Kids Do the Darndest

The weekend I was home between HIV testing events I had two funny kid encounters.  On that Saturday I took an hour long bike trip to a nearby village called Siniesi with one of my students Joyce.  Her older sister lives there so we went to visit her.  From her house we went with her sister and baby 30 minutes farther away to go to their grandmother’s house.  By this time I was pretty tired especially because it was midday.  While we were visiting with her grandmother, the baby girl was sitting on my lap.  All of a sudden I felt something wet…my reflexes were too slow so by the time I lifted the baby up she’d pretty much finished peeing all over me.  There was really nothing for me to do except to laugh since I was away from home.  Thankfully I was wearing my Northface pants that dry quickly.  I’ve now had another common Peace Corps experience: getting peed on by a baby.  It happens to Health volunteers all the time since a lot of them help with baby weighings.  

The next day I was in my house before church and a few kids dropped by to play on their way to church.  One small girl Mary and her little sister Martha came to my house all the time when I first got to the village but I hadn’t interacted with them in a while.  Martha played for a while but then decided it was more interesting to stare at me and follow me around.  Things like that don’t really bother me any more so I let her while I went about morning.  It was a little disconcerting though to have a kid waiting for me outside my latrine when I finished using it. Finally it was time to go to church.  I usually wait until the madam who comes from the next village arrives for church before I change into my dress so the kids were leaving before me.  The kids were headed out the door when Martha started crying, ran and grabbed onto my legs.  I told her and Mary to wait for me while I changed clothes.  Then the three of us went to church together; Martha sat and slept in my lap the entire service.  It was such a strange day for me since I usually make kids cry; they never cry because they have to leave me.  And that’s my story of how I had a kid here for the day.