A sliver of time...

Walking down a particularly narrow alley, a woman scuffled into her house ahead of us, and by the time we reached her shack, an obese adolescent had come out and was blocking our path. He was an over-sized 8 year old, retarded, and with such a big belly that from my vantage point you couldn’t see his body again until the knees, which was good, because he was stark naked. Now, while it would have been convenient to start running back the way we’d come, I decided to be cordial and say hi to the family. His mom and auntie were coaching him to ask me for money. He seemed a slow learner, but was in his early training as a beggar. He was quite a sight, so he had good potential.

He fumbled for a minute while I was thinking how weird and crazy my life had become. This was the second slum I had visited so far that day, and there’d be a 3^rd before the day was done. New slum (where the new school will be), old slum (where Aziza Schoolhouse is), and slum with the obese boy, which we just came to visit since it is a notorious slum and I wanted to check it out before I committed to the new school location. The slum where the new school will be is on a lake (also by the railroad tracks - story coming soon), and most of the houses are on stilts over the water. Today, children were swimming in the lake, and it seemed a happy scene. In my mind, I was cringing, knowing that 20,000 peoples raw sewage is dumped into the lake daily, many right next to where they swam. Skin diseases are common.

The large boy standing next to me was so odd looking, so big for his age, and I wanted to be as nice to him as I could. He held my hand as we talked to the family. He asked for money as his mom explained how he eats so much. I said “atay” (no) a few times, and the boy punched my bag. It was a sign of aggression, but was in slow motion and wasn’t threatening in the least. It was pretty weird having this naked oversized retarded boy standing so close to me.

As we walked off his mom and auntie pointed and laughed at him for being naked. His penis looked very small, especially in contrast to his massive body. My main thought was how this didn’t freak me out the way it would have 9 months ago. I remembered a day shortly after arriving here when I walked through a slum with a missionary and visited families with handicapped children, disfigured in ways I had never seen. Afterward I was in emotional shock. Not today.

On the next alley we met a woman and her 10 year old daughter who were on their way to the clinic to get their HIV drugs. Her daughter was so cute. Their house was well below the standards of a chicken coup on Uncle Jesse’s (Duke) farm. A friend of hers came over and I held her 2 month old baby. The mom is also HIV positive, and she said the baby has to be 18 months old to be tested, so she didn’t know if the baby was positive. I thought how great it would be to take President Clinton there when he visits to spotlight HIV and the work of the Clinton Foundation.

Later at the Schoolhouse, all the kids were happy and healthy, and gave me the usual grand welcoming. Today they all were extra excited to see me and give me the letters they had wrote for me, in English.