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Buying toys

Yesterday me and Teresa (the new volunteer, and the first ever for Um Pequeno Gesto) went to game, a developed world supermarket (or sort of) with a mission: buy gifts for the kids. Some because a nice sponsor sent a donation to buy something specific for a birthday, others just because I realized in the Orphanage they had nothing to play with. It was fun actually, us kind of lost in the middle of all those possibilities, trying to count of many 70 cents footballs we could afford not to go off budget. Clearly we did not realize the footballs were 70 cents until I got home and did the conversion :-)
Oh well, it was still fun, we got a blackboard and coloured chalk for the little ones, we got legos and puzzles, footballs for the boys, hula hoop circles for the girls. We even got High Street Musical sets of crayons and pens. The only thing we could not get was a Barbie or a doll for a girl’s birthday next week, not only were they expensive (even in real terms) but also they were all white girls. And that, I was not happy about, but I guess that is what you can get in South Africa and bring here…
I knew Teresa would enjoy the visit but was hoping she would control my anxiety of buying the entire store. That clearly did not work out. All she could avoid was me buying a little 4x4 ten-euro tricycle for my godchild and a giant bucket of chalk that was more pricy than the blackboard!
We were happy with our achievements and my room now looks like a playground, at least until the last weekend. We now consider that the furbishing of the nursery has started, we got a feel for the prices and we definitely decided we are coming back.

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