KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canadian soldiers from "Camp Nathan Smith," the compound that houses the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team, brought smiles and laughter to a group of Afghan children Tuesday.
The soldiers hitched a trailer to their armoured vehicle and made a surprise visit to an elementary school in one of Kandahar's poorest districts.
The school building was destroyed by the Taliban. So the school now consists of 11 stifling-hot Unicef tents, where 1,600 students, boys and girls, learn in shifts.
The soldiers, with the help of the older students, carried in box-loads of shoes, books, scribblers and pencils.
The kids could hardly believe their eyes, clamouring to shake hands with their visitors without missing out on the gifts.
The shoes were a donation from Sonia Bata of the Bata Shoe Company, They were manufactured at the Bata factory in Islamabad, Pakistan, and brought by transport truck to the base.
Bata, an Order of Canada recipient, donated over 500 shoes in all sizes. Some went to a local orphanage, some to the Kandahar school.
First pick of the shoes went to the poorest kids. The principal lined the orphans up and handed each a box of shoes. The other children were given writing pads and pencils.
As the convoy pulled out, the kids were tripping over themselves to say goodbye and thank you, waving and saluting soldiers.
It was, not surprisingly, an incredibly gratifying task for the troops.
The headmaster decided to see how far he could push Canadian benevolence and asked the soldiers as they were leaving if they could come back soon and rebuild their shell of a school.
The soldiers told them they would happily deliver their request to a representative from CIDA, (Canadian International Development Agency), the agency in charge of such projects.
