Honest Engine

I know they say never to say never but…

Never doubt the honesty and true acts of kindness from others.

Never.

Today completed day two of our Youth Leadership Summit and our overarching theme was self-awareness and teamwork.  It was a success as we accomplished goal setting and vision statements, activities that explore how we work with others, and facilitation skills that will enable the participants to begin leading their own sessions.  The day ended with tea, pineapple, and everyone’s favorite… Fried bread. 

As some of the participants left, I decided to stick around til dusk to wait for my youth to finish up with dance class. 

Now let me paint a picture for you… To get back to our homes we have to walk on Ggaba Road.  A very busy, congested, two-lane street where matatus, cars, buses, bikes, bodas, and chickens rarely stay in their designated lane.

As my kids and I are maneuvering the headlights of passing bodas, I realize that one of my girls, Sharon, was not around.  My mind immediately went to the thought that she had been struck by a passing vehicle.

Needless to say, she was about 15 feet behind looking at someone’s mobile, commonly known as a cell phone.  The rest of us go back and she begins to explain that she saw it lying on the ground and was determined to find its owner.

I understand that this may not be a big deal to some of you but I was a proud mama.  Here was my girl taking the initiative to find the owner when she could have easily picked it, pocketed it, and had a phone.

A free phone. 

A working phone. 

A color screen Nokia with snake phone!

Instead she was figuring out how to get it back to its owner.  The number had no airtime credit, which allows one to make calls to other numbers and she, along with my other youth, were committed to putting their shillings together to buy more.  I decided to let them use my credit to figure out whom it belonged to.

Everyone we called was unaware of the phone and since we didn’t have the number it made it that much more difficult.  We decided to put the investigation on hold until the morning.

Then Sharon’s shoe broke and while we waited for it to be fixed by a local shoe vendor, a number called the abandoned mobile.  It happened to be the owner and my girls took initiative to explain that it was in safe hands and that he could pick it up tomorrow at In Movement at midday.

I was able to speak to Mr. Ssebo and he seemed very appreciative for the honest nature of my youth and that there are people in this world who don’t just pocket lost items.

As I watched these girls take the lead and help out someone that they didn’t have any connection to, I realized that this is only the beginning to their potential as positive community members and role models.

As I watched Sharon do a selfless act and then witness her shoe break, I realized that karma works in unexplainable ways.

Well, Sharon wasn’t even worried about that.