day 25

The day started in an unexpected way. I promised to some kids to take them to the football field to play together and we agreed to meet at 5pm. Well, at 9am they were all in front of my door asking me if it was 5 o'clock, all ready to play. OK, they don't have watches but this was too much. “Whatever!”, I thought. Let's go play!

Having to change my "schedule", in the afternoon I decided to go for a walk like almost every day. This is quite an experience in itself every time, especially if I have my camera with me.

Almost everybody says Hi when they meet you in the streets and when it’s me and they say it in Ewe (the local language) and I answer properly, they smile super happily or even laugh.

Some people even come out of their houses to say Hello to me, while the kids scream my name (or something similar, like Davida, Devide, Devida or Devidet). It doesn't matter if I know them or not, they know me.

Those who don't know my name or those who are too little just say "Yevu” out loud, which means White man, moving their little hands as a greeting and smiling at me. When I say Hi back they are so proud of their achievement. 

When they're near to me they run in my direction, generally to ask me How I am, or my name, or to catch them, or just to hold my hand for one second. If they see me holding my camera they all start saying "Picture me, picture me", and I only have one shot because as soon as they hear the click they immediately run at me, grabbing my hand, climbing over my legs just to see this magical picture.

In the past few days I also taught to every kid I met to “gimme five”: I came back home with a red hand. In the end I didn't walk a lot. I just held hands, lifted kids up, said hi, talked with random people, gave and received smiles. But I can't personally think of a better way to pump up the mood!