Hello!
We missed a day of blogging so here is a recap of the last few days. On Wednesday our group split up for the first part of the day. Ruby and Embla went to Munali to teach the deaf typing skills. Both of them left with news of how impressive the kids typing skills were. Meanwhile, Sunny, Hannah, and I all went with a teacher at Birdland named Olepa. We were shopping for the Birdland buddies, who are the most vulnerable children at the school. We did our shopping at Manda Hill. We were looking for clothes e.g. jeans, shirts, shoes for a number of buddies. The shopping was hard work because the selection was not very good. Olepa took so much care and patience in finding the perfect outfit for each individual child. She wanted to make sure that they would enjoy wearing the clothes. After our shopping adventure we met up with the rest of the group and all took the bus to the Community Center, where we would have the shoe drive. When we arrived at the Center we were greeted by a group of about 80 kids from the Silver Rest School. While we waited for the shoe drive preparations to finish we did the hokie pokie for (and kind of with) the kids. They then taught us a game that was a lot like duck duck goose but instead of tagging the person they tried to throw a jacket at the person running away. It was a lot of fun! The Shoe Drive was an interesting experience for everyone I think. To begin, the kids eagerly arranged themselves in two single file lines. We then began fitting the shoes on each kid. We probably all got through about 20 kids until we had to start turning people away because we didn't have their size. Thankfully, Mercy suggested we bring school supplies for the kids who didn't get shoes, so that they at least didn't walk away with nothing. After the shoe drive we probably had to deny around 20 kids of shoes, and were all left with a guilty feeling. Later that night we talked as a group about the experience. For me I think it was a reminder of how we will never have enough shoes to give because even after we had to deny the 20 or so kids from the school, we walked home with many children who didn't attend school who all weren't wearing shoes. It is really hard to feel like you are making a difference when their is so much need.

On Thursday we spent the morning visiting an AIDS Hospice. The Hospice was run by nuns and their was a primary school attached to it for kids who were orphaned because their parents died of AIDS. We brought with us care packages for the patients, however their were only three patients at the hospice at the time we arrived, and left the rest of the packages forthe nurses who worked at the hospice to give out. We were given a tour of the school, and visited every single class. Each class was more full of life then the next; Breaking out in song, the room felt so full of life! After the Hospice and the visit to the school we went to Northmead Market, which was a lot of fun. Everyone was very successful with their purchases. Ruby, Hannah, and I were especially excited because we bought 2 Zambian music CD's for just 10 dollars! The market was so pleasant also because the venders were not as overbearing as the venders at Victoria Falls.
We had another great dinner tonight and everyone is happy! And looking forward to our last day at Birdland tomorrow.
Until next time!

Paulina