A Moment, from Paul Smith

Well, we have a story coming in from another member of the team, Paul. This is what he wrote:

I went over to see how the pastor was making out, as we had lent him two wheel barrels full of concrete to repair the toilet. When I got there this beautiful little girl of about 2.5 years old was sitting and watching the pastor work. I decided to sit down beside her on an upside down bucket.

She was adorable. The pastors wife came over and had another girl bring me a chair. I certainly didn't need one, but they brought it and I sat in it.
Then an identical girl to the first one came over wearing the same pretty yellow dress. Then more chairs came out and more people sat down. The pastors wife told me they had about six orphans there from the same family- the twin girls, a boy about 9, and three girls in their mid teens. All beautiful children. Their father passed away in aug 07.

This was all very difficult to communicate as they could really only speak French and Swahili and I have a very limited grasp of French and all I know in Swahili is "jumbo" (hello) and "mizungo" (white person - we hear that a lot) I will be unbeatable in charades when I get home.

More and more children came over to us and I just tried to be present in the moment. The pastors wife said that the six orphans' father had been poisoned. The pastor finished with the concrete and I got up to take it back to the job site, but he called a few of the boys who were sitting around and they took the wheel barrel and shovel back to the site. The pastor needed one more wheel barrel full of concrete to finish his toilet repair. I told him I would bring one back right away.

When I got back to the site there was no more concrete available for the day. I went back to the pastor's house to let him know that he wouldn't get his concrete until Monday.

I couldn't find the pastor but I did see his wife in the window. I tried to get her attention and she beckoned me to come into her home, which I did. She asked me to sit on her couch and I couldn't say no. I just wanted to leave her the message about the concrete when she got up and went into a back room saying she will be right back. A few minutes later she returned with some pictures and they were of this man who was poisoned and then of his funeral. Many pictures of his casket and mourners. I still don't know if this dead man and six kids were related to the pastor and his wife.