The neighbor kids came over today. They seem to visit more and more lately. It used to be only the three girls would come up but now even the little boys come knocking on the door on occasion. Iām getting used to these kids and not feeling quite so sad about how they live. Theyāre just such happy kids. They’re as dirty as heck, but what kid cares about that! This morning the youngest girl,( Nicole, sheās about 7), along with her two little brothers (I havenāt quite gotten their names down yet), about 5 and Iām guessing the little one is about 4ish, came up. They brought their little puppy along and their kitten. They seem to really love dragging those little guys everywhere with them. When I answer the door they’re all smiles , āHolly, Tienes manzanas?ā They love apples. Apples are pretty expensive here and Iām sure they never get them. So every once in awhile when Iām at the market Iāll buy a few extra apples and give them to the kids, its amazing how much they love them. Which brings me to what inspired me to write this short post. Today I didnāt have any apples , only bananas from Luanaās house. So I said, ālo siento, no hay manzanas, pero,tengo bananasāā¦thinking they would be disappointed, they have banana trees all over the place here. But, to my surprise they were delighted! āBananas!ā they all cheered in unison! Big smiles all aroundā¦.can you believe that! Kids who felt joyful over someone giving them bananas! Of course they then wanted to know if I also had cookies, and then wanted more bananasā¦. (eye roll!) kids, they all wanna see just how much they can get! Hah! Iām getting really good at telling them āEstoy muy ocupado, tienes que ir a casa ahoraā. ( Iām very busy, you need to go home now). And off they go laughing and playing all the way down the hill. They actually came up to charge their mothers cell phone, it wasnāt just a random mission for manzanas. And I must say, they kinda made my day. I donāt quite get everything they say, but you canāt mistake gratitude on the faces of little kids. They seem to be just having a great day running around filthy dirty and barefoot, with puppies and kittens in tow munchinā on bananas and not one bit sad that the nice Gringa vecina didnāt have any cookies. Just another day in the barrio…
Nov21