Today I'd like to introduce you to... my cling-on. This boy is not actually an orphan, but lives next to the land that we built the new school on. His father is the principal of the school and really loves all the kids (56 of the 117 students are orphans, the rest come from extremely poor villages nearby). This boy has two younger brothers who also clung to me.
My team leader didn't remember this boy from past trips. At the beginning of the trip he wouldn't even talk. But he would literally fight other kids when they came to be with me...he was so desperate for love and attention. By the end, he would talk with me and was a bit more content with me being with other children.
One day when I came back to the work site after going and getting water for the workers, my little cling-on shouted "Mama's back!" And from then on he called me Mama.
Here's my cling-on and his younger brother. Their youngest brother is about 1 1/2. One day I took these two to the clinic because cling-on has ringworm (look at his forehead in the above photo) and so sick with malaria that he would just lie on the hot cement in the sun. His little brother had a gaping, open wound from a burn and it was dirty and desperately needed proper care and better dressings than we had.
And here's my cling-on in a moment of independence...hard at work. Look at the sweat he's working up! (ok, so he probably spilled water on himself)
And lastly, here's my little cling-on when he found his voice and started talking. He had a lot to say on this day, so I took advantage of it by quizzing him on his ABC's.
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