I turned up at the shelter at 2, all psyched and ready for our day out - for which I already had permission for- but i was told to sit and wait till the teachers finished socialising and hanging out...Needless to say i was not impressed! The way i see it is if someone is offering to take the kid out and buy him some stuff, i'd expect them to jump on it - not make me wait for 40 minutes till they were done chit chatting!!! It's not like they were busy doing something...they had just finished lunch and were just hanging out. Anyway, I sat on the naughty step away from them, waiting, annoyed at their crappy attitude,feeling like i've done something wrong. This little kid comes over and sits right next to me on the step. She kept picking her nose. We sulked together. I tried to get close to her but she didn't wanna be hugged - which quite honestly is not that much of a bad thing considering alot of the kids have lice there:-) So we sat side by side, just hanging out. She was sad cos she missed her parents so i offered for her to give me her buggers as a compromise but she declined. It's the least i can do....
Continued....Once the little girl walked away, i got up and started walking around the shelter. There was this kid sitting in a wheelchair in the courtyard so i just watched him for a while. He was sitting right next to the radio, listening to the music and every once in a while his face would light up as he would recognise a part of the song and try to sing along. Sometimes he'd try to dance about in his chair...Everybody would pass by him and just ignore him and all i could think of was "look how much attention and love we have in our life - and we are forever wanting and needing more. Never happy with what we have...How must it be for this little kid who has probably never been loved or given the necessary attention, ever". He experiences life in such a different way to the rest of the world...It hit me then that whenever i goto the shelter, i don't think I process what it really means... It almost feels like a school, with teachers, a bell, classes, a blackboard. But I rarely think of what these kids have been through...One of the kids has to constantly wear mittens cos his parents burnt his hands. He also has cigarette marks all over his body. To be so young and to have experienced this...awful, just awful...:-( Alot of the people here have so very little - it's humbling. Yet they still make it. And live. It gives me a different perspective and truly makes me grateful for what i have - something all of us are guilty of forgetting from time to time...
ok, that was a little detour. Back to my story.
We went to get Christian and as soon as he saw me, he said "no queeeeeeeeeeeirrrrrrrrrrrrrro" (that means "I don't want to" in spanish) to which i excitedly replied "i don't want to teach you, i want to take u out and buy u some clothes". And that's when it happened... HE STARTED TO LIKE ME!!!:-) It was kind of funny cos as soon as Josue saw me too he said the same thing!! I told him i didn't want to teach him ANYWAY!!!:-)
The shelter didn't let me take Christian out too far unfortunately - just round the corner - but it was fun nevertheless! U have to bear in mind that Christian has one pair of trousers which are too short for him, a top, a sweater and a pair of shoes that they managed to borrow for him from someone's cousin's uncle's brother....He looks like a beggar...He's been wearing the same clothes for 2 months now - it's amazing he never smells bad!
We had a little fashion show in the store - whereby i picked and he tried. Yes I was the boss just how i like it:-) We ended up with 2 pairs of trousers, 4 tops, 2 pairs of shoes, socks and a belt. The place wasn't really where i would've liked to take him as there wasn't all that much choice but it was better than nothing. It was really so nice to see him be a kid and laugh at small silly things. He always looks so moody and dull and grey in the shelter - it really hurts me seeing him that way...I can't explain it but his sadness is written all over his face somehow:-(
On the way back to the shelter, we stopped off and had a pizza. He was such a sweetie, asking if he could take it back to share with the 100 other kids in the shelter - but the teacher said no so we just hung out in the pizza place. He told me he wanted to goto university so he can be a mechanic:-) He likes football and basketball - but not salsa. What the hell???:-)
The coolest thing about all of this is the following: the last friday of each month, the shelther celebrates the birthdays of the kids that were born in that month. And guess when Christian's bday was??? Yup, it's on the 14th october! So they had already celebrated him, along with a few other kids for lunch, the day we went out and the presents almost felt like a continuation of his bday! I truly could not have asked for better timing-I was so so happy when i found that out! I finally got a few pics of him below - check them out.
I asked the shelter if i can take him out to a movie and dinner one day and they said yes! soooooo we have a date this coming Wednesday! Unfortunately we have to have a chaperone again but that's ok - it really feels like I'm 16 again wherby I can only goto the movies with an adult:-) I talked to the teacher a little bit when we were having pizza and asked her what the kids need in the shelter. She said that they have a tv and a dvd player but simply no money to buy movies so i bought a ton of kiddies movies and am really looking forward to dropping them off on Monday!
Finally, kids will be kids.
I can see why ur status update still hasnt been "table for one please" :-)
ReplyDeleteKeep it up mother theresa!!
Lots of love xxxx