...One Day...
While walking with Mama, I asked her if Xoudi was still on the streets. “Of course, Char-lee. Xoudi is always here.” And it’s true. Xoudi is the reason we do what we do. When we get to Tanzania, Tom and Katie and I all do the same. We hit the streets and find Xoudi. And we talk to him. And we listen to him say that he wants change, and "could you please send him to school, and I promise that I will stop sniffing glue if you just please help me". But every year, when we ask him to give you his glue right now, because there is no better day for change than today, he will hide it under his shirt and avoid it. Because Xoudi will never change, because the cold harsh reality is that often for these youth addictions are so much stronger than the yearning to change.
Xoudi once was doing very well at a street children centre in Arusha that has since been dissolved. He was in school, and he was doing well. But when this organization started stealing food from the kids and they were not being fed, he went back to what he knew best: the streets. It has been eight or nine years now, since he went back. He is eighteen, and I know that one year when I come back, the other kids on the street will tell me that the glue went to his head, and he jumped into an electrical transformer or over the bridge and killed himself. And that is the reason why we do what we do.
Kids like Xoudi are so far gone that even the most optimistic person knows that he will never change. But when you keep in close contact with the street kids and you begin to know who runs with the Stadium Group, or who is at Clock Tower Group, you recognize new faces. Fresh faces usually means new to the streets, as groups don’t readily accept someone from a different group. It is these children we want to focus on. Most children start out on the streets during the day. And at night, they head back to their families with whatever food or money they found, and hope they don’t get beat. Eventually, they start spending a few nights a week there. And soon, you’ll notice them slipping in with the other kids at night, curled up in burlap bags against the cold, and covering themselves with garbage to avoid being attacked and raped.
And so it begins
I wasn’t sure how quickly we would find him, but turns out, he was exactly where he should be. On the steps of the stadium, bottle pressed against his lips, inhaling and exhaling. He wasn’t as high as I’d seen him before, and he actually recognized me as one of the ones who was with ‘Kaka Tom.’ Mama talked to him for a bit, translating back for me that indeed, Xoudi wanted to go to vocational, and could we please rent him a house. Naomba- I beg of you. I asked him for his glue, but he wouldn’t give it. Mama tried to take it from him, but he tossed it to another of the boys and told him to hide it for him. We talked for a while, and then Mama scolded him, and we left. Because today it was not Xoudies turn to change, will that day ever come? But he serves as a reminder of the reason we do what we do.
One child at a time, one chance at a time.
-Charmaine de Jonge
Xoudi once was doing very well at a street children centre in Arusha that has since been dissolved. He was in school, and he was doing well. But when this organization started stealing food from the kids and they were not being fed, he went back to what he knew best: the streets. It has been eight or nine years now, since he went back. He is eighteen, and I know that one year when I come back, the other kids on the street will tell me that the glue went to his head, and he jumped into an electrical transformer or over the bridge and killed himself. And that is the reason why we do what we do.
Kids like Xoudi are so far gone that even the most optimistic person knows that he will never change. But when you keep in close contact with the street kids and you begin to know who runs with the Stadium Group, or who is at Clock Tower Group, you recognize new faces. Fresh faces usually means new to the streets, as groups don’t readily accept someone from a different group. It is these children we want to focus on. Most children start out on the streets during the day. And at night, they head back to their families with whatever food or money they found, and hope they don’t get beat. Eventually, they start spending a few nights a week there. And soon, you’ll notice them slipping in with the other kids at night, curled up in burlap bags against the cold, and covering themselves with garbage to avoid being attacked and raped.
And so it begins
I wasn’t sure how quickly we would find him, but turns out, he was exactly where he should be. On the steps of the stadium, bottle pressed against his lips, inhaling and exhaling. He wasn’t as high as I’d seen him before, and he actually recognized me as one of the ones who was with ‘Kaka Tom.’ Mama talked to him for a bit, translating back for me that indeed, Xoudi wanted to go to vocational, and could we please rent him a house. Naomba- I beg of you. I asked him for his glue, but he wouldn’t give it. Mama tried to take it from him, but he tossed it to another of the boys and told him to hide it for him. We talked for a while, and then Mama scolded him, and we left. Because today it was not Xoudies turn to change, will that day ever come? But he serves as a reminder of the reason we do what we do.
One child at a time, one chance at a time.
-Charmaine de Jonge
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| Charmaine and the kids, all ready for Church! |
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