...kids, kids and kids...

So the last story of today / tonight is about a wonderful time spend in company with a children-group. So we get seated in chairs right in front of all the kids, we have a short introduction to who we are, where we are from and why we are here (to be honest i have never seen so many kids staring at me at once..) they ask us a couple of questions, and then we ask them some questions, these kids are in the range from 4 - 14 i guess, then the do a Tamil prayer song for us, the run through their agenda topics from last week, ask each other questions, and literally these children runs this "meeting" themselves, i am sooo impressed and somehow proud of them, they talk about who is the minister of this and the mister of that .. and they interact perfect with each other ... One thing that is funny is to see how fast the news has been travelling, that Susanne and i would be coming, and when we are finally there, within minutes, children and parents are coming over to see us, the crowd is growing... So now we believe that the children have had their part of the program, so we break out the sweets that we have brought, and the children all of a sudden are standing on top of each other - we pass the candy, sweets, chewing gums, all of it around, and the children seems to be enjoying themselves a lot ... - we see a lot of smiles, both from kids and adults... after 10 - 15 min with handing out sweets it is time for us to say our goodbyes to all of them, and here starts the most amazing, crazy, strange, interesting and unexplainable thing soo far, the parents comes up to us to ask for our autographs like we are famous or something, like we are celebrities, we get to sign calendars, books, even the bible... we have men, women, children, old, young coming up taking photos of us, shaking my hand, touching me, thanking me, i have babies being handed to me so they can get close to me, so i can touch with my hand, i have one older man that has been sitting in the back the whole time, coming up to me, placing his hand in mine, moving me hand to his head, making a religious gesture / sign ... he has tears in his eyes... he thanks me for coming, that is the only words he is able to get out... - and then i am like a proper celebraty rushed off to my own personal rickshaw, Kumar fast pulls out of there, while the children are running after us.. Susanne and i are very quiet on the way back - then we start to discuss what just happened, we were treated like kings, almost like holy people, us, two normal people - a normal woman and man from the Nordics, a Mr. and Mrs. average joe and jane .. but then it hits us, that for these people we are the first foreigners that has ever taken the time to come and talk to their children, to visit them in the slum, to see how the live, to listen to them, and spend time with them, for them we are special, for them we are something more, something extra, isnt that funny - because in my eyes i am not special, in my eyes, them living the lives they do, having almost nothing, and still be able to laugh and smile - now that my friends makes them special, that my friends makes them unique..

...so remember whatever you do, never give up, and never stop trying.. - and you are special, you are unique...