Look!

One morning a slew of boys was playing by our compound. Some were messing around in the dirt, some were rolling an old car tire around. Then Hairuna arrives and everyone but Alagie and Musa, who cannot walk yet, stop what they are doing to follow Hairuna to the field where the sheeps and goats graze.

They soon return. Hairuna is holding a puppy. It is small, but fat. One of the boys says, “Look, Binta!” Hairuna starts walking towards me with the puppy but Neene yells at the boys and so instead they continue along the road into Sinni’s compound. Maybe Neene was afraid I would want to keep the puppy. I wouldn’t have, but I do wish I could have petted it. I bet it’s fur was really soft.

A little later the group of boys returns. This time Ous is holding the puppy. He is holding it out in front of him, with both his hands around its middle. He trips over a rusted tomato-paste can and bumps the puppy against the bench. An older boy takes the puppy from Ous and places it on the ground. The boys gather around and watch as the puppy wobbles to its feet. “Look! It can stand!”

Abruptly, one of the boys picks the puppy back up again and the other boys follow as he walks back in the direction they came from, presumably to return the puppy.