Columbia woman hopes to collect 50,000 pairs of shoes for African children

Columbia woman hopes to collect 50,000 pairs of shoes for African children

50,000 Pairs of Shoes

That's a lot of shoes!!!

That's the goal I have set to attain by end of October. Once I can educate myself more on how to put my flier on this blog I'll add that and all those that are working with me in achieving my goals. I hope to also add a thermometer to show where I'm at in collection. I can tell you the recipe from the back of the bag to make chocolate chip cookies because I've made them so many times. My blogging skills are no where near as good as my cookies taste. So bear with me. I need to get the Queen of Blogging over again to help me with this. She is a whole entire different blog about how much she has been a friend to me and what a WONDERFUL job she is doing at raising her beautiful, compassionate and caring children. Back to shoes...

So far I have many many many people involved. I'd like to give a shout out to the following:
Most importantly, my Mom for giving me compassion, patience and love that she did. My Mom made me the person I am today. I know there were many times when she would have liked to as she put it... "take me out of this world..." but she didn't.

My husband Bill and our three children, Stephen, Grace and Sarah. They continually walk over piles of shoes in my house and give me a constant source of energy, entertainment and love.

Guy Guzzone and EZ Storage on Route 1 for getting and donating warehouse space to house all these shoes until the end of October.
To Father Miller and Denise Stanley at St. Bernadine's off of Edmondson's Avenue in Baltimore
To Emily Wofford, Tina Ferguson, and Bill Schneider - my cheering section
To Emily Aubrey-Frock for the countless collection of shoes in Towson Baltimore
To Msgr Luca at St. Louis Church in Clarksville, follow the message in my heart, not my head.
To My sister Cathy who helped me design my flier and continually entertains my children with her antics
Michelle James for her sharing her insight and expertise and experience with compassion and patience.
The NAACP Howard County Youth Council
The Columbia Village Association, Carol Wasser and the Village Managers for allowing me to place a drop off box in their office.
Our Pediatricians, Pediatric Associates in Ellicott City.
The Girl Scouts of Central Maryland
Nicole Langford at Soles4Souls Headquarters in Nashville, TN for her guidance and laughter.

There are so many people who have helped me and those are just the few that are on my mind today. I'm sure I've forgotten someone, but I COMPLETELY believe in the "village" concept. I couldn't do this without a lot of help from a lot of people.

An article will be coming out in this Thursday's Columbia Flier and Howard County Times with more information on the drive/collection.

Is a collection of 50,000 pairs of shoes possible? I don't know, but I'm about to find out and I hope I can say at the end of October.... "WOW WHAT A RIDE!!!"

Hugs
Rachel

Being Human

Hi All,



I've been wondering what I wanted my next topic to blog about to be and am struggling maintaing my computer skills and trying to figure out how to do things. This file goes here, click that button, then do this. It all becomes a little confusing to me, but I haven't given up hope yet that I'll get it. I do need to reach out and ask for help or simply sit down and take the time to ... read the instructions in the "how to" section however many times it takes to figure something out.






My lack of skills at blogging caused me to laugh and say to myself... "Hey Rachel... anyone tell you you're a human being not a human doing lately". Of course I smiled and took the moment to simply be in the present.



Summer is coming to an end and everyone is out school shopping. Young adults are preparing to head off to college and I've begun walking with our 3 children in the morning a little earlier each day. Just yesterday I noted that there was a chill in the air as the kids said... "C'mon Mom get in the pool".



Recently I have been able to tell the stories of so many children I met in Africa to others. I am currently working on a shoe drive/collection in the Columbia/Baltimore/DC area and am bringing incrediable awareness to the fact that others truly do not own a pair of shoes. In talking with others, I find that I am able to look at them in the eye and am amazed that we as Americans just sort of forget how good we have it in our country. We get up, many of us get up from a nice bed and have breakfast of a cup of coffee. We get dressed and go about our daily litney of things to do eventually ending the day by going back to our nice bed to re-energize for the next day.

The Thoughts in My Mind Today

Today I woke and still found myself laughing about this picture. I'm so glad that Ben took it. It has given me a constant reminder that it is important to play and laugh.

This is me swinging from a vine in Gombe National Park. It was very hard to hang onto that vine, but I'm glad I gave it a shot. It was one of those "hang on" moments where I said to myself... "you're in for a ride girl!"

After just two days of helping kids I didn't really think I needed to go "chimpanzee treking". But the people at Soles4Souls knew we would need a break and arranged for us to have some play time. Play is important and I really needed the break from seeing so much devastation in little people.

This picture is me sitting with Brandy and simply taking in all the beauty around me. I was completely covered with clothing to avoid mosquito's and my clothes were drenched from the heat, but I'm so glad that I went.

I loved seeing the shoe truck behind us. Yes those shoe were with us everywhere we went and there were always people there to help us with them.

I also really liked playing soccer with the kids. They were really good at it. Note the bottle of water in hand. Some kids that didn't have a soccer ball used old t-shirts and string and stuff that they had found to make a soccer ball. Regardless, we all took turns running and playing with the kids.

Oh how patient the kids would sit and wait. Lines and lines of them.... so many.

