13. Refreshing Times

In the two weeks that Daniel stayed with me, I didn’t get to go to the streets that much and was stressed out by not being able to find a place for him to stay. The one day I did manage to make it into town and I didn’t see the kids anywhere.
I remembered that not too long ago they had shown me a water reservoir located downtown where they often go to swim. I had only been there once and they tried to get me to swim and I told them I couldn’t because I had on jeans.
Because I didn’t see the boys anywhere that day, I decided to go look at the “dam”, as they called it. Sure enough, there they were. There were about twenty to thirty of them there, young and old.
They were happy to see me and when I jumped the fence they immediately wanted me to also join them and swim. It was a hot day and I really wanted to take them up on their offer but, I had on jeans again. I declined, but this time, they were not going to take ‘no’ for an answer.
An older gangster walked up to me and told me that I had to swim. I explained my predicament to him but before I could think twice, he took off his pink and purple striped boxers that he had been swimming in, which was all he had on, and handed them to me. He told me that I could borrow his shorts.
I could not get myself to turn down this nice gesture so I took the boxers from the naked gangster.
I went in the bushes and changed into them. The boys became so excited when I walked out of the bushes ready to swim. I felt a little ridiculous with my white legs showing because of the shortness of the pink and purple striped boxers, but the cheers of the boys made me soon forget about it.
There was a huge drop off that the kids jump off of and they walked with me to the edge. I pretended like I was scared and that I wasn’t going to jump and I walked back to the bushes as if I was going to put my jeans back on. The kids were incredibly disappointed.
All of a sudden, I turned around and ran for the edge, and I dove off. As I glided into the cold refreshing water, I felt more than just physical refreshment. I also felt like all of the stress that I had been feeling was being washed off in the water.
As I emerged to the surface I could hear the cheers and clapping of all the kids. I wiped the water out of my eyes and looked up to see all the kids standing on the edge of the drop off, cheering for me. They then started jumping in with excitement and swam out to me. I thought they were going to drown me with excitement when they got out to me.
We swam all afternoon and had a great time. It was an incredible experience for me. At the end of the afternoon, I returned the boxers to the gangster, and I went home, feeling totally refreshed and renewed.

Some of the most amazing times I have had with the kids have been totally spontaneous situations. I can also always count on them to make me feel better if I am down.
People have worried about me before saying that I “work” too much and that I am going to burn out. But for me, it is different. It is hard for people to understand. I get life from hanging out with the kids.
Many times, I have been in hard situations, and really had no one to turn to for advice or comfort and then I get around the kids and I feel better. I am sure that I have given the kids something over the years, but I am also very sure that they have given me just as much if not more. I have been privileged to get to know the kids in this way and I wish that everyone could experience them and get to know them in the way I have, and not just as these hardened little dirty street kids.