Spring Break - Day 3

     We woke up to another beautiful spring day and another exciting location on our Spring Break travels.  Today's destination was the country of Africa.  Not wanting to miss out on the gorgeous weather here, we spent a great deal of the day outside.  We learned (via the resourceful internet) that a lot of African children make their own rag footballs to play with.  Following instructions, we took some rags that we had made from an old pillowcase and began knotting them and wrapping them around eachother.  In the end we had a nice sturdy ball to play catch with.  I think my sweet kiddos were surprised at how well it worked and how fun it was.  Resourcefulness wins!  We also read how many kids in South Africa and all over the country play soccer, but unlike kids here in the states, they kick and play with their barefeet.  My oldest, Ben, commented on how he thought that would really hurt and asked why they would do that.  This led to an amazing conversation about how the kids over there often do not have shoes and how many things we have that we simply take for granted.  Before I knew it my sweet children were looking at me and asking if we could send them their shoes that didn't fit anymore.  I never stop being humbled and amazed at the hearts of my children.  Not wanting to merely pacify them with a quick answer of "hmm...that is something to think about" we got on the internet again, this time finding a site entitled shoe4africa (which I personally would reccommend going to) which talks about this and so much more.  We now have a plan for our shoes that may not fit anymore but are of very good condition.  Our eyes (and hearts) have been openned on this journey.  To end our stay in Africa we took a tip from what we had read in my "Kid's Multicultural Cookbook - Food & Fun Around the World" and ate a tablecloth for dinner.  Right now you are rereading that wondering if you read it right, huh?  Yes, you did!  Let me explain...  We read how in Ethiopia families cover their tables with a big wheat pancake called injera, which they pour wot, or another spicy suce on and break off pieces and eat it.  We had our own version of this ourselves.  Since I know our chef very well, there were some adjustments made.  Our pancake was also made with wheat flour, but ours also had banana and chocolate chips in it (definitely made my kiddos feel at home since that is one of their favorites).  As our chef was definitely not as adept at making pancakes to cover the whole table we enjoyed one that was bigger than usual and placed it in the center of our table and let the kiddos break off pieces of it.  Definitely enjoyable and definitely good!  Definitely another good day of travelling fun behind us with more ahead!