“Mwazunga”

I think that it was the year before, that Kari and three of her friends chose to sponsor Mwazunga while they were at Lifest. To meet Kari, he traveled on a bus from Mombasa, which is on the Indian Ocean, with his social worker who also acted as our interpreter. Mwazunga didn’t know any English. He was only four years old but this trip was an early present as his birthday was a week after we met him. Another early present must have been the clothes he was wearing. His blue shirt and khaki pants looked brand-new but were also a few sizes too big.

The Compassion center we met him at in Nairobi is a comfortable place. Inside the building is crowded with offices but outside there is a large yard with room to run and playground equipment.

Kari gave him the presents she had brought, starting with the soccer ball. He was shy at first, but after kicking the ball around a little bit, he started to relax around all of us strangers who just kept taking his picture. He swung on the swings and slid down the slide. Soon, his dimples came out and he started to laugh with us.

When he started getting tired, we stopped to rest in the shelters they had on the Compassion grounds. Kari pulled more gifts out of the backpack she had brought for him. She gave him a framed picture of herself and her friends who also sponsored him. She showed him the letters she had received from him and his pictures.

Before we knew it, Dave had gotten back from running errands and it was time to go out to eat. Lunch that day was incredibly delicious, but also almost surreal.