Thank You....

So, yesterday was the 4th of July and it was interesting spending it in a different continent, culture, and countr. The day went on as a normal wednesday for everyone except after our days work we had planned an incredible meal and invited our friends and a few partners too. We made Hamburgers, potato salad, sweet potato fries, a greek salad, corn on the cob, watermelon ( one of my favorite items), a pineapple and banana salad. and for dessert a friend brought brownies, and we made rice krispies!!!!! with nutella instead of marshmallows because when we tried to find them and everyone laughed at us because they had NO idea what we were talking about. but i was so excited for the rice krispies! And we put up a volleyball net and had a couple rounds of volley ball. it was really fun! we invited the Elders over and a few of the branch members, and had about 30 people there. It was so much fun!!!! but we made way too much food. We were so afraid that we weren't going to have enough food that we prepared way too much. In America that is no big problem because that just means that we get left overs for a few days which i don't mind left overs. however, we have a very small fridge that doesn't fit very much. So we didn't know what to do with them. We just figured we would send an extra plate home with everyone and then eat as much as we could before it spoiled. So as i was munching on a few of the snacks and talking with Alexis a friend of ours Freddy was talking with us and he kept telling us to keep eating because there are starving children in Africa. I remember the first day that i got here Freddy took us out to eat and i got something that i didn't really like and he turned to me and was like, eat up, there are starving children outside. I felt so guilty that i ate even more and tried to clean my plate. So as we were talking again about it he was just teasing me but we talked about that and how i felt so guilty about it. And then alexis said something like, Well, since we are here how do we get the food to the starving children?... She said it sarcastically but Freddy took it seriously. And thats when the greatest idea began. Freddy said that last year he had gone with the other HELP team once a month to LITERALLY feed the starving children in Africa. You always hear horror stories here about people going out and giving food to people and the people getting very aggressive in getting their food and fights happenings. So i was a little nervous about going but i trusted Freddy. When we got to where we were going to give out the food it was so great! Freddy told the children to get in a line and they immediately formed into a line. And then we gave them a paper plate and then they went down the line and we gave them food. the faces of these sweet sweet children. I don't know how to describe it. they would just stand there with they plates and stare at the food as we put in on. then once their plate was full they ran and sat down on the ground and just started eating. It was so overwhelming to see just how many kids there were that were living on the street. Who literally have no one to look after them.

There was a few of the boys that came up to us after they had eaten their food and in the most sincere voice said  "Thank You". These boys live on the streets, they don't go to school, and I just recently saw them riding in the back of a truck that was literally full of garbage that they rummage through to find any food that they can get. They don't have a mother to tuck them in at night, they don't even have a place to sleep that is protected. BUT they were grateful for the food that we were able to give them and came back and said Thank You. I wanted to take them all home with me and tuck them into my bed, and give them the care that they need, and sent them to school and give them food so that they will be healthy.

There was one boy that particularly hit my heart. He ate some of the food but he wasn't use to the American food that we gave him so he didn't eat too much. And he just stood there and i felt so bad so i put my hand on his head  to give him some comfort and he backed up and leaned against my legs and i just sat there and held him for a minute. He was probably about 10 years old and I just thought to myself i wonder how often or if any he was able to receive positive affection.