Lost friend, Found!

You are not going to believe this.....yesterday Esau, Poniso and I  went to Dwanga to check the bank, and to look for maize to buy. It is about an hour drive and is a main trading centre. We actually ended up buying the maize back at Kachere at a cheaper price. But there was obviously a higher purpose for the trip. As I was driving  Poniso said “slow down slow down”, I had no idea why, I was looking around for some sort of danger and all I could see was different groups of people on the sides of the road then he said “STOP!” He and Esau jumped out of the car to ask a guy in his 20’s why he was wearing our stolen Magpies jumper!! It has been missing for over 2 years!!! How did they spot that jumper in the crowd from so far away. People started to gather to see what was happening – I switched from call the police and lock him up to someone will get killed here and it could be me! After a short time (felt longer) we drove off with the jumper and a young man going home topless!! (I’m a sucker – I gave him Kw400 to buy back the stolen jumper so he had something to wear). The jumper is hanging up outside and people are coming to look at it like a long lost friend. This guy gave it a bit of a thrashing because it has faded and the cuffs are worn but we are all happy to have it home!! What are the chances of all that happening – how unlucky can you be! Then we were still laughing about that when further down the road some kids were sitting eating sugar cane on the side of the road and one of them threw a piece at the car and hit it. I went for the brakes and reversed quickly with Esau jumping out (again) before I had stopped and chased the kids up into the hills. He came back with one of them, he had caught him by the back of his pants and this kid was screaming out for his father to come and help him. This turned into another gathering of people, people stopped on their bikes, they came from their houses. Someone went and got the local community policeman, (these are people selected in areas to act as police), the teacher from the school. Man alive it was only a piece of sugar cane after all. They all apologised for the behaviour of their youth, they  take it very seriously and all will all be caught and punished. It was interesting timing because for our ‘talk’ with the staff for this week we have been talking about caring enough to help someone when they are going off track, in a gentle way. So it was actually great timing because the boys talked on the way home about these kids having more respect for other people’s property etc in the future. Good lesson.