He reminded me a lot, of my younger brother. Mostly it was his sense of humour, but there was something else too. Perhaps his reserved and gentle demeanour.
A couple times last spring Josué came over and cooked with us. It was such a fun way to spend time with just him, or him and one other child. I was always amazed by his interest in cooking and by his ability to chop or slice (it’s rare to find boys in Burkina that can cook..) and by how much fun he seemed to have with it (he also liked some of the things we cooked! Which I saw as a bonus.) One night as he was helping us I asked him about where he’d learned so many tricks to things in the kitchen. He explained that he’d learned from his sisters and that they used to cook together all the time.
I looked at Josué and was reminded how hard it must be. His sisters are in the same country but, he doesn’t see them often. It’s funny, I thought, that it would take the boy that reminds me of my brother to make me remember that these children have siblings they miss too. These children have family that exist beyond the walls of the orphanage that I’m certain they must think about a lot. The children have worries that go far beyond the worries I could conceive at their age. And yet, they still wag their finger at me and make me laugh or come over just to cook potato soup with me. Josué, like many of the other children, taught me a great deal.
One evening there was the smell of rain in the air. Everyone was laying bets on whether it would rain or not. As we walked past the boys room Josué called out to us. He explained that if we had peanuts in the house they’d go bad by morning because the rain was coming. The better option, he continued, was infact, for us to give them to him and he’d take good care of them for us; his stomach would do the job of ensuring the peanuts not go bad. As he got more and more into his story he got more boys involved in it's telling. They acted out for us reasons why we should give them peanuts and came to us explaining their personal belief about how peanuts go bad when the rain comes. Josué got so involved in the telling of the story he threw himself on the floor (as if he were fainting) for a dramatic finish. Needless to say my insides were bursting after this twenty minute dramatic production and the boys were rewarded with a bag full of peanuts. (Or rather I was rewarded because the peanuts didn’t spoil. That is of course what Josué explained to me after all.)
This is my favourite picture of Josué because I can't look at it without laughing (sometimes to the point of crying..).
It was taken while Josué was cleaning his room. He says the shirt was for protecting him for breathing in the dust and I recall something about beating dust from his mattress with sticks, or possibly I made that up and it was just a part of his costume... Either way Josué cleaned his room (for the first time in a while..) and then ran around adorned in his costume. He posed for some photos and generally made us laugh for a good long while.
[Miriah is the photographer of the last & wonderful photo. Thanks for letting me borrow it!]
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