Afternoon comes, after a busy morning with Gaby and Quinn, exploring their four year old world. Now our kitubi is filled with young local children, playing cards, ball and using chalk on the concrete floor.
One young boy (maybe five) sits holding a baby almost as big as himself! I get brave and decide to hold this wee naked thing, in the hopes he won’t fear me.
One of the small yet difficult changes for me in life here is the propensity of small children especially babies, to fear my skin and hair and general “whiteness”. I am doing better and better with them as I realize some of the things that lead to that fear, the biggest of which seems to be an uncomfortable amount of eye contact. I like to gaze into baby’s eyes, but people here seem to make eye contact with babies for only a very short time.
So I reach out my arms for this baby and the little boy gladly gives him to me and races off to join the other children at play. And this little baby accepts me. Trusts me. Lets me hold him, sing to him, lift and pat him as I have seen Babwisi moms do. He holds my hair, a novelty and sucks my cheek. He chews anxiously on my finger as he teeths. What a small, soft bundle of sweetness. I wonder if I would recognize his need to urinate or defecate - as are most all babies, he was naked except for the usual strings tied around neck, wrists and ankles - to ward off evil spirits.
Daniel shows up, back from lunch and takes in the scene . . . . “I am enjoying the mwana (baby)” I say softly, caught in the spell of this precious child . . . .