my friend sergio was in touch with a group of crinca, or kids, who are living on the street here in maputo.  there are a pack of about 10 of them that live in a park and find their dinners in the garbage cans.  while they disburse across the city looking for food and such on the weekdays, on saturday mornings they hang out in a certain park overlooking the ocean.  so one saturday morning, sergio and i loaded up a bag with rolls, cashews, and sugar candies and headed down to the park.

 

they knew sergio so all ran up as the car coasted to a stop by the side of the road.  we gave them the food and sat on a parkbench to talk with them.  surprisingly, they didn’t immediately rip into the food, but hung around saying they weren’t hungry right then and would eat it later.

 

personally, when i am hungry, i lose all rational thought beyond food, stomach, now.

 

so, we all sat there on the bench, an unopened bag of food in front of us while sergio asked them questions in portuguese.  what were their names?  this they knew.  what were their ages?  this they gave answers, in the 10-14 range, but not really correlating with their size.  i think that they don’t know how old they are but don’t want to admit this so just picked the age that the kid next to them said.  where were their parents?  vague answers of “around.”  i take them as abandoned kids, pick your cause, AIDS, poverty, drugs, hunger, whatever.  sergio wrote all this information down very seriously in his book as he wants to see if he could get them into a school.

 

one things that struck me was how shy they got, never looking up or looking at you when they spoke.  sometimes he would have to ask the question 3 times to get the answer.  i don’t think they are used to attention, to not being invisible.

 

 

watching sergio with his notebook writing down the information, it gave me the idea that perhaps they would like to write on paper themselves.  and perhaps if it was such serious questions but more along the lines of can you draw a tree, that would draw them out as well.  art is good for the soul now isn’t it?  so this saturday i headed out on my own to the park by the sea with a bag of pens and paper to find the kids.  

 

i found the kids, but i am not sure if i was successful or not.  

 

this time, there were more, maybe 15 or 20.  i watched them from across the street, a rag-tag group of kids, hanging out and playing with a stick.  boys still, but on the verge of being men. if they were a couple of years older i might have held my bag a bit tighter until they passed.  as it was, there were so many of them i have to admit i was still a bit intimidated.  

 

finally i got up my nerve and called, “oye crincas!”  (hey kids!).  they came.  i gave them a bag of food (it was quite a decision in the grocery store.  what do you get street kids? something protein oriented but they don’t have a kitchen or silverware or a fridge.  i ended up with a jar of peanut butter (but without a knife or spoon, it’s a bit messy no?), a bag of cashews, a pack of cheese, and some candy).  watching the pack of kids cross the street, i immediately realized that it was not enough food for a meal for all the kids.

 

i opened my bag to get some pens out.  i was quickly mobbed by little boys.  there was no orderly sitting on the bench this time as i pulled out 9 pens and a packs of reject paper that the printer had printed on one side.  fights almost broke out over who got the pens.  the food was ignored, not even acknowledged.  i’m not sure if they were just more interested in the pens or didn’t notice the food in the excitement of pens.

 

it was complete chaos.  my little vision of sitting down with them and drawing a tree together fell to pieces as kids jumped up and down grabbing as many pens and pieces of paper as they could.  i also gave them a random computer bag that i had found as i figured they could store their extra paper and pens in there after we finished calmly drawing trees.  there was quite excitement as they explored every nook and cranny of the bag.  interestingly, they found a computer disk (not mine.  i wouldn’t even know what to do with one of these 8-track tapes of the computer world) and a disposable contact lens, both of which they came to me to give back.  and then to jump up and down and fight over bic pens.

 

i have, by the way, decided that there must be a continent wide african pen shortage here.  i always bring a pen with me wherever i go.  otherwise you end up in some government office trying to fill out one of the myriad of forms that you need to do just about anything and all awkwardly stare at each other as we realize that nobody has a pen.  

 

i think i may know why there is an african wide pen shortage.  take a look a the below receipt.

 

i basically bought the crinca 11 bic pens for 297 metacais or APPROXIMATELY TWELVE DOLLARS.  for 11 bic pens.  that’s about a buck a bic pen.  according to the office depot website you can get a dozen for $2.19. (note:  i have since found out that if i had a car, i could drive to the new shoprite in the suburbs and buy pens for less than a buck a pen.  i never realized that i lived in some red-lined inner city area with jacked up prices).