Holy Moment

As we settle back into life in our house after spending several months traveling, we’ve had some special moments with people who are excited to have us back. One of those moments was with the neighborhood kids outside on our street last night. We brought back out our “indestructible” soccer ball and had a swarm of 12 kids trying to play keep-away from each other. Our children we’re throwing themselves into the crowd surprisingly well and taking lots of hard knocks that 6 months ago they were not able to handle. But now they were excited to be in the mix showing the others that they could occasionally corral the ball for a few seconds themselves. We were also joined in the street by our neighbor directly across from us who had paid to be smuggled across the desert two years ago to find work, and now finally got back to his family a few weeks ago. He welcomed us warmly, but was shocked that Smile-On didn’t actually remember him. His boys were all smiles to have their dad around and he was also a great influence on them to be more respectful to us or any of the adults/cars/motorcycles coming by. 

Abubakar 6 months ago when he used to crawl after the ball.

When he saw us gathering our kids to go inside for the night he was quick to make sure the group gave us the ball. But this set his two-year-old son off into tears because he had been waiting in vain for the ball to come near enough to him to take a swing at it. When La Maestra saw and remembered he’s the smallest and never gets the ball in this culture, she decided it would be easy enough to ease the situation. So, she gave the ball to him in the middle of the crowd with clear instructions to let him have it for a couple minutes. Then it was an amazing sight as the “seas parted” and this little two-year-old went running around the street unobstructed with a gigantic smile on his face. All the other kids just stood there frozen like they didn’t know what to do but watch as he took it over to his father. Dad told him to put it down and kick, so they spent a minute or two kicking it slowly, which also gave the father a big goofy grin. It felt a little surreal with everyone just standing calmly watching when they are usually running a mile a minute horsing around. And so for me this was a holy moment to see someone, gone for basically all of his son’s life so far, get a chance to play a simple game of ball with him in a calm, affirming moment. I don’t know if it will have a huge impact on his parenting style or if he’ll have much time to spend with his kids now that he’s back, but it gave me hope at the joy on their faces.

-- El Padre