School Supplies for Children

February is a new school year in Brazil. We were at Cascalheira visiting and catching up with Joao's house. Unbeknownst to us it was a few days before school started and the children were begging to please get school supplies for them. The next day we went school supply shopping for about 10 children, purchasing notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners and backpacks. It has been our experience that whatever we purchase is never enough, because there are so many of them. So we did buy some extra supplies (and it still it was not enough). The following day the items were given out. Parents and children were very happy. Some of them asked for shoes, most of them do not have proper shoes, just flip flops. One boy, Bruno asked me privately if we could please bring him a pair of sneakers and if we could meet him early before school started so he could wear the shoes to school. We told him he will have his shoes. Unfortunately it could not work out to meet him early, but he did get his shoes. After the school supply distribution many children came up to us with little notes with their name and list of supplies (pictures at the end). It would be nice if the schools would give these basic tools to these children.