When our truck broke down on the highway the second time, we ended up on the side of the road. A bunch of little school girls walked by soon. They were involved in chatting with each other at first, but then one of them noticed Katie's white skin and piercing blue eyes peeking out at them through the steel on the side of the tap-tap. She gasped and pointed and all her friends looked where she was directing. They all gasped. And then they hurried away.
I could see they all stopped about 5 feet in front of the truck. They were excitedly talking about what they'd just seen. And then they decided they wanted to walk by again. I could tell that they were involved in the universal school-girl debate: "No - YOU go first. I'll go if you go!" - all wanted to come back by to look at the white people with the blue eyes, but none of them wanted to be first.
Eventually, they linked arms and pretended to be super casual as they strolled back passed us again. They weren't prepared for what happened next.
We stopped them.
We asked them if they wanted a sucker.
I know - every alarm should have been going off in their heads. Not only were they taking candy, but they were definitely taking it from total strangers.
And they were thrilled.
They walked back to their school, suckers in hand. I didn't have my camera out fast enough to get a better shot than this one.
Their school was behind the blue door you can see on the left.
Soon, all the rest of the children were poking their heads out, and trying to confirm the fabulous story they'd just been told about the white people sitting on the side of the road giving out suckers.
In little groups of two or three, they came up to see if they would be so lucky.
Fortunately, Nichole had brought a LOT of suckers!
1 comment:
That's a great story! Glad Nichole had enough suckers for everyone.
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