Bri's Project

As you all read previously, Brian decided to raise money to buy school supplies for kids in Cape Verde. A big thank you goes out to everyone who supported this project. He raised over 1,200 dollars, which gave him the opportunity to help over 100 children at various orphanages in Mindelo. You will see pictures of us buy supplies, hanging out with the kids, and just generally having a great time!

Brian brought about $100 worth of supplies in his suitcase. Then we hit the local stores to try to spend out 1,100. This was quite a task since there are no Super Wal-Marts here. We headed to local stores and essentially began buying the places out of things. Our first store resulted in what looked like to us a lot of stuff, but only cost us about 1/5 of our budget. So, we headed to another place that I frequent and they helped us out a lot. They gave us a 10% discount for our purchase of about $300. Needless to say, we went back to that place later to finish up!

On the second day of shopping, I enlisted the help of one of my students. He led us to coloring books and games for the younger children at one of the centers. Then we followed up with more school supplies. It was quite taxing to spend all that cash here. But, we ended up with so much stuff. The kids were thrilled and so excited to see all of their new school supplies. It was great to watch them be shy about the gifts and anxious to open up their bags and see what was inside. We had to tell them it was okay to explore and see.

At the Boys center, Nhu Djunga, we gave out the supplies and then asked the boys to teach us a game that Bri could take back and share with his kids at his job. They taught us a game called, Jogomon. Then, as we were leaving, they insisted that we teach them a game. So, the following Monday, we returned to teach them elbow tag. They loved it. The boys even made bracelets for us, which are really cool. It was great to feel appreciated and to have the boys actually respect us and want to hang out with us.

You'll see in the final picture that we had some pretty exhausting days. We had early nights and took naps to recover from the long days of shopping and sharing! I am so glad that Bri thought of this project and made it happen. The kids that we helped deserve it.