Via Element Eden Advocate Amy Purdy’s Blog:

This day was the most powerful of all to me. Altogether we gave away close to 800 pairs of shoes!

On the way to the Murchison Primary School the Element van drove past an older man with a disability rolling down the street on an old, slow skateboard. Let me tell ya, that guy was at the right place at the right time! The Element crew jumped out and handed him a new board! That’s not something that happens everyday in a little South African village!

As we started unloading the boxes of shoes from the bus we could hear the happy voices of kids and looked up to see the littlest ones running barefoot out of their classrooms to meet us! They were so beautiful, such happy curious kids! They loved my legs and were actually probably quite confused by them. With the language barrier we couldn’t explain to them why I have metal legs, so I can only image that from this point on they will always believe some robot girl came to visit them.

One thing that is overwhelmingly apparent is how close this community is. The school kids are so loving and close with each other and so welcoming and friendly to us. They would just walk up and grab our hands or wrap their arms around our waist. A few of them wouldn’t let us go and I promise that we didn’t want to let them go! Their faces were so full of love and happiness, yet most of these experience the worst home lives. This day we learned that 50%-75% of these kids have HIV and are orphans after losing both parents to the disease. Yet, these kids are absolutely full of love and gratitude. It really puts your life into perspective. We need to be so grateful for our health and to have families that love us, yet even if you have neither you are here and you have every opportunity to live a happy life with gratitude, these kids are examples of that!