No passport needed!

I found some great books at the library today to help with next week's trip around the world. I am so excited to share and learn about the countries, all in line with the Five Day Hunger Challenge. I think knowing more about countries outside our own safe little world will help us have more understanding and empathy.
Indeed, as we were preparing to leave the library, S said that after we read the books we have to get on a plane to get to the poor people and bring them lots of food. Last week we talked about the Saharawi people, who live in the desert, where it is boiling hot during the day and freezing cold at night. S said we have to wear warm clothes on the plane trip and use sun block in the desert.
The countries I chose to explore are:
Brazil/South America; I was inspired by a woman from our church who was born and raised in Brazil, where beans and rice were their main staple no matter if you were rich or poor.
Africa; one of the first countries that comes to mind when I think of poverty
Egypt; I was drawn to a book about the children of Egypt
Philippines; my brother has been to that country and told me how poor it is. Here is our book list:
Internet Field Trips: An Online Visit to Africa (Hovanec); very cool, lots of pictures, brief snippets on stuff and lots of Web sites to check out
Count You Way through Africa (Haskins); 1-10 on various African words, symbols
One Child, One Seed: A South African Counting Book (Cave): lots of pictures of a journey from a pumpkin seed to planting, harvesting and cooking the pumpkin into a meal for plenty.
A Is for Africa (Onyefulu); picture book of A-Z African words
Count Your way through Egypt (Haskins); 1-10 counting of Egyptian words, symbols
The Children of Egypt (Pitkanen); photographic journey with lots of descriptions of various parts of Egypt, lifestyles and such. There are a couple paragraphs on diet (bread and beans) and some stuff on the open air markets.
Welcome to the Philippines (Welcome to my Country series, perhaps?); lots of facts, etc.
The Philippines (Schemenauer); colorful pictures, lots of facts about the country
Internet Field Trips: An Online Visit to South America
Count your way through Brazil
Also next week we are doing "U," so the focus is on the United States. My books on that subject are
My State (Schuh); a girl talks about her state of California, prompting readers to find out information about their state. (There are other titles in this set including In My Country, My Continent, In My World)
Little Hands Celebrate America (Hauser); learning about the U.S.A. through Crafts and Activities
The United States from A-Z (Kalman); fact filled and fun looking
Celebrate the 50 States (Leedy); LOTS of information on every state. Kind of a busy book.
A is for America, An American Alphabet (Scillian)
I didn’t pick these up but we have enjoyed and I highly recommend: The Scrambled States of America; The Scrambled States of America Talent Show and Scholastic DVD has a version of the book, which is also very enjoyable and clever.