Shoes Shoes Shoes

I forgot to mention yesterday....drumroll please...da da da daaaaaaaa

144 pairs of shoes ....yes, that is correct 144 pairs of shoes will be flying with me to Rwanda.
I am really really really excited about handing out the shoes. Once I get there I will speak with Justus to find out which area of children need the shoes the most. 144 pairs of shoes are a lot of shoes but when you compare it to the 700 kids just at one of the schools, and the ton of kids that aren't able to attend school - it isn't that many. So I want to make sure the shoes go to kids that need them the most.

Wow! I really am excited about the shoes. Thank You Thank You Thank You to all of you who donated to the shoe fund!!!!

Lots to update

I have a huge thanks to shout out to my parents for their donation. MURAKOZE mama and dahta.

And another murakoze to my little sister, Jennifer, and her friends. Two weeks ago she arranged for a couple of her friends to meet up and make friendship bracelets and write letters to the kids in Rwanda. We had a great time and thank you to Margaret, her mom, for her endless supply of treats and drinks!

Last weekend I had 8 girls attend the Big Brother Big Sister letter exchange event. I was hoping for a lot more kids, so I was a wee bit disappointed with the number. BUT we made the best of it, and it was really fun. The girls ranged in age from 7-14. I brought a map and taped it to the wall, so all could see where Rwanda is located. The girls made friendship bracelets and wrote their letters on decorative cards I picked up at Joann Fabrics. I made a brief presentation explaining why I am going and explained why they were writing the letters and making the bracelets. Jennifer, my little, was a great help. She showed the bigs and littles how to make different bracelets. I was so proud of her! All the girls seemed really excited to find out who their new friend will be. I hope it all works out and the letter program is a hit.
Murakoze to BBBS organization and to the Bigs and Littles for participating.

I got my 2nd hep shot. It was a breeze. No soreness this time.

And I finally booked my flight. 26 hours total and $2500. I am a little mad at myself for waiting so long because I would have saved $500 if I had booked a week earlier instead of waiting. My flights are with KLM but I think the airlines ended up to be Northwest and Ethiopina (maybe). I fly Phoenix-Detroit-Amsterdam-Nairobi-Kigali. My layovers are only an hour to an hour and a half at each location. If I am late on any flight I am crossing my fingers for Amsterdam. I wouldn't mind going out for a few hours and exploring. I have heard and read it is pretty easy to get to "downtown" from the airport, explore a bit and get back. I am flying in a day early and flying out I think on the 2nd or 3rd, I forgot already. So I have given myself extra time on both ends of the trip to miss a connecting flight.
I would love to get stuck in Nairobi but since I did not apply for a visa I really hope I don't get stuck there because I literally would not even be able to get out of the airport.

I've emailed the airlines to see about checking my bags for free since there will be lots of donations. I have not gotten an answer back yet.

I have been getting in touch with a few past and future volunteers and so far everyone has been very positive about the experience. One gal has posted wonderful pics and short videos of her experience. Karen should be back from Kenya tomorrow, so I am very excited to hear about her trip.

I have been disappointed in myself that I didn't opt for a longer time. I wish I had done at least 3 months. I feel now that I am really going to miss out on some of the experience. I know I know...I can always go back and at least I am doing this much. I wish I knew then what I know now...of course :)

Murakoze

Thank you to Lynn Daleiden for her donation!

I am off today to buy 60 pairs of shoes for the children. I may go ahead and get 100 pairs since that was my fundraising goal for the week.
What I really need to do is create a new budget and figure out how much of my budgeted trip money I have already spent on fundraising items. I get so excited about getting the shoes, school supplies, and bracelets for the kids that I am forgetting I need to save my budgeted money for food and traveling expenses.

I've also made contact with a few past volunteers and have found a few online journals of past and present volunteers. I am looking forward to asking questions, seeing pics and learning more about their volunteer experiences.