Cute 'Cuz It Makes Me Smile

You may or may not know that we walk to language school almost every day. It’s a nice walk, only about 10 minutes between our house and the school. Well, on the way we pass two elementary schools and many children, young and old, on the way to their respective schools. One day, about 2 weeks ago, we had just begun our walk, making our second turn toward the main road when a little girl in her blue school uniform came running toward us. I’m not certain if I had greeted this particular young girl before or not but she certainly seemed like she knew me as she grabbed my hand. I greeted her and she responded politely. Thinking she would run ahead toward her school I relaxed my hand to let hers go but she simply continued to hold onto mine. Since she seemed intent on sticking with us I started to ask her questions: her name, did she have siblings, where she goes to school, etc. It then became apparent that we walk the same path to school each day as she attends one of the two elementary schools we pass each day.

 

Well, since that first day, whenever we see this girl in the mornings (that is, on days when we leave on time), she runs to catch up or waits for us until we reach her in order to walk together, hand-in-hand. It’s really quite sweet and good practice for me as I do most of the talking, in my limited Amharic. Otherwise, we just walk in silence. Somehow I think that it must be special for her to hold the hand of a foreigner on her way to school. For me it’s special because I get to experience the innocence of a child who simply loves without many expectations or conditions. One of those little things in life that just makes me smile. It’s cute.