Kids
Ok, this one is about kids - people kids.
As Ann will tell you, I love kids. I just can’t help myself, if I’m around them too long, I start playing with them. And I’m a baby magnet. Maybe it was all that time crawling around on the floor with Brandon and Kit, and then Devon, or pushing Brandon, Kit and Ashley around in the “rolls”, but it’s carried out to this day with Beijin’s guys (Twister anyone?) and casual kids on the street.
The town hall in Voinjama has a double door on the side, which was largely open during the conference. I sat fairly close to the door. After school everyday a group of kids would come and hang around the door - face it, we were something different in their lives. There was a guard that tried to keep them away, but given that there were 3 doors (front and either side) that the kids could hang out at, they would quickly reconvene even if he did break them up. It really looked almost like a game they would play because he certainly wasn’t fast enough to catch them. I only saw him be successful twice - once he had a kid by the scruff of the neck (another place, another time it would have been Tom Sawyer), and once he got a whole group of them standing across the doorway in awe watching a slide presentation - the guard came up from behind and with what looked to be a black rubber strip, whipped them on the back of their bare calves a few times. Given that most did not react after the first whip - I gathered it didn’t hurt them much. Still, it was a show to watch him chase the little ones.
We made our first trip to the PakBat 16 Officer’s Mess hall for lunch on the first day. On the way out I grabbed an apple to snack on later. When we got to the town hall a group of us were chatting outside before the workshop reconvened. One little kid just stood near-by watching us. As we were talking I’d periodically make faces with him, get him to smile or chuckle, or make a funny face back at me. I would polish the apple, rotating my hands like a baseball pitcher smooths a baseball. The kid continued to look at me, but not quite at me. As the group discussion drew to a close and we started to walk towards the hall, the boy’s face saddened. I suddenly realized that he wasn’t looking at me, he was looking at the apple. I stopped and turned and said, “Hey!”, the boy, who had turned and started to walk away stopped and looked my way. I lobbed him the apple and he snatched it out of the air like only a kid can. His face was beaming! Over the three days, I kept passing things on to this same kid and, in response, always the same beaming face.
Over the next couple of days I learned several things. Things like, they didn’t want our bottles of water, they wanted our water bottles - they use the empties as toys. So during the day we’d save our water bottles, and share them with the kids in the afternoon. One morning I asked Finley about poverty and whether, as I had suspected, some of the kids were in true dire need while others weren’t (they were all wearing similar green shorts/skirts, white top school uniforms but . . . you can tell). He said yes and we talked a bit about what life is like for some of these kids. So during our tea breaks (where we’d get a plate of chips and cookies and stuff), I’d walk over and share some with the kids - making sure I handed more to the ones who looked like they really needed it.
On the last day there was a group of three newer kids, two girls and a little boy, who were clustered together and really pretty shy about approaching folks. Again I was talking with a group of folks, but my mind was on the kids. I didn’t have anything in hand - no water, no tea break - so there really wasn’t much to do but play face games with him. Mindlessly, my hand reached into my bag and felt a half-opened pack of hard candy I’d shoved in my bag before I’d left Monrovia and had forgotten about. I smiled and made a “come over here” motion with my finger. The boy looked around, then at me with that “What, me?” look. I shook my head yes and stepped out of the group and said, “Come here.” The boy approached me tentatively and I said, “Here, have some candy.” And gave him a piece of candy. He really didn’t know what to do with it. He ran over to the taller of the two girls, his sister I suspect, and showed it to her. She unwrapped it and started sucking on it and her eyes opened wide like, wow! She stuck the piece out for the other, smaller girl to take a lick. Same expression - Wow! It’s like they’d never tasted an orange candy before. The little boy just stood there and I realized that he wasn’t going to get any. So I motioned again with my finger to him. Again, he approached me cautiously. I reached in my bag and said, “This one is for you - don’t give it away.” The boy ran back to the girls beaming - and with the cant already shoved into his mouth. Well of course this left the third one, the little girl, who looked the shyest of the bunch (and really looked like she was always the outsider) looking particularly depressed. I reached into my bag, knowing I may not have any more - but luck prevailed, I had one last piece. So I locked eyes with her and did the finger wag to her. She came over and I gave her my last piece of candy. Just like the boy with the apple, her eyes lit right up as if she was the luckiest girl in the world. Nothing, but nothing in the world can replace that look.
So on my last night at Voinjama we went out to get some beverages for the other partners at the Guest House. While we were buying our stock, I walked out to make a photograph - the one that is in the Back from Voinjama post. It was a good vantage point because it was on a steep embankment about 12 feet above the road. As I was about to make that picture I heard a little girl’s voice. I looked around and saw a girl standing on the road with a big plate of nuts on her head (this is how folks carry things on the street and sell things to people). I couldn’t tell what she wanted and assumed she wanted to sell me nuts so I just said “Hi!” and turned to make the picture (and being a photographer I had to make a couple of them - because you never know).
As I turned around she just stood there looking at me. Then I realized what she had said to me before was “Picture” not hello, or peanuts or anything else - just picture. So I said, “Do you want me to take your picture?” She smiled and shook her head yes (which was greatly exaggerated by the plate moving back and forth. The first thought in my mind was - I’ve got the wrong camera, with this wide angle lens she’s be just a small blot in the image. Then I realized that this had nothing to do with making a good picture, it had to do with making a little girl happy, so I pointed the camera at her and took a picture, and said “Thank you!” She smiled, turned and continued walking down the road.
Well, like I’ve said before, my fuji camera is pretty impressive, and even with most of it cropped away, here’s the image I got:
One last kid’s story. On the way back from lunch one day, Andrew pulled off on the side of the road to buy some little “chinese” medicine-vitamin C-energy booster stuff (they sell several of these types of products here, often on the street) cuz he wasn’t feeling so well. As he stopped, he rolled down my window, and of course the closest girl - probably 12 or 13 - came walking over, pulling the plate of things from her head to hold out to the window. She was a cute girl, but very serious looking, with small beads of sweat gathering on her nose. Andrew said “How much?” “200” “I’ll give you 150 each and take two.” Her face turned into a scowl. Then Andrew started talking real rural Liberian to her and she commented something back, with Andrew replying in a joking voice - I couldn’t understand a word they said. Her frown grew and her eyes squinted. Finley started laughing his head off as she lifted the plate to my window. Andrew said “Grab me a green one and a white one” as he handed me 300 Liberian dollars. I gave it to the girl and she turned around and quickly stormed off. Finely was still laughing - “Oh such a serious girl! You couldn’t get her to laugh at all!” I said, “Asked what did you say Andrew?” He just smiled and Finley said, “He made a joke and she didn’t change her expression, then he said, “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be in school today?” and she replied ‘We’re having exams’ and Andrew said, “Yeah, I guess that’s why I saw you down by the gas station a couple of hours ago - you were taking your exams!” - that’s when her face got really mad.” And Finley kept on laughing.