I hate to shop. It is a special challenge to shop for my 13 year old daughter who knows exactly what she likes - which seems to be anything I don’t like. Shopping for one adolescent overwhelms me.

But recently I went shopping here in Malawi -for 41 kids. Thankfully, I wasn’t alone - Loveness, Wapu, Hana, and Ken shared the joy.

Early one morning we invaded the Pep shop - which is sort of a mini-Woolworth’s - armed with a list of estimated shoe sizes, and some very suspicious measurements for boys clothing. For hours we counted, and re-counted kids on the list. We spread shoes all over the floor, organized by size. (The sizes are European, which is more than a little confusing.) We made our best guess and then moved on to underwear and socks - as Wapu and Ken tried to find pants and shirts to fit 22 boys.

This shop doesn’t have all the sizes that we need, but helpful employees offer to run to another shop to plunder their stock. We decide to buy backpacks for all 41 kids, sorting them by size, color and design. At the end of our shopping trip, a huge, overflowing box is stuffed into the van and a grateful store manager gives us a blanket and two plastic food storage sets as thank you gifts.

That evening, we clutter the floor as we sort through the piles. The longer I stare at the 41 pairs of shoes, shoes, the larger they become in my eyes. I soon convince myself that nothing will fit, that every shoe is too big, every pair of pants too small. But nothing can be done right now, so we begin to stuff items in the new bags. I’m glad that we bought and distributed the dresses for the girls a couple of weeks back - that makes our job tonight a bit simpler.

But at the end of the night, bulging backpacks lean against the front door, ready for the next day.

That’s the shopping part - now for the joy.

We arrive at Hope Village with two huge boxes and when we show them what we brought, they explode - yelling, whistling, clapping, stomping their feet. None of them have ever owned a backpack before.

The boys dash to one of the schoolrooms to try on their new clothes, while the girls excitedly try on their new shoes. Unbelievably, everything fits. every shoe, every pair of pants.

Though “guesstimate-shopping” for 41 kids is not easy - these kids are easy to shop for. If it almost fits, they are grateful. If it is warm, they are grateful. If it has no holes or stains they are grateful. And today they are much more than grateful. Unable to contain their joy, they dance joyfully around the room in a large circle.

Wapu, Hana and I agree - this is one of the sweetest moment of our lives. And if you have ever given to Chifundo’s Basket (WVI’s orphan program fund) you are part of this moment. This is how your money is spent - on food, clothing, shoes, blankets, soap, medical care, school supplies, education - and moments of joy for children like Chisomo and Baba.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 11:41 am and is filed under WorldView International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.