Harriet held this little one for the longest time. Sometimes all we need is a hug. It the human connection factor. When things get crazy all many people want is to simply be loved. This picture captured that for a few moments this child got to know love.

Note the fingernail polish. The kids were fascinated with it. I don't know that they had ever seen it. Something so simple put a smile on faces. I think I speak for the group that none of us thought or were worried about getting aids, malaria, or yellow fever when it came to simply showing acts of kindness on this entire trip.

I'll leave you with a favorite image of mine. It has stayed with me for years.

A simple drop of water.

Water is so valuable in Africa. They teach us in elementary school food, water and shelter are the three things you need in order to survive. I like to take it a step further and say that even a drop of water has a ripple effect. It matters to so many others the simple actions of one individual. One can make a difference. Perhaps that's one of the reasons I life the Soles4Souls motto of "changing the world, one pair at a time".

Hugs,

Rachel

ZEBRA'S

ZEBRA's ZEBRA's ZEBRA's

Today's post is for my friend Josh. Josh is 4 or 5 now and has repeatedly asked his Mom where are the pictures of Zebra's from Rachel's trip. So Joshua... this one is for you.

The Zebra's in Kigoma, Tanzania were amazing to watch. We were instructed that if they charged us to raise our hands up and yell... "hey" to make ourselves look bigger. Zebra's run just like a horse and therefore sound just like a horse galloping. So if I heard a galloping horse I would turn around and prepare to see a zebra coming or going someplace quickly. We often would laugh among our group that it was persons job at the hotel to watch the zebra's and make sure they and the people around them were safe. By the time we left the hotel I believe we were all glad that man was there watching those zebra's.

There were 3 on the hotel grounds and I was close enough to touch them, but dared not to. I can hear just fine and I heard the advice from our guide to not come within 10 meters of the zebra's.

Upon leaving the hotel we were told that two of the zebra's were pregnant females and there was one male. I don't remember their names, but I do remember the feeling of coming back to camp and seeing them and thinking... "Ok... I'm home for a while now, I can rest".

I had one encounter with a zebra upon going to dinner one night. I had overslept for mealtime and someone came to make sure I was ok. Upon walking out my bungalow door I was greeted by a black and white striped animal and practiced the "Hey... don't I look bigger" philosophy. It really did work. The zebra ran one way and I ran the other.

I also saw baboon's, chimpanzee's, and African butterflies, and goats. I saw many many birds and remember them following us in the boat. While it was amazing to see all the animals that I saw I want you all to know I went to meet and visit with the people of Africa. They touched my heart, my life, and changed my world forever.

Joshy... I love you buddy. Hope you like the pictures of the zebra's

Hugs

Rachel

The Weight

Today my mind is on Grace. I woke yesterday morning after receiving an e-mail from her. It took me days to figure out who exactly it was. Then yesterday morning I woke and said.... "GRACE".... you did it.

Grace and I had great conversations in Africa. It is my hope to possibly sponsor her so she can go on to continue her education. She wants to become a doctor I believe. Grace is 16 and has two more years left in the orphanage she was at. When I asked her to teach me how to walk with water on my head she tried. Many of the children laughed hysterically when I tried. One thing I will say is that those girls and women have extremely strong necks. That bucket wasn't even 5 gallons and it was heavy. Look at the picture... I look like I have NO neck, because it was heavy. Yet the women and girls walk around with everything on their heads so that their hands are free to keep up with little ones or hold something else.

Grace and I sat and talked for a long time. I was facinated at how I wasn't sure what to do and all the young girls came to me to simply talk and try communicating with me. We exchanged words, smiles, hugs, and a whole lot of love. They were all beautiful. Grace's english language skills were very impressive and I admired her incredibly.

To the left is a picture of a woman walking down the street. She has a baby on her back, he laundry on her head, along with her big black bag and a bag in her hands. She was wondering what we were doing there. This was a comon sight in Tanzania. I was mesmerized at how easily they can carry so much. When I strugged so much with just one thing.
We are truly blessed with all that we have. Today I will attempt to make contact with Grace and continue working on my goals. I will smile and know that I can only control my own actions. I will never forget the weight I have to carry is much less than those others must carry in order to survive.



Hugs,
Rachel

Mufia

Some things stay in your mind forever. So it is with Mufia. Mufia was a child that was sort of peeking out from behind another person at one of the orphanages I visited in Africa with Soles4Souls. I asked Todd to take this picture for me because I wanted to remember her.

Mufia is a small tiny girl that is courious about so much, yet wouldn't dare ask. She wears a cute top that reminded me of the kind I wore when I was a little girl. Gently Mufia held onto my hand and looked into my eyes and smiled. It was a smile that warmed my heart and spoke without words. I didn't want to let go of her hand that day and I hope to never let go of the memory she left engraved in my mind.

Kindness knows no skin color, hope has no name or age, and peace is possible despite language barriers. Thank you Mufia for letting me share with you a special day. You will always be in my thoughts. It took me forever to get your name down and when I finally associated it with "Mu-fa-sa" in the Lion King... I knew a little girl like her would be a queen in my eyes if only for a few hours. And.. thanks Todd the picture means so much to me.

Hugs
Kumbatia Mufia
Rachel