One night just before I left Texas, a friend of mine invited my wife and I to dinner. Never being one to turn down going out to eat (well, pre-Africa anyway), we accepted and hooked up with a few other friends at a place called T-Bone Toms in Kemah (mmmmm….BBQ). The usual chit-chat ensued.
Upon finding out that I was making a trip to Africa, one of my other friends of the Catholic faith (we’ll call him Mike T.) gave me his medal of St. Michael with instructions to ‘throw it into the jungle’. The idea being that if God willed it, some day someone would find it and put it to good use. To be honest I was a little overwhelmed.
A funny thing happened on the way to the Jungle…I met Florence.
At least I think her name was Florence. She was very shy, young, and didn’t talk much (and beautiful as you can tell from the picture). She is an orphan in Ghana. She was having a good day when we showed up with the band and donated goods, but you could tell she that she may not have had many before then. The orphanage was well maintained, and the staff took good care of the kiddos, but there were a lot of them. Hard to give them a lot of one-on-one face time.
I knew right then that she was the one. She also cleaned up with some of the candy I had with me.
The other kids were great. Some of the older boys just wanted to have someone to talk to more than anything (so boys, thanks for letting them borrow your Dad for just a little while). One of our younger sailors was telling me on the ride back to the ship that one of the kids asked him to adopt them. The sailor was maybe 20. He was stunned. He stated ‘I can barely take care of myself’, but in the emotion of the moment he was thinking about it. We told him just be happy with what you can do, bringing joy into their lives for a little while and I think he’s OK with that. No small kids running around the ship so far…
So anyway. Mike, your Medal made it to literally within 20 meters of the jungle. But I don’t think you’ll mind too much.
Upon finding out that I was making a trip to Africa, one of my other friends of the Catholic faith (we’ll call him Mike T.) gave me his medal of St. Michael with instructions to ‘throw it into the jungle’. The idea being that if God willed it, some day someone would find it and put it to good use. To be honest I was a little overwhelmed.
A funny thing happened on the way to the Jungle…I met Florence.
At least I think her name was Florence. She was very shy, young, and didn’t talk much (and beautiful as you can tell from the picture). She is an orphan in Ghana. She was having a good day when we showed up with the band and donated goods, but you could tell she that she may not have had many before then. The orphanage was well maintained, and the staff took good care of the kiddos, but there were a lot of them. Hard to give them a lot of one-on-one face time.
I knew right then that she was the one. She also cleaned up with some of the candy I had with me.
The other kids were great. Some of the older boys just wanted to have someone to talk to more than anything (so boys, thanks for letting them borrow your Dad for just a little while). One of our younger sailors was telling me on the ride back to the ship that one of the kids asked him to adopt them. The sailor was maybe 20. He was stunned. He stated ‘I can barely take care of myself’, but in the emotion of the moment he was thinking about it. We told him just be happy with what you can do, bringing joy into their lives for a little while and I think he’s OK with that. No small kids running around the ship so far…
So anyway. Mike, your Medal made it to literally within 20 meters of the jungle. But I don’t think you’ll mind too much.
I'd have a tough time NOT adopting Florence... :-)
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