While Heather and I were in Kenya, we decided to buy our language teacher’s two children each a gift. They are always taking empty containers and turning them into vehicles that they push around the room and before he could say my name, the youngest would say “beep beep” when I was referenced because I had a car. Needless to say, these kids love cars or “machinas” as they say. So, we bought them each a little plastic dump truck thinking they would be able to get a lot of use out of them around their house and neighborhood. I’ve never seen a real toy here being played with by children, so we knew it would be a big deal, but we didn’t realize just how big of a deal it would be.
As we were walking up to their house with the toys in a bag, Ameer, the oldest one was eyeing that bag something serious. He could not quit looking at it! So, finally I asked him what was in it. Without any hesitation, he replied “Machina.” Apparently, my efforts at covering up the goods wasn’t very effective. So, we pulled out the dump trucks and handed one to each child. Ameer’s immediate response was to run over, grab my hands, kiss them (which is what you do after someone blesses you), and yell “Thank you!” We got so tickled at his spontaneous response. Subhadeen, the two year old, just held his truck and cackled while looking at it. Again, we got a kick out of that.
We didn’t video at first but brought it out later when they kept repeatedly thanking us. As you can see in this video, we even got some kisses. If I didn’t know better, I would say these boys have learned how to put on a show for the camera. Please forgive my videoing skills – I stupidly didn’t realize that turning my camera sideways for a better angle would of course result in a sideways video. Slow learner. Anways, enjoy!
