Make A Difference

• Megan Spann, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2010

It was April 12th when Sage parker and Madelyn Kay decided that they were going to go on a life-changing journey. This would not only be life changing for them but for some of the poor people living everyday in poverty. It started on the 8th of June around 2:00pm Sage and Madelyn were out for a nice walk along the beach side. They are both 25 and have been bestfriends since they were 3. They had been walking for about an hour when they started to get hungry. They started to walk past a local fish and chips shop when sage said, “oh im hungry lets get a bite to eat” Madelyn agreed and they both walked in. Sage started to order the food as Madelyn got a table. She sat down next to a little cork bulletin board. She looked up and started reading all the flyers that people had put up. There was one for a surfs school, one for a dog walking service, one for a garage sale even one for the local diving club. Madelyn searched the board for at least one flyer that she hadnt seen before. Her eyes wandered up and down until something caught her eye. It was a fairly old looking blue panflet. She opened it up to have a look; inside it had the words make a difference. She was curious and read on. Down more on the page it had pictures of poor familys struggling to survive in a place called Zambia, it said that Zambia was one of the horrible places with poverty. Madelyn was shocked! She new that some places had poverty but she never thought that it would be this bad. She pulled off the flyer and put it on the table. “Number 9” shouted the shop owner “your chips are ready.” Afew seconds later Sage appeared carring a bowl of hot, freshly made chips. He sat at the table and started to eat. “Dig in Madelyn” he said with a mouth full of chips. Madelyn started to eat. After a bit of talking and eating she picked up the panflet to show sage. He took it from her hands and looked closly reading everything on the page. He was also disguted. “Isnt it terrible” said Madelyn “wow” said Sage “these poor people, I just wish there was something we could do to help” He then flipped over to the back of the panflet where it had a website, “maybe this website will tell us a way to help” “yeahh lets go, I really want to see if there is a way”. Sage and Madelyn then packed up, threw their rubbish in the bin and set off home to check out this website. Once they got home Madelyn ran in and turned on her computer straight away, she sat in front of it and waited for it to turn on. Sage sat next to her and read out the website. The website popped up on the screen and they both started reading. It says there are many ways to help. You could donate some money, send in some gifts or go there and actually help build homes and get food. They new straight away what they wanted to do. The next morning they both went down to the local flight centre and booked flights to Zambia on the 12th April. Madelyn and Sage were very pleased with them selves, they went straight back to tell their family and friends what they were doing. They also began packing. When the date came for their journey to start Sage and Madelyn drove down to the airport together, got some needles, got onto the plane, found their seats and relaxed. The flight went for hours, but Madelyn and Sage new it would be worth it. Finally the engines came to a stop and they landed in Zambia. Madelyn, Sage and the rest of the passengers stepped out onto the land. “This doesn’t look too bad” said Madelyn “yeah, this doesn’t but wait until we go out into where the poverty really is”. Sage then found the car, which was going to take them to where they were staying.
The car drove for about an hour until it stopped at an old, dirty looking hotel. They both jumped out and found their room. After settling in they decided to go and find the leader of this make a difference campaign. As they opened the door to leave they ran into a ladie named locka “hello” she said as she shook their hands “you must be Madelyn and Sage, I am the one who is running the make a difference campaigne, I decided to find you so you wouldn’t have to get lost trying to find me” she smiled. “Oh hello” said Madelyn “it is a pleasure being here” “yes we are ready for this great experience,” said Sage. After a bit more of talking Madelyn and Sage hopped into the same cab as Locka. They drove off to where the poverty really was. On the way they past lots of dirt, rubbish and a few people that didn’t look so healthy. But it wasn’t untill they reached the little town that they really started feeling bad. They hopped out of the cab to see lots of famliys living in small tent like homes covoured in dirt and rocks. Little children were drinking dirty water and the sun was buring their poor little heads and skin. Madelyn and Sage were sick. Nobody should have to live through this. Locka started to explain how long these people have lived like this and most only get paid $1 a day. She named some of them and introduced them to some. Madelyn and Sage were horrified at all of this. Locka went on showing them around. Madelyns eyes started to water at the site of it all. Little kids so skinny that you could see their bones. Weak parents trying to carry big containers full of dirty water for their family to drink. “This is worse then we thought,” said sage. “Well do you want to get to work?” said Locka. “Deffinatly” Madelyn and Sage agreed together. The first thing that Sage and Madelyn had to do was help repair broken homes. They tied branches and leaves together to help make some shade. After fixing lots of homes and shelters they started to hand out some of they toys and essentials that they had brought for the children and adults. It was life changing seeing the smiles on the little chlidrens faces as they handed them something as simple as a ball. This kind of helping went of for about a month, they helped get food and water, clean up a bit, help make clothes, helped make much better beds and also made everyone hats. Sage and Madelyns 2 month adventure ended up lasting a lifetime. They loved helping out these poor unfortunate people so much that they decided to stay there. Madelyn and Sage love what they do, they love seeing smiles and hearing laughing from the poor people that had never even eaten a proper meal. Sage and Madelyn are now known ledgends, they take nothing in return for doing a lot and they did make a difference.