Before Getting New Shoes
Hello To All:
We passed out over 200 pairs of sandals today. First we went to Huruma, the orphanage about 2 miles away. All ran to the car willing to help us carry our large boxes to their study hall. One by one they came in and sat down in their regular places. One started drumming on the table and about 20 seconds later everyone broke out into song. The head female student came and read us a poem that she had written specifically for us. Most of us had to fight the tears from rolling down our faces. She felt blessed for us and asked for us to not forget them and to come back.
After the 2 minutes of emotions, I introduced myself and the team. Rori, Neda, Lauren, and Kelly all said a couple of words. Afterward, we had all the children line up along the outside wall of the study room. I was walking around taking pictures of all their smiling faces. Each one with a sucker in their mouth. (what a great idea rori/neda/lauren!) – However, as I started to move down to take pictures of their shoes – it hit me. We are going to make a huge impact. A 6 year old girl named Hannah had a pair of crocks that had the front part of the shoe missing. To her, they were fine. She could still run, play soccer, swing, and walk to school. Some had sandals that had broken straps. And some, had no shoes at all.
The condition of their feet was . . . to cut to the chase: horrible. Their red dirt stained feet were dry – and some were inflamed. You could tell that many of them were embarrased, and some – had no idea what healthy feet look like.
We placed the shoes on all the feet of the children. Then we invited them into the study hall and they blessed all of us for our gift. Their blessing came in the form of song, drumming, and clapping. . . they made a circle around us and placed their hands to the sky. All with huge smiles on their faces. 
We had thought we made a big impact on their lives, yet it increased by 10,000% when we whipped out all of the soccerballs. We pumped up 3 soccerballs and immedialy everyone started yelling. This was a big improvement to their old ball consisting of plastic bags wrapped with string. All the children took off their new sandals so they wouldn’t break. Three soccerballs were being kicked up and down their ragged dirt field. They don’t have goals to kick them in, instead they have metal stumps sticking out of the ground. The goal of their game is to get the ball to hit the medal stump.
Later that evening, Neda and Kelly went with the running team. They ran 12K – some of the runners run in sandals, some barefoot, some have fairly new looking shoes. Each child doesn’t brag, complain, or even get jeaulos – each one runs. When Neda interviewed them, she said they would respond, “We run to run out of Kenya” “We run to America.” They train to get good at running – with the hope of getting recognized by a college or university. We asked some of them their running times – they were astonishing. Compairing them to the LA Marathon, some of the 17 year old children would be in the top 20-25!
As far as tonight, we just wrapped up giving out another 170 pairs of sandals @ Tumaini (the orphanage we are staying at). Children were very thankful. They will be surprised tomorrow when they receive a some running shoes and soccerballs.
Today was a day that let us dive more into the stories of children. Rori disappeared with her two new sisters and came back speechless. She recorded their conversation and said this is a story like no other – it will bring tears to anyone who hears it.
We are fairly tired now – yet we need to get up early in the morning and sort some of the running shoes. It has been an amazing day – and guess what THE WATER IS BACK ON!!! – So no more pumping water into jugs and walking it up. Also – we are hand washing all of our cloths. When we are done we hang them on the cloths line. Several of the children found the cloths and started laughed – then they showed us how to really hand wash our cloths. For most Americans – imagine not having a waser or a dryer? . . .
Oh – one more thing. Today was a Kenyan holiday. Called Census day. In a nut shell, when the government does their budget – in the last 10 years it has been way off. Putting them into debt. The reason why was their census. They were not able to get a good census of how many people resided in their country and where. This is due to many of the tribes that live out in the middle of no where. So – today was a day that was a national holiday to send everyone home from work to have an accurate census. . . interesting.
Well – I am exhausted and have no proof read what I just wrote. So bear with me. . .
Much Love,
Brian
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