sunglasses.

5.6.08

It took a wildly winding matatu taxi van ride, a long wait in the taxi park for the connecting bus to fill up with passengers prior to departure, a slight delay to rearrange travel plans resulting from the missed bus stop, and an improvised boda boda ride to get us to our destination. Almost two hours from the time Felicity, Jen, and I left our ICY house in Ntinda, we were finally walking up to the gate of “Need for All” orphanage. Tucked away off a remote dirt road is a humble residential house that cares for ten children between the ages of one and a half and seven.  As we entered through the metal gate and into the front yard, a small crowd of young children came racing out of the house and jumped into our arms or wrapped themselves around our legs. Jen and Felicity had been active in volunteering at “Need for All” in the past, but this was my first visit. It didn’t matter to the children, however, that I was a complete stranger. They treated me equally to Felicity and Jen right from the start, grabbing for my hands and demanding my attention.

The children who live there come from some very traumatic backgrounds. The only two girls each represent heart-breaking stories. The police brought in one little girl after it was discovered that her father raped her when she was six months old. The other small girl with a bright smile had been discovered cast away in a ditch, where ants were eating away at her wounds. Many of these children have come from tough situations at home, facing so much suffering and strain even before their second birthdays, but from the sound of jubilant squeals and laughter, I could tell upon entering how the love and tenderness of “Need for All” presented an opportunity for happiness and healing from the past.

When we walked in, I sat down on a wooden bench within the entry room and a small and fragile boy quietly approached me without me even realizing it. He was so quiet as he moved over toward me that I did not notice he was in front of me until he was in the process of trying to climb into my lap. I picked him up and positioned him on my legs, smiling and greeting him in Luganda. He buried his head into my stomach and rested quietly. As all the other children ran back and forth through the house, pulling Jen and Felicity by their hands, Peter and I sat quietly on the bench. I picked him up after a few minutes, and walked with him into one of the bedrooms full of bunk beds to see what the other children were doing. The energy of the little ones didn’t keep them in one location for long, so Peter and I sat back out in the living room and watched Jen and Felicity run with a small crowd in and out of the different rooms. Peter spoke so softly and whimpered as he buried his head back into my stomach. I wasn’t really sure how to comfort him. I asked Felicity if he normally acted shy and sleepy, and she thought he must not have been feeling well. Since everyone had made their way back outside to the front yard to play, I picked up Peter as slowly and gently as I could and found a place to sit on the porch. With my back against the wall and my legs stretched out, Peter positioned himself on his belly, and laid parallel on top of my legs. He hid his head back into my stomach and whined quietly. I tried to stoke his head to calm him down. Feeling a slight sense of panic, I continued to ask Felicity for advise on how to make him more comfortable, but she shrugged her shoulders with a worried expression and commented on how he is usually much happier and energetic.

As other children scurried around outside and across the porch where Peter and I were sitting, one little one approached me and pointed to my sunglasses. I took them off and placed them on his tiny face and then took a picture. He delighted in seeing himself in the shades, and I laughed with him as he stared at the image. Peter had been watching this scene and his eyes expressed the desire to have the sunglasses on his face as well. I gently lifted him off my legs and was careful to place the sunglasses tenderly upon his tiny head. Immediately he lit up and giggled and energy seemed to flood his body. I snapped a photograph of him wearing the shades and showed it to him. Peter’s bright smile spread across his face and I could see how amused he was to recognize himself with a big pair of sunglasses in the camera’s display screen.

Something about wearing those sunglasses transformed Peter. He exploded with life, and couldn’t keep the smile off his face. I will never know what it was about the sunglasses that created a whole new outlook on the day for Peter, but I thank GOD for the blazing sun that encouraged me to run back into the house before we left and get my sunglasses!