Curious Kids

It was evening, and I was cleaning vegetables on the porch. Quite distracted by my complex 3 bowl-system (bleach-water, rinse-water, clean veggies) I didn’t notice as two of the smallest kids from our chair-building camp last week appeared. When I finally looked up, they were staring down at me as though they’d been there a while. I was so surprised!

I called Yoko, and once we got past the initial shock of them knowing where we lived, we invited them in for some biscuits, chocolate, and water. We chatted about our days and about their favorite game, hide and seek. When they asked if they could stay the night, we quickly realized we needed to set boundaries! We said they couldn’t stay, but that they could come back in a few days for dinner.

We knew these kids lived close to us, but we really didn’t expect them to come into our gated yard. Firstly, as just noted, we have a gate (though it’s not always locked, it’s always shut). Additionally, we didn’t know the kids knew where we lived. They are clearly very observant. Thirdly, the kids’ visit wasn’t preplanned. At home, we usually arrange meeting times with people rather than just stopping by. Finally, perhaps the most surprising part of the visit was when a large group of small children from our compound all trickled in a little while after the first two had come.

In hindsight, we really shouldn’t have been so surprised. 1) We had forgotten to lock the gate, and kids are curious. 2) It is only natural for kids to watch interesting things (like strangers speaking another language moving in nearby). Of course, the kids would know where we lived! Of course, the children would be playing together and follow each other. But I guess we were too used to our schedules to avoid a little surprise in such a spontaneous events.

As of now, we have learned to close and lock the gate to avoid surprise visitors who could potentially be more dangerous than the little kids. However, this has not deterred the children! These kids, ever curious, have found our wall/window that is not inside the gate. Every night they come knocking! We say hi, ask them how they are, then tell them to wait for our scheduled dinner (it’s tomorrow!).

It will be fun to see if they keep coming back after the dinner. Our guess is that they will. Fortunately they are nice and cute, and we don’t mind chatting with them!

The eight kids in our living room earlier this week