Saturday, November 13, 2010

The locals, particularly Tonney, tell me not to give money to the street children who beg at the car windows.  They say that the children get none of the money, that they have masters who are watching closely and as soon as they see the children receive money they take it all away, not even feeding the children.  They say that giving money therefore only encourages child extortion.  But this week we stopped and there in the rain, barefooted and in rags was the tiniest little boy that I'd seen on the streets of Kampala.  His belly was sticking way out and his hair had white circles in it....he has worms or he has a fungus.  Either will kill him.  I couldn't handle it.  Sis. Tolstad felt the same way I did, so we ignored Tonney's warnings and I rolled down my window and wiggled my fingers at the boy (that means 'Come').  He approached me cautiously and I handed him a bill for 1,000 shillings.  I knew anything larger would get stolen from the older kids, and probably get him beat up.  He stared at me with huge eyes.  I guess he couldn't believe that I was so generous as to hand him a bill instead of coins.  We held eye contact for a moment.  He was so small that his little head was barely above the tires of the LandRover.  Then he ran off down the road.  A thousand shillings is about 48 cents. 

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