Where the wild things are

Posted on 30 June 2011

In Etosha, where the wild things are, is a school.

It is here the people of the Put Foot Rally found themselves among the most beautiful creatures. Children who have seen little beyond the dusty plains, the salty pan, the baobab, rhino and long loping giraffe. Theirs is a world we can visit and wonder at. Ours is a world they can only wonder about.

The Bobs for Good Foundation had over a hundred shoes to give them. A better chance for their minds to wonder unencumbered from the thought of rock and thorn, small obstacles that grow with every metre, every kilometre they have to walk or run to catch the school bus. A pair of shoes may sound scant but they are sometimes the difference between getting to school, and not. In the greater sense they are pairs of pride, platforms to leap from, into the world they wonder about.

Many of the people on the Put Foot Rally have discarded their own shoes in respect of the school kids. Thus their journey is one which is closer to their world, punctuated with thorns and stones, cold Kavango water and warm Zambezi mud.

We learn more about Africa this way. Feel the beautiful earth. Revel in the patina of dust that seems will forever coat our feet. And the deeper we journey and the more people we meet, we bolster our love affair with this great continent and its people that have such potential and pride – such beauty. And we know when we wonder about Africa’s future, that the children have the chance to change it. Not the Western World or the East, but these children alone because their dreams are unencumbered by the past, unencumbered by stone and thorn.

The crews of the Put Foot Rally are revelling in the journey. Many have not ventured to these parts and are amazed how easy it is, how much closer they can get to Africa and its people.

The crews blow their vuvuzelas and use them to funnel fuel into their tanks. They dance around the campfire, and sometimes on it. They celebrate every new donation and laugh about the adventures and antics of the day. They are a wild bunch and a diverse bunch but they sing the same songs around the fire and argue only about who buys the next round. This is a great journey with a great bunch of people.

Today we visit another school in Zambia not far from that watery wall of fire, Mosi-Oa-Tunya, ‘The Smoke That Thunders’. We have more shoes to give and more wonderful children to meet. Bobs for Good would like to give school shoes to every kid in Africa. Not a mean achievement, but they can only do it with your donations.

Please go here to donate

http://tiny.cc/c0q1y

Every crew has an incentive to do this and the crew with most donations is rewarded with a prize at every checkpoint, so please mention our crew, The BodyRockers, kind people.

 

 

 






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