I'm having a shoe-making party!

Ever since me and my mom got back from Africa, I've been doing a lot of thinking. The biggest thing I've been thinking about has been what I saw at Sole Hope.  For those of you who don't know what Sole Hope is, it's an organization that takes out jiggers from people's hands, feet, knees, and really any part of a person's body that gets them.

How does someone get them?  It's simple; by not having water to wash their hands and feet and by not having shoes to wear when walking in the dirt (which is everywhere in Uganda).  Jiggers live in the Ugandan dirt.

If the picture below grosses you out, I'm sorry.  But this is important and really, it's not nearly as bad as most feet I saw!

 So, what are jiggers?

They are a type of parasite (a sand flea that looks like a white worm) that gets into a person's body, sucks blood, eats away flesh, and multiplies by laying eggs).  Sounds gross, huh?  It is.  And it's sad.  
Jiggers are painful, and after a while a person can't walk. Someone with enough jiggers can even die.  And if that's not sad enough, many people there believe that jiggers are a curse.  And if someone has a curse, they are neglected and people stop caring about them and for them.

I went to a couple of clinic days with the Sole Hope staff (who are AWESOME), and washed feet and charted on a graph where jiggers were on people's hands and feet.  The first day was hard to watch!  But I did it. I had to.  I wanted to help little children feel better and I wanted to be there for them even though it made me sad at first.

The clinic that Sole Hope has is set up outside on colored wooden picnic tables. The jiggers are taken out by a safety pin, a razor blade and a cotton ball, by the jigger removers.  Note takers have a clipboard with footprints and handprints on a piece of paper, and they put dots where jiggers were found so the staff can re-check their hands and feet in a few days to make sure they are completely gone.

These kids have NO pain killer or "sleepy medicine" to help them not to scream. They just get a sucker to suck on for comfort.  I sat there plotting jiggers on a little girls foot chart and she had 83 jiggers!  She was only 6 or 7 years old. She never screamed or yelled or fought back. Only quiet little tears were shed.  I loved this girl and admired how brave and tough she was!

 

 

See the girl in with the hula hoop?  Notice she's wearing shoes?  And she's playing and having fun?  Well, that's what happens after a kid gets a simple pair of shoes made out of jeans.

This is me washing feet before jiggers are removed.

This is me taking notes while jiggers are being removed.

This is our team fitting kids for shoes after their jiggers are gone!

Shoes are made from jeans. Most kids there have never had a pair of shoes in their entire life, and one pair of shoes can keep their feet jigger free. 


I'm having a shoe-cutting party and if you want to have one too, click HERE.

If you are coming to my party, please bring some or all of the following items to help out:

• jeans (must be denim material, but can be any color)
• large safety pins
• fabric scissors
• soft plastic (milk jugs, 2 liter bottles, plastic folders, etc.)
• gallon sized ziploc baggies
• $10 donation to sponsor a pair of shoes                   

One highlight of my trip was the day we got to hop on a bus and drive through the middle of the African bush to bring children back home after their stay at the Sole Hope Clinic (the really bad cases have to stay at the medical clinic for several days or weeks).  I met a girl who was my age and I got to play with her a few times when I was there.  She was SO happy when she got home and her family was even happier that she was healthy and jigger free!

UPDATE:

My mom wrote about a little boy in her last blog post.  Well, please keep praying because things - good things - are happening!  Pray for a medical visa (whatever that is), pray for doctors who will help him for free if he comes to the US and pray for him because he needs to be healed.  Thank You!!!!!