Today our cooks had a day off. So our Dutch volunteer and I went outside to eat.
As we were finishing our meal at a restaurant, I noticed two pairs of small eyes staring at us through the plants outside. They belonged to two small children, barefooted, dressed in patched-up clothes and carrying a sack.
My companion looked at me and we both immediately understood that they were not staring at us but at our empty Coke cans.
With a quick nod at my friend, he got up, grabbed our empty cans, went ourside and deposited them inside the children's sack.
Instantly their faces brightened up.
No words were needed to express their gratitude for the cans. They left happilly prancing through the streets - becuase they have collected their first cans for the day at the end of which they would get a few cents in exchange.
This incident made me ask myself the eternal question: "Why were these children on the streets?"