red light, green light

Sometimes it's the littlest things that really hit you. 

Over a month ago I had two short term volunteers working with me in the warehouse and we would go over to FWAL in the afternoons to play with the kids. I felt bad subjecting our volunteers to 8 hours of manual labor a day, so I would take them to see some smiling faces for the last part of the afternoon. So the first week of August we went over to play with the kids at FWAL and we taught them red light, green light. We gave a short explanation, the kids didn't follow any of the rules and we all had a blast. I've been to FWAL at least once a week since then, but I went to masses, watched their soccer games, or hung out with the high school girls. Today, the kids remembered playing red light, green light with me! I had been talking with them for a while when one of the boys, Stevenson, came up and said "mwen vle jwe limye wouj" (I want to play red light). Soon all the boys were asking to play limye wouj!  Of course I was happy to oblige and we had a ton of fun playing again.

I can't even begin to describe how fulfilling it is for the kids to remember the game you taught them. Really, who cares this much? It's not like I taught them anything important.. red light, green light isn't even a hard game to learn. But I know exactly why it's so rewarding to me- because I am going to be here to play it with them. When I tell them that I'm coming back tomorrow to play, I can not only keep that promise, but I can come back next week and next month and nine months from now. With so many people coming in and out of their lives, I can be there. I will be there. To listen, to laugh, to play.