Day 5 TOMS SHOES

A wonderful man named Blake created a company called TOMS shoes for Tomorrow!

We had the honor of being shoe givers for a school in rural Ethiopia. When I think of schools I think of beautiful uniform buildings. Even Addis this true but in the country the "school" consist of ten "buildings" that are really tin sheds. Honestly, looked a lot like farm sheds. But these children are so happy to be going to school and they don't know any different.

In the morning, we played and it continues to amaze me how excited children are just to have me paint their nails. They are so sweet and respectful, as I look back to make sure I will not sit in cow poo a little girl come over with a large flat rock for me to sit on. I am a lucky woman.

My afternoon was spent on the floor helping children into their new shoes. The rubber shoes are made in Ethiopia and are made specifically to last during the rainy season. Children came in with no shoes, or shoes that were way too tight but mostly the shoes had holes where their toes stuck out or had holes in the bottom.

Now you never think, well at least I didn't think about the fact that a shoe giver means you are on the floor for hours with a constant smell of feet and some who do not have the luxury of pedicures or SHOES. But honestly, I never even noticed. It was so amazing to see the pure joy on the faces how thankful they were.

Our translators continued to be amazing. Men of the community were not happy there was not shoes for them. The men tried to pressure our translators but Nate never left my side. As he said, "Bridget, I am your translator / body guard!" How could you not love Nate!

All in all another amazing day capped off by more ice cream at kaldies and meaningful chats with my group.