This is Naomi. Over the week and a half I was in Hohidiai I observed that at only the age of ten she has already established a strong sense of social justice and a keen desire for things to be fair
One time, while in my room, five of the girls, including Naomi, came in to spend time with me. I was going through my suitcase and one of the girls pointed to some candy I had bought and asked about it. There were 35 pieces of candy and I said to them that they could each have some and they each took 7. I told them that was maybe too many each and we decided that each of them could have three in order to save some for others.
They each put four back however one of the girls, Natalia, quickly popped one in her mouth so that she now only had three in her hand but only had to put three back. This did not go unnoticed by Naomi however as she immediately reported this to me saying ‘Look what she did, she cheated. She had one in her mouth already, this is not fair’.
I then gave her the rest of the candies as i knew that her sense of integrity made her the perfect person to handle and distribute them.
Another day I bought 5 mangoes and we decided that they should go in a fridge to chill and we would eat them later on. Later that day I was eating my dinner, in a slight rush as I had to get to the Monday night prayers that happened after dinner, and seven of the kids came in to remind me that we hadn’t eaten the mangoes yet and that we needed to do that now.
I planned to slice the kids two of the mangoes and put them on a plate whilst continuing to eat my dinner. As I started to slice the mango I realised the plan wouldn’t work as the second I cut a slice it was taken by one of the kids. I left my dinner for a moment so that I could use two hands to cut slices for all the kids and upon seeing this Naomi decided to help me by picking up my food and feeding me to make sure everything got done right and on time.
Once the slices were done it became clear that all the kids wanted the pip however Naomi looked over and said ‘No Caleb you shouldn’t have it this time, you had it last time’ and instead of asking for it like most children she told me that Jasmine should have it as she had not had it yet and she wanted to make certain that everyone had a turn.
Naomi is only young and already has this fairness instilled in her. This reminded me that there is goodness in the community and that there is always potential for it to spread, even from a ten year old.
