Chad leading the weekly Bible lesson at Shangilia Children’s Home & School.

“How are YOU, Mzungu?”  That is the most popular line used by small children here when they see our family.  It is hilarious to me when kids ask to “feel” my hair or my skin; and it is – quite apparently – hilarious to them as well.  At church one week, one little lad reached out and gave me a swift poke in the arm and then, a huge grin lighting his face, yanked his hand back.  He then proceeded to have a giggle-filled conversation about it with his buddies (I only knew they were talking about me because I kept hearing, “mzungu”).  All the girls want to know where I got my hair (wigs are very popular here, and a blond wig would be quite a novel find) and then stare at me with disbelief me when I tell them that it is real.

Kids (and little old ladies) love to touch Sam’s hair as well – nothing like innocently sitting in a church service and having your hair rubbed every which way!  People like to hear us talk because our accents are so very “exotic.”  We have even been asked by curious children if we are “white underneath our clothes too”!  For quite a few of the children (especially in rural areas or the slums), we are the first “white people” that they have ever seen.

Dancing with the Shangilia kids!