child by child
we began to place shoes
on the feet in Kamasorie Village.
More and more people lined up
and it seemed we would run out.
Our goal was to fit shoes onto every child – and thankfully,
we did that.
However, we also managed to fit shoes
on several adults, too.
Pa Foday spotted a blind man walking and caught up with him to give him a pair of shoes.
We had a few small shoes left over
and were able to pass them on to other villages.
We were delighted with this adventure
and once the compound is paid for, the land purchased and the 4-wheel vehicle bought, we hope to plan another venture like this one.
The difficulty in getting all the shoes over to Sierra Leone and items like that,
is the expense of shipping.
To send a container, it runs around $8,000 port to port.
Then there are always “tips” you must pay to unload your container – this could run in the $thousands$.
Unless the container is packed with tons and tons of supplies with values that far outweigh the shipping costs, it is a prohibitive adventure. These shoes were part of joint venture
in which One Love Foundation & students of Penn Kidder School
in Pennsylvania were sponsoring a container to Freetown, this is why we were able to do it this time. One Love raised the money and paid for the container,
NHA supplied shoes that were purchased and donated by you.
The time at Kamasorie made for a great day,
now we prepare for the 4.8 mile hike back to the road and drive back to Kabala. We said our goodbyes and the people headed back to their homes.
Tired but satisfied with the day’s work
we made our way back through the trails.
This time Fr. Seraphim had left before us to pray the path ahead.