You never know where your stuff will end up...

Did your mom ever tell you that you should clean your plate, "because there are starving kids in Africa"? If you were a sassy kid like me, you might have wondered, to yourself or out loud, how you would ever get your food to Africa, because you'd gladly give it away.

Well, sometimes your stuff might actually make its way to Africa. There is a store in town called Soko Ndogo, or "small market". It has the look of a garage sale, and that's basically what it is. Things end up there that don't sell in the Goodwill's and Salvation Army's of the US. It's obvious that it all comes direct from America, because it's stuff you can't find anywhere else here in Mombasa. I've found many useful things there, such as ice cube trays and cast iron skillets. I've also found some pretty random stuff, like the Mickey Mouse Talking Telephone that I had when I was a kid, Bernstein Bear books (I'm saving them to read with kids who come to visit), and a fly swatter in the shape of Indiana. But every once in a while, I find something truly bizarre. Something that hits so close to home that I forget I'm in Africa for a moment. This week, I found a Minnesota State Lottery travel mug! It's got a loon on it and everything! Can you imagine the incredible journey that mug must have taken to get here? How many hands it must have passed through? And now it's back in the hands of a Minnesotan, though half a world away!

If you ever wondered where your freebie plastic cups go when you donate them to Goodwill... you know, the ones from the Municipal Fire Safety Campain, or the Coffeyville Colts 7th Annual Dance-a-thon, or the Summerpalooza concert you went to back in 1992 - the answer is... they end up here. In Mombasa, Kenya, on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Who would have guessed?

My new favorite mug!