Swarmed on Glynn Jones Rd.

Yesterday, out of sheer boredom, I decided to take a walk into town. I have been doing this more frequently lately... perhaps the boredom is increasing in these last few weeks.

But, I just really love walking through town. I love the interaction that takes place when you walk past someone.

I have developed a route that I seem to be following... I usually make a stop by my friends that work at the curio (wooden figurine things) market...


...then I'll usually make a pass through the big Blantyre market, just for the heck of it...


...then I pop my head into the business that some friends of mine own.


It's simple... but it keeps the days lively!

As I was walking back to my house alongside one of the busier roads at the end of the day, I hear screaming in the distance. All the sudden, about 50 meters away I see this giant herd of children running towards me yelling my name... "Lioni!! Lioni!!" (Chichewa speakers have a hard time distinguishing "R" and "L"... it all sounds the same to them. So, "Ryan" just becomes "Lioni").

These were the kids that I play football (soccer) with almost every day in our back yard.

They surrounded me and grabbed the bag I was carrying out of my hand so I wouldn't have to carry anything. Two of the little ones grabbed my two free hands, and there I was... this crazy white guy walking down a busy street with all these kids attached to me!

At first I was a little embarrassed. I was kinda getting some funny looks from people. It looked a little like I was forcing these kids that I didn't know to walk with me and carry my bag. But, then I just decided that I didn't care what people thought. I DO know these kids... and I love each one of them so much. So, be what it may... I'm gonna walk down the street surrounded by 15 kids... and I'm gonna be OK with that.

When we got back to our place, we had a nice game of football... in which I realized how completely out of shape I am... But, nonetheless, my team came away with the big win!!

I just love that feeling you get when you realize that you have finally been somewhere long enough and devoted enough energy to build relationships with people, that you get swarmed on the road.

It gives me great peace as I begin to think about wrapping things up here.

The Kids are Coming Around...

Odd stares...

Whispering among themselves when I walked by...

The predictable burst of tears and cries of terror when I would reach a 15 foot radius of the smallest of them...

These are the things that I was experiencing day in and day out with the kids that live on our compound.

I mean... it was really starting to get to me. I have always been one of those people that's really good with kids. I love kids. They usually love me. Things just weren't adding up.

It's one thing when I'm out in a village where kids don't see white folk that often and a little kids screams in terror... I can handle that. I would probably do the same! But, it's a completely different thing when the kids that see you every single day for months on end still look at you like you just slaughtered their cat!

Since I'm usually all about conspiracies and such, I was pretty much convinced that these kids were being fed lies about me by their parent's or something. I just knew that each night before they went to bed, they were told horror stories about a crazy white man chopping up little kids and eating them for breakfast, and then they would flash pictures of ME in front of them!!

It became this running joke between me and their parent's. I would ask them in a joking way what they were telling their kids to make them hate me so much that I can't even tell a family member hello without making a kid go postal on me.

I started strategizing a few weeks ago about how to break through this problem. It pretty much became a mission for me!

One thing that came to mind was my funny little hat. I wear this hat quite nearly every day... the only exception is Sunday or if the President is coming to visit my house or something... other than that, I'm sporting my little Castro-cap 24/7! So, maybe the hat freaks out the little ones? So, I started some experiments... remove the cap when approaching child. STILL... nothing!

Finally... I came to the point where I could find my identity in Christ and I just didn't need the approval of children any longer. So what if they think I'm the spawn of Satan... I'm sure there are plenty of little white kids back home that think I'm the stuff (or at least tolerate me).

Then, last weekend after church, it was a beautiful day. For some really odd reason, I got this foreign urge to initiate a football (soccer for Americans) kicking (*not really a game... just kicking it around... so I'll term it "football kicking") with some of the kids that live around here.

This may come as a shock to pretty much anyone that has ever heard of my existence. I'm just not really the sportsy type. I mean... for those of you that get off to that kind of stuff... good on ya... but, it ain't me... I ain't no fortunate son.

But, after spending like 3 hours in our backyard just kicking the ball around until my bare foot was blood red, I began to notice something. The kids were acting as if they had been released from some white boy hating prison! It was fantastic!!

I would say something in Chichewa to them and they would all start giggling and mocking me and stuff... so, I would just run up to a little kid and throw him over my shoulder and run around the yard. Then all the kids would start mocking me and I would have to throw them all around. Fun times...

But now... 5 days later... those kids still go crazy when they see me coming. Just today, one little smart alack 5 year old started mocking me the same way they were doing on Sunday... so, once again... I had to throw him over my shoulder and run around the yard with him screaming.

So... I'm pretty much on cloud 9 now that the neighborhood kids don't think that I'm Cruella de Vil's husband.

Mission accomplished... now, on to curing the world of AIDS!