The excitement of no longer being feared...

Being a muzungu (loose translation = white person) draws a lot of attention here in Uganda. Kids are excited to see you, adults have various reactions, and some people are just not sure how to react. The worst reaction can come from the little bitty kids (like 1-3 years old). Because they have never seen a white person before, their general reaction is to be terrified. Sometimes, if you get too close (which could be 20-30 feet away), they literally run away screaming, looking for the nearest adult to run to. You feel bad because you don’t want them to be afraid, but you can’t do anything to help. They are just not sure what you are or why you look so different. You just have to give them their time to figure you out.

Some kids take longer than others, but if you’re patient, they’ll come around. The worst thing is when they are getting used to you and saying hi, and then suddenly one day they are terrified again. You know that something had to have happened to scare them again.

We have a few of these small kids on the property. They are children of our staff. One little boy, his name is Monday, would say “Hello, how are you?” every time I passed by. One day, we had a lot of visitors at the school and it was a crazy day. After everyone had left, I was walking from the dorm back to the house and he was standing on the veranda of the middle dorm building. As I passed, he started screaming and running in terror. I couldn’t figure out what happened. All I could do was walk away. The next day, he did the same thing.

I later learned that he had seen Troy playing with some of the big kids. They were playing chase, so Troy had pretended to be a bear, growling and making his hands like claws, and Monday had seen him. Not realizing that the big kids were playing a game, Monday became terrified. It only took him a few days to get used to me again, but it took a few weeks for Troy and Tyler to be able to come around him again. At this point, he’s all smiles again.

This is the beautiful Fava.

The littlest children are Edgar, Fava, and Sanchez. Sanchez is still too small to fear or to do anything, so we’ll see how he comes along. Fava has just stared at me in the past, will let me touch her arm or hands, but wouldn’t let me hold her. On Saturday, her mom, Makline, was outside weeding the plants and Fava was napping inside. One of the boys, Isaac, had asked me for help, so I was walking to the dorm with him. I heard Fava crying from her place. I knew Makline was working, so I went in to see if Fava was alone. I asked our boarding girls to go and get her, thinking she’d cry worse if I picked her up. None of them went, so I decided to do it myself. If she cried all the way to Makline, it was no worse than her crying in bed.

Would you believe it, when I picked her up from the bed, she stopped crying! I carried her all the way to Makline and she did not cry at all. She wasn’t afraid of me! She ended up sitting on the porch with me while her mom continued to weed the plants.

Floyd reading to Edgar.

Now, Edgar is the best story. He has never really feared me, but has kept a reasonable distance, not letting me touch him or hold him and refusing to speak (or grunt) to me, but of course he’d accept cookies or treats from me but that was it. This week, he was on the porch with his mom and crying because she was going inside. I said, “you want to go with me” and put my hands out to him. Much to my shock, he jumped right into my arms. We walked to the well where the big kids were drawing water. After that, I took him back home. The next day, Grace came to the house to deliver something and Edgar came with her. When she was leaving, he cried. I said, “you want to come in?” and he sure did. I said, “tell mama to come in” but instead he turned to her, said “bye” and waved to her. He hung out with us for about 30 minutes and then I took him home. The next morning he randomly walked over to our house and we let him in. He hung out for about an hour; watching me cook breakfast, following Floyd around, and sitting at the table while we did our family Bible time.

I know it might sound like such a minor thing, but it is so exciting when you realize that you are no longer feared and even more so when they go from fearing you to wanting you to hold them and play with them.