Posted by:
cludgie
(
)
Date: January 18, 2014 11:16PM
Oh, hey. Rental is in Central Washington town. Beautiful place.
I'll always carry some guilt about the kid, but it's diluted with guilt about the other kids, the so-called shegue. Here's a web site:
http://pix4notes.wordpress.com/2007/01/20/sheguekinshasa-street-children/It doesn't really capture how most of the kids are only maybe 3 to 10 years old, abandoned because their family thought they were "sorcerers." In Congo, toddlers are believed to have more powers of sorcery than older children. Somebody in the family gets cancer, and the family members try to find the sorcerer responsible. They often take the toddler and abandon him or her at the river. European orphanages sometimes get them, but mostly the girls. The boys are taken in by other boys, and sleep in piles like puppies at night in the entrances to closed down shops and places. They sometimes beg in large groups and are in real need. Can't give them money--invariably starts a fight. You haul the group over to a vendor and buy them each a bag of water, a baguettine, and a couple boiled eggs. Then you have to run like hell to avoid an even larger group coming over for the free food.
It's weird, but way down on the site is a picture of a kid lying dead after being hit by a car (exceedingly common) in a rainy season rainstorm. I was there and witnessed that. So bizarre seeing a picture of it on the Internet.