Visit to the Village

We went to the village yesterday afternoon. It was about a five minute walk on little 'rabbit' trails that swerved and broke off into different directions. It was fun to see the reactions when we were in sight of the little kids who were playing on some bare ground right next to the huts in the village. There was a group of children on the trail already, and they followed us excitedly until we got to the rest of the kids. Overall, there were probably about 40 to 50 kids who were playing 'football' (soccer), throwing sandals, climbing in and out of dug out pits, and just chasing each other around. There was one little girl dressed in pink who just wanted to hold everyone's hand that she saw.

A couple girls taught one group of the littler kids how to play 'Duck Duck Goose'. They ran around in circles and sometimes would pass the person they were suppose to tag, not really getting the idea at first. However, by the end of the game, they were getting the gist of it. A few other girls held the little kids (ages around 3-5), some with beads in their hair, others with wide curious eyes. But, there was no loss of sickness in the large group before us. There was one little girl who had either lost an eye or had an eye infection (it was swollen shut). There was a lot of runny noses, crusts around the eyes, a few blackening teeth, and a few kids with bandaged feet. We also played with the ball that was either an actual cloth ball or a water bottle, and one girl from my group really got into racing the boys across the flat dirt area. There were so many kids bare foot, and sandals were used as toys to be thrown, picked up again, and thrown.

There was one little boy who had thrown a sandal in my direction, so I picked it up and started talking to him while holding the sandal out for him to take (like we would do in Am

erica), but he may not have understood English (some kids knew English, some didn't), and I kept trying to give it back to him. He looked intimidated because he backed away, even though he had a smile on his face nearly the entire time, as if he thought I was going to chase him. I tried a couple times to give it to him by approach, until finally I bent down and offered the sandal to him in my right hand (the 'clean' hand), which he immediately took the sandal from me and ended up throwing it again in a different direction and smiling back at me. I do not know if this applies to what I have been told, but in one of the WHIZ meetings, one of the staff said that when they are offering or giving something to someone, they always bend down on one or two knees and offer it with the right hand. The kid was pretty little - 6 or 7, probably, so I didn't know if he would know this cultural courtesy, although the possibility did cross my mind.

A slim few of us went to walk in the village (the other girls on my team were still distracted with playing with the children). Some of the houses were brick, others were grass huts. But, the place was pretty clean compared to other places around here. There was a

decent-sized garden, green plants that seemed to be used as property walls (probably not, though), a wel

l with clear water, and small grass-walled outhouses. Within the village, another group of boys were playing football while the women filled water jugs and balanced them on their heads while a couple of men stood besides them and watched them do this chore, talking about something. The women here have a lot of muscle - they can take a 5 gallon jug and put it on their heads in one fluent motion. And then go off with no hands holding it.

I am excited to go back!