Noe and the note

Just a short story that makes me smile.

One of the little boys in our street kids group stopped coming about a month ago. His name was Noe and though one of the most mischievous, he was also one of the most lovable. He was fascinated by so many things and had the most brilliant personality. One day when we were coloring in the park, he walked up to me with half a moustache drawn on his face and grinned the biggest smile at me and asked if he could glue something and proceeded to dry and glue his paper to the pillar.

When Tyler and I asked where he was, one of the other boys specifically told us that he had gone to the Dipsa (the gas station at the entrance of Talanga) and was never coming back. In my head, I though that Noe might have had a fight with one of the boys and so had left saying this. Another boy added that Noe thought we didn’t like him and didn’t care that he wasn’t there. Hearing this, we wrote him a note on a yellow piece of paper telling him that we loved him, missed him, and hoped to see him soon. I also jokingly asked if he was lost.

A couple of weeks later, I was at one of our weekly community Bible study meetings. The meeting had yet to start (ten minutes after the hour and still waiting) and one of the ladies had just arrived at the house. She looked over at me and said ‘oh you are Alice aren’t you?’ Well, yes I am. She proceeded to ask me if I had written a letter to Noe. I kinda smiled and said yes and she explained to me that she teaches down in the community near the entrance of Talanga and that she had bumped into Noe down there. She said he had showed her his letter and told her to tell me that he wasn’t lost, but had moved down to a different house near the Dipsa gas station.

The next week, I was leaving my classroom at school and who did I see in the school court yard? Noe! With a big smile, he gave me a great big hug and explained to me that he had to move from his old house because the roof had started to fall in and it wasn’t safe to live there anymore. He was now living in a different house but still going to the same school. He also told me that he didn’t have permission to go so far from home for Domingos Divertidos but that if I wanted to go pick him up at the gas station I could.

Taking a taxi to a nearby town, I saw Noe at the gas station. Since we were passing through I didn’t get a chance to talk to him, but I hope that soon I can start going there to pick him up for Domingos Divertidos.