Reflections from Zara:

Today, my first day in Zambia Africa made me realize how thankful I am, and I will tell you why.

We went on a biking tour through the village which was very beautiful. In Zambia Africa it is rare that the children see white people in their village so when they saw my family all the children came running out to our bikes to say hello. The children were so excited to see us and shake our hands. In many of the villages we went to we stopped our bikes and played with the children.

There are about 15 to 20 kids who come running to our bikes. My family and I brought many things to give away, and in our bags we had bags of pens and pencils. We gave each kid one pencil. These kids all came around us so excited that they would get their own pen, they were so grateful and so happy that they were getting a pen.

I am 12 years old and about to turn 13, and being a rising teen I got upset when I had the iphone 6s because i wanted the iphone 7 like all my friends. (I finally got the iphone 7 after all my begging and because I broke my phone and i needed to get a new iphone)

Anyways seeing all these children and you could see that they were so grateful made me feel very un thankful about everything I am lucky to have.

Reflections from Vivi:

I enjoyed biking through the villages and meeting all of the children. All of the children made me realize that I am not grateful enough for all that I have. I felt this because when we gave kids even just a pen or a handshake their expressions were beyond ecstatic.

When we went to visit the school, each class we went in were polite and curious when they saw us. They too were very exited when they heard that we were leaving small donations for the school then and more later on.

Something that I thought was interesting was that the bike tour money all went to a the school because the founder of the school and bike tour company was not able to go to school as a kid. He thought that each kid should have some sort of education so he started his own primary school as an adult.

One other very cool thing we did today was saw some wild animals. Early in the tour, we were crossing a bridge and our guide said that there was crocodiles in the water below.

When we crossed another bridge later, my mom made a joke and said “look for crocodiles” but the tour guide corrected her and said “no, look for elephants.” Sure enough when we looked to the side we saw a herd of elephants right there. All in all, I had an amazing first day and I am excited for the adventure ahead of me!