Easter in the hood

So, we had our first anual Easter Egg Hunt in the Hood. It was a huge success. We had informed the children that it would be at 12:00 noon on Saturday (so that they could attend the one at the church up the street at 11:00.) They started showing up at 9:00 am and didn't leave. Brandy and Doug came over for breakfast and were extremely patient with the numerous knocking interruptions. At 10:45 we set up a timer in the window that they could see and count down to the hunt. Walt painted four square on our concrete drive way in bright orange contractor paint, so the kids alternated between games of four square and fighting over the hammock, and playing the Bible Story game. (This is a game I made up when we got the children's "Read with me Bible" and "See with me Bible" where I tell them a bible story and they find it and read it for candy...or cookies...or bouncy balls...or plastic cross necklaces...or whatever treat I have on hand. They love it and they come to the door and knock and ask to play the Bible Story Game...it's great!)

At 12:00 sharp the kids were corraled in my neighbors backyard and I passed out the kid's Bibles so they could read along while I told them the real Easter Story. I gave them the synopsis version while showing them the pictures, then they insisted that they get to read it in the other bible, and each kid that wanted to read one page aloud and then passed it to another. Malik and Troy had the hardest time sitting still, and there was much grass throwing and sack rustling (they had plastic bags in leiu of Easter baskets.) But it was a great way to entertain them while the eggs were being hidden in the empty lot across the street.

For the actual Easter hunt we had around 20-25 kiddos. There were at least five children that I had never met until that day. Some of them I probably won't ever see again. One of them, a little boy named Chris, absolutely broke my heart. All the kids had joined in the mass hysteria, running to and fro, smashing eggs under their feet in wild abandon, and finally collected on the porch to go through their loot. Katarina noticed this new little boy and pointed him out to me, he was in deep distress, crying and burying his head in his arms so no one would notice, but the tears were just running down his cheeks. Somehow, this child had missed the Easter Egg hunt. I still don't know how, he had been there all morning, but apparently he had missed it, and no amount of shared candy, or extra treats could console him. Tim Time saw his misery and shared his candy with him, even giving him one of his plastic cross necklaces. I gave him an assortment of candies and even a play dough, but this did no good either. It was the missed fun that he cried over, and then the embarrassment of crying.

He played around the house all afternoon, and I discovered that he is a stutterer, with a wandering eye, and he cries easily, with his feelings worn on his sleeve. Sweet, sweet little boy.

Walt and I were getting ready for church and I saw a nice mustang pull up in front of the house across the street. A 20 something girl, nicely dressed, made up, blonde, (not the norm for the neighborhood) sat inside, looking quite perturbed but never emerging from the vehicle. She left, then drove back, sitting outside talking on her cell phone agitatedly. As Walt and I were getting ready to leave, I walked over to see if I could help her. She started out in a very perturbed tone, then changed to speak quite nicely to me, though obviously perturbed that her nephew, Chris, was no where to be found, and she had somewhere to be at 7:00. I told her they were within a few blocks, and I was sure he'd turn up in a minute. It was then that we saw the boys riding their bikes and heading our way. She sped off toward them and screeched to a halt beside them, immediately throwing words laced with hate at the poor little boy. She did not swear at him, but it would have been easier to hear if she had, each word was so acidic and hateful that it hurt me to hear it, a block away. She screamed at him to get in the car, and he ducked in, head down, she yelled at him for not having his coat. I saw it then, laying beside the four square in our yard, and picked it up and brushed it off, walked to the street and held it out like a flag for her to see. She turned around and sped back toward me. When she pulled up she didn't even look at me, cell phone to her ear, she was blasting words of incense to the mother, I suppose, hateful, mean words, hateful, horrid tone. I leaned into the window of the nice red mustang and put the coat on the front seat, leaning back to look at Chris. He was seated behind his nasty aunt, but scooted over toward me as I told him (quite loudly, to drown out his aunt) how much we enjoyed having him spend time with us today, and how he was welcome any time, and how I loved him. He looked at me with those big brown eyes and nodded his head, speechless again. I wanted to snatch him out of that car, or snatch her out and tell her to pick on someone her own size, or that someday she will be accountable for the words of hate. But I didn't. And he left with the witch, to go to a neighborhood much nicer than ours, I'm sure. And I'll probably never see that little boy again.

People seem to think that our neighborhood is unique, and that these children are neglected and mistreated because they are "poor." They are wrong. How many children sit alone in big houses, with nothing but their gameboy to keep them company.

(#)$$@)^%@$&%^@#$!!!! I laid awake that night and prayed for all these children, and for the children all over, left alone, or worse, and it breaks my heart. WHY? Because we (we Christians, we Americans, YOU, ME, all of us) think that we are responsible only for our own little ones. How wrong we are. That child in the grocery cart, being scorned by his mother, he is YOURS to defend. That child next door, that you have never met...MEET him. Meet his parents. Find out what is going on behind those doors, and if it isn't good, BE the good. LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

If any of you want to join us next year, the kids are already looking forward to it, and I might have all the bits of tin foil picked up from the yard by then.