The other day I was walking down our street towards home as it was late afternoon. I’m sure I was off in my own world thinking about the days’ events. All of the sudden I heard this little voice from a side street yell “Keee-la!” I turned and saw 5 little kids running to me as fast as their little legs could take them. I smiled as I greeted each of them and asked how they were doing. I soon realized that not only did they not speak English, but these kids did not speak Swahili either. Since they were so young, the only language they knew was their tribal language, in this case Nubian, the dominant tribe among our Muslim neighbors. I not completely sure how they know my name, but they are adorable and so lovable. I laughed to myself as I discovered that I have absolutely no way of communicating with these kids via language. But they all communicated quite clearly to me that they wanted to go with me as they each grabbed onto my hands and nearly tripped over each other trying to get closer to me. So I kept walking towards home with this following of some of the cutest kids in Kibera probably ranging in age from 3 to 7. They continued to try to speak to me in Nubian and just rambled away as I just smiled back. We arrived at my house and I led them inside the gate. I rushed into my house to grab a standby for entertaining kids here…a coloring book and colors. We then camped out there and spent a while coloring together. The whole time they were coloring, they were talking non-stop, and it was fun to try to figure out what they might be saying. From time to time they would get really excited as they discovered a new color in the bag or wanted to show me their artwork. I had a great time that afternoon coloring with these adorable kids. I learned a valuable lesson that day. Sometimes when things get too busy in my schedule and my mind is over-occupied, it helps just to slow down and have some fun…like coloring with the kids! No wonder Jesus liked to hang out with children so much! We have a ton to learn from them and their perspective on life. May we all learn a lesson here: Never get too busy to make time to color!
J
