The afternoon was spent preparing for the talent show. Kids were incredible! Lots of local songs and dances from each of the tribes that was represented at the camp, some great "pantomimes" (their term for a lip synch, thankfully not the "walking in the wind" kind) and a spectacular fashion show in which the kids modeled their new clothes as well as some "adventurous" designs fashioned from whatever materials they could find (newspapers, paper sacks, etc.) After the show, Fred, one of the kids that had befriended me early on, told me that he had a problem, he needed money for shoes. I asked what was wrong with the shoes he had on. His response: they didn't belong to him, they had been borrowed for the camp. I was stunned. Throughout the week I had heard horrible stories from these kids about the hardships they faced. Through it all, however, I could take comfort that the kids at least looked like they were being taken care of better than the village children I saw when we drove through the country. Their clothes are better so surely they must be doing a little better, right? Well, now I was confronted with a reality I had never even considered. These clothes may not even belong to them. I still really had no idea what life was like for them back home. It totally deflated me to realize that while I thought of them in terms of soccer matches and talent shows, their real lives were deprived of basic necessities. No shoes! This really is a place beyond my understanding.
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