I woke up with the the distinct sound of children's voices outside so I soon walked out and started distributing the last presents we hadn't been able to hand out by then. We were told some of the children we had brought presents for were no longer living in the village so we had to either find children of approximately the same age or physical stature or take those back to Lisbon, which I had no intention of doing. With the exception of Eduardinho, Filomena and Lola all the other children were the "lucky ones" who stepped in to receive the extra presents.
Eduardinho
Marilda
Elisiane, whose school godmother hadn't been able to send her anything was called in to receive the presents of someone who didn't show up.
Elisiane
Filomena
Lola
Nélida's youngest sister
A bottled liqueur given to me my one of the children' s parents.
Pedro's youngest sister, in spite of being slightly smaller took the place of someone who didn't show up and so did Bianco (though Cláudio, whom the presents were supposed to be for showed up just minutes before we left to the capital city).
Bianco
The little boy was given a pair of tenis shoes I had brought for Felizberto.
This little girl got herself two school godparents, who happen to still be teenagers.
Because we weren't able to go to Tarrafal to hand out presents to two siblings, their eldest sister showed up to collect them and in the meantime was given a perfume supposed to be for someone else who didn't show up.
We were approached by a grandmother who has been looking after her grandchild who has lots his parents and despite having a cancer herself has taken on the responsibility. Noëlle couldn't help feeling touched and vowed to help her through the ordeal.
On the way up to Nate's for the last meal we briefly stopped at Eduardo's to say hello one last time before heading back down and distributing the last odd things. We were fortunate enough to have been driven back to Praia, which we reached by late afternoon.
Leinira and Tarine, who were not only given some money for having helped us all the way through but also some leftover chocolate bars and candies (left). Cláudio (right)
Celisa, the Mayor's right hand, whom we owe the free transport to Praia with some of the local appointed members of the government.
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