Crocs!

Yes, we saw a few of these.

 
 And many more of these.




Just about every child at RG wears Crocs all the time. And they scrub them once a day until they sparkle. Each day when we had our Hoops camp, all the crocs would go flying and the kids would run barefoot for the entire 2 hours. I have no idea how they ever know where their shoes are or whose are whose, but somehow they manage to keep it all straight.

 Each child also has 2 or maybe 3 outfits of their own. They have their Sunday clothes, their school clothes, and their play clothes (or work clothes). Their school clothes are an assortment of uniforms, some that Reverend Joel’s wife made for them and some that were donated by St. Paul’s School in Waco. These kids love their uniforms! They only wear them for school or special trips and they always change into play clothes afterwards. This is a good thing, because that red dirt sure gets all over everything!

Laundry is an important job at RG, and from what I can tell, everyone takes a turn doing the dirty work. They hand scrub everything with a bar of soap, and then hang it to try or just spread it out on the grass. It seems the preferred method is to lay it out on the grass all day where it can soak up the sun. I have never in my life considered laying my clean clothes outside on the ground to dry, but I now see it might be a viable option. I also noticed when we were driving down the highway that many people lay their clothes out to try on the thatched roof of their mud hut.

It really makes you think about all the "stuff" we have here in America. Even the suitcase I packed for a 10-day trip had more clothes and shoes in it than these kids may ever have. Fortunately, we were able to leave clothes and shoes behind in hopes that someone may feel blessed because of it.
 
And next time I may even think to pack some Crocs!