Musungu Musungu

My face is so tired from smiling endlessly today. We all felt like celebrities the way all the local people were treating us. I went for a run into the small village near where we are staying. Several small children started following me and trying to talk to me in Swahili. It's so hard to describe the raw, genuine emotion of the people here. Pure innocence untouched by the rest of the world where everyone is so happy, kind and honest here.  

Musungu. Swahili fo white person. This is a term that all of us will remember fondly for the rest of our lives. 

I must say, we did strike genuine fear into a couple of young children. As we were walking through a local village, a small child, maybe a year old, saw us and you could see the fear in his eyes as he ran inside his hut screaming and slammed the door. We could hear his crying as we passed by his house. Apparently, some children believe "Musungu" means evil white spirit.  Clearly this child believed it! Fortunately the boys didn't pay much attention to it and loved the celebrity treatment they kept receiving from all the other children. You could hear the constant cries of "Jumbo" - which means hello and you are welcome here!

For toys, the local children had used a lot of strings and rubber bands to make a soccer ball. Other children were playing with a bike tire wheel and sticks. One small child was walking and chewing on some type of rubber wire... All the children were barefoot, wearing extremely dirty clothes and the happiest children you can imagine!