Day 238

Another travel day, so Jiten went to Books for Africa:

"I was at Books for Africa today. There weren't a lot of volunteers there today so we all got down to doing our part in either sorting or packing the books. We managed to pack five pallets of books of all primary school science and math books. That's a lot of books! It was a good day of volunteering and i'll be back there soon."

Thanks kid!!

Day 221

Thanks for covering kid!!!

"It was the busiest I have ever seen Books for Africa. There were a lot of volunteers there today and in all the commotion of having so many people we all were working in some sort of synchronized fashion. We were in 4 different group, with each group having there own section to be responsible for. I was with 10 other people working on secondary school books. We were sorting, packing, and getting ready for shipments. They also had a pickup today - a container of books went out to Angola and Malawi. There were a lot of good conversations today with an entirely new group of people. We talked about school, and how important it is to volunteer and of course ended up talking about Botswana and South Africa. It was a good day and I'll be back on Thursday to help them with sending out another container load."


~ Jiten

Day 213

So one of the ideas with this project was to get people in my life also involved in giving back, and for them to commit to giving for a certain period of time. As most of the readers know, my brother Jiten has really been involved in helping and this week he is committing to several days. He started off by volunteering with me, then started taking a day here or there for me, and now is taking almost the entire week!

Today he was at his usual - Books for Africa, here's his recap:

"It was a busy day at Books for Africa...there were just 3 volunteers today: me and the 2 okes doing community service. I spent the entire time packing books into boxes and getting them ready for shipping. Also today, one of the volunteers had done some extra volunteering and managed to bring in a donation of almost $60 from collections he had done last weekend at six flags. It just goes to show you can volunteer almost anywhere you are, even when you are out having fun."

Thanks for taking on this week kid!!

Day 209

Between work and traveling from East Georgia to West Georgia I knew I was going to need some help today. Luckily Jiten was, once again, able to help out. He was back at Books for Africa - I think this place means to him what SafeHouse means to me :)

Here's how his day went:

"Another busy day at Books for Africa. There were only 6 of us volunteering today and we had a lot of packing to do. We packed the books into boxes and on pallets for shipping. I packed 4 pallets of boxes today all in the company of my new shawtie from KSU. Another day of good conversations and laughs while we worked. It was a good day overall although very tiring!"

Once again, I'm in awe with how much my brother has helped with this project - thanks kid!!

Day 207

When I'm traveling it's always great to see people help out with the project by helping fill in for me. Today my brother, Jiten, covered for me. He was at Books for Africa, here's his recap:

"It was a busy start to my time at Books for Africa. The Atlanta community bank had a group of volunteers there for the morning, but half way through my time there they all left and there were 5 of us left. We were busy packing books into boxes and getting them ready to be shipped out. I spoke with an elder gentleman today from Atlanta who started volunteering there recently. He was excited to hear that I am from Botswana and we spent the whole time talking about Africa and how African countries are trying hard to rise up against poverty and achieve stable economies. He was very inquisitive about Botswana and southern Africa in general, as to how life is there and how much different it is from America. Overall I had a good day there and had a great conversation. I'll be back on Thursday :)"

Thanks for covering kid!!

Day 195

Jiten covered for me today by going to Books for Africa, here's his recap:

"I was back at Books for Africa today. It was a quiet day today; not many people and not a whole lot to do. They were waiting for a new shipment to come in so we were sorting the few books we had. My cheerleader friend was back again. So we spent the whole time together talking and sorting books out. It was a good time. Ill be back there soon."

Thanks for covering kid!! And yes you will be back there soon :)

Day 173

It's been a rather hectic day at work so my brother, Jiten, covered for me today. Here's his recap for today:

"I was back at Books for Africa this morning. It was very tiring since there were only 5 volunteers there today. As soon as I got there, I found out what needed to be done and got right to it. I spent a full two hours packing books into boxes preparing them for shipping. I stacked up an entire pallet of 30 boxes filled with leisure reading books for primary school students in standards 1 to 4. The other 4 volunteers were all doing their part. There wasn't much conversation happening today unfortunately, as we were all on different sides of the warehouse... In those 2 hours I packed over 1000 books which will be going to a country in Africa soon. Just 2 hours of helping out made such a huge difference".

He's right - it doesn't take a lot of time to make a difference, but it does take WANTING to make a difference.

Thanks for helping out today kid!! You're definitely making a difference, and making me proud :)

Day 167

Part of this project is getting my family and friends involved in giving back. My little brother, Jiten, has been a big part of this project and always helps out when he can. He covered for me today and went to Books for Africa, here's what he has to say:

"I was back at Books for Africa today. There was a good group with the church group there along with the usual community service outies [people]. They remembered me from last time and were happy to see me back there to help out. We sorted books and listened to some music. A couple of the church outies started breaking it down and dancing and singing with the music. Everyone was having a good time! I helped one of the girls with sorting books, and got to know her a little bit as well. Overall, it was a lot of fun and the time absolutely flew by. Looking forward to heading back soon."

Thanks for volunteering today kid!!!!!!!!!!

Day 50

I spent this morning at the Books for Africa warehouse in Smyrna. There were so many groups of volunteers there today sorting and packing books, so I helped with making boxes instead. The first time I went, I met some fun volunteers and one of them was there this morning, also making boxes. We chatted while taping and stacking boxes, and discussed different volunteer opportunities. He told me about a few new ones which I will hopefully be able to check out soon.