The lastest count is 25

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On Monday Gabriel and I picked up the remaining 2 children needing shoes and 6 youth-young adults jumped into the back of the truck, and away we went back to Pay Less shoes in Masaya. The actual choosing and buying of the shoes was easier than before since most of the kids could pick them out themselves. We just had to give them some guidelines on cost! What was more difficult was deciding where to draw the line.

Now all the children have shoes for school. This is the dusty season in Nica. It´s impossible to stay clean as it´s windy and dusty. Jacqueline mops her flow about 3 times a day to get rid of the dust and dirt that comes in the casita. Everyone keeps their appliances, pots and pans and anything else out in their kitchens covered with towels to keep the dust out. And, everything has to be shut tight to keep the ants out. Any yet, they keep their rice and beans out over night for the next day. No need to refridgerate them, I guess.

One good thing is...I´ve not yet seen any roaches...!

OK back to the story. Although my objective was to buy shoes for the kids who go to school in the project, what about the young adults who are going to college to study English and other subjects at night and/or on Sat? They need to look clean and tidy too. Some of them are the dads of the project, and may be older than some of the other dads who also don´t have shoes and are doing construction in their flip flops, but are not going to school. How can I give to some and not to others? But wait, there are other kids at the school who are not part of the project, and they don´t have shoes. My young friend Rachael asked if I could buy shoes for a little boy in her preschool class who has a hole in the bottom of his shoes and has an infection started. And then there are the kids that run to greet me at the house where we store our bikes. Some of them are barefoot too!

So I ended up buying for just the kids going to school, including the dad. You should have seen their eyes light up in the store as they were choosing their shoes. You should have seen them watch with interest as we were checking them all at the counter. And when we got out side about half of these adults

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