Johnnie

At first, he was quiet and didn’t talk. He strutted around the street, trying to prove he could take care of himself and didn’t need anyone’s help.

The teenaged mothers on this street corner pleaded for someone to take him. He showed up on their street a week ago. No one knows where he came from or who he belongs to. The mothers tried taking care of him, but they barely scrounge up enough food for themselves and their own children. They knew that someone needed to take care of this very independent four-year-old before something serious happened to him.

Four-year-old Johnnie spent the day with me, while my friend looked for an orphanage that would take him. After Johnnie established that the white on my skin did not rub off, he became a chatter box. We played cars and wrestled around my house.

When we got in the car to go to the orphanage, Johnnie serenaded me (at the top of his lungs) all the way to my friend’s house. Once she sat in the car, Johnnie immediately went mute again. But, every time I looked in the rear view mirror to check on him in the backseat, he made goofy eyes at me – ah – four-year-old humor at its best!

This orphanage we took Johnnie to was great. They agreed with us that Johnnie had not been on the street for very long. He looked well fed and cared for – other than some scrapes and bruises. He also had a very large vocabulary that most children on the street do not have.

Leaving Johnnie at that orphanage was hard on both of us. It’s amazing how attached you can become to someone after one day.

From what Johnnie told me, he has a mother, but doesn’t have a father. He doesn’t know where his mother is. Our guess is that they were separated at the bus station near where he was found. Either that, or his mother died and relatives abandoned him on the streets because they could not take care of him (a common practice here).

We filled out a ton of paperwork, so we could not be accused of stealing a child and filed it with the police. This will also serve as a way for Johnnie’s mother to find him.

Please pray that Johnnie’s family will seek him out and collect him at this orphanage. If Johnnie was abandoned, pray that his transition to this orphanage is a smooth one.