On our day off we took a trip to Kitale town. It was like any other African town: street vendors, shops, grocery store, and street boys sniffing glue. I had noticed them when we entered the supermarket, but just went about my way as I normally would.
There was a popcorn stand right outside the supermarket. Now I love popcorn. And it was only 10 shillings per bag (86 shillings per dollar). So I got two, naturally. There had to be four or five boys walking around outside. They had small plastic bottles with a small bit of glue in them, breathing them in through their mouth. We thought, now what can someone do about that? We can’t simply take the bottle from them. We can’t just go over and start a conversation in English when all the know is Swahili.
We were sitting, waiting for our taxi and they kept begging for money. We cant give them money because they will use it to buy more glue. But they kept repeating and repeating “I’m hungry, I’m hungry” and pointing to their stomach. One was standing in front of me, putting his bottle in his back pocket and then reaching out begging for some change. I said “I will trade you a bag of popcorn for the bottle of glue.” Of course I’m not sure he understood me fully, but my teammate did a good job of talking with hands and motions to make him understand what we wanted. At first he shyed away as if to say “Are you serious? I wouldn’t give this up.” But after a few tries, I got my second bag of popcorn (that I secretly wanted so badly for a snack later) out. I showed him what I would give him for the bottle. He finally gave in and slowly handed me his bottle of glue and I gave him a bag of popcorn. I couldn't believe it. We bought a few other boys popcorn, traded with one other boy and also shared some water with them. They high fived us and gave us the pound as we pulled away.
