One day I had to go to the bathroom while at school and there was no toilet paper. Thankfully I was at the school that is just up the hill from my home so I went there.
On my way back to school, I saw a woman coming from behind some trees next to a path leading to the river. She was carrying a toddler (between 1 and 2 years old) on her back and a stack of long pieces of wood on her head. It looked like she could not have gotten another piece of wood on the pile on her head without dropping it all.
As I watched amazed and wondering how she got the wood on her head and the baby on her back without any help, she came towards me and I recognized her and her child from the neighborhood.
She said her child was saying "Joni, Joni". The child is one that spends a lot of time with the older children on the road and he must have learned my name from them as each one of them says "Hello Joni. How are you Joni?" multiple times as I go by and as they follow me up and down the road leading to my house. The mother had not seen me at first and was wondering why her baby was saying "Joni" then she laughed and kept telling me about her child saying "Joni, Joni, Joni".
It reminded me of something that happened when Rachel was between 1 and 2 years old.
We had moved from an all white neighborhood/town/area to Toledo and were employed as teaching-parents in a group home for chemically dependent adolescent girls. We had hired a black woman to work at the home whose name was Kim. One day I was in a Toledo grocery store with Rachel when she started yelling "Kim, Kim" and was reaching out her hand. I realized that she was calling to a nearby black woman who was not Kim. Since Kim was the first and only black person Rachel had met up until that time, I surmised that she must have thought all black people, or black women, were named Kim.
I have been told that I am the first white person many of the children here in the village have seen and they are amazed. I was thinking about this and wondering if this child will be in the shopping town and see another white woman, very unusual here. And if this happens, will the child call to her with my name as Rachel had done? And will her mother realize why and laugh?
This week I found out this child's name is Barack Obama Nelukalo, named after our president of course. Nelukalo is the sir name of the village's headman and thus the royal family of the village. Although royalty, they have the same living conditions as everyone else in the village.
No comments:
Post a Comment