and when we arrived at her house all the neighborhood kids were cheering because she was getting a bed. it was so cute. then we got to deliver a bed to sophila!!! we met her two sisters and two brothers, but her mom was at work.her mom does piece work where you get paid daily for your work, so she does odd jobs and every day it could be a different job. Linda said that she goes to work at like 4 in the morning and doesn't get back until really late. the oldest brother is 15 and he was in a suit. as we arrived the kids were on their way to go to Church, it was strange because they were going on their own, their mother wasn't there. one sad thing about sophilas family is that one of her sisters is slow, and she was pregnant which means that she probably got raped. it also means that soon their mother will have to take care of another person! but the mother will be coming home to a great surprise tonight when she sees that there is a bed to sleep on!
the widows group met today so i got to meet a lot of them, and the girls group met today so i got to see that as well. the grassroots soccer group sends these two girls to work with the girls group every Wednesday. they teach the girls about HIV/AIDS, and how to prevent it. the girls were putting on plays to practice reacting in bad situations.
so much happened today and I'm probably forgetting something, but it was so much fun and today was so touching!
