Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Widows Mites - or a few bananas and a treat

Maybe you're familiar with the Bible story of the Widows mites - if not you can read it here.

Yesterday we were in a park waiting for Dan and Benji was pushing the stroller. The park was practically empty so I wasn't very worried about what the stroller hit. Of course when I wasn't paying attention he ended up running into a young man sitting on a bench. He was clad in military type clothes had a bag and a box of wine. From the look of him I got the impression that he might be homeless.
He offered Benji a banana and when I came to get the stroller he followed me back to our bench to give Vince a banana too.
He started talking to the boys. Vince understood everything and answered correctly only in English.

Jak se maš? Fine
Jak se jmenueš? Vinson

I explained that we were Americans but had lived in Prague for 4 years so Vince understood only answered in English. The boys weren't extremely friendly. Benji gave him some good smiles and Vince made him laugh because his name is Gorge and Vince thought it was funny that George - like the monkey - was giving them bananas. He ended up giving each of them 2 or 3 bananas. He told me he lived near Hlavni Nadrazi (which has a park that is a popular "resting ground" for the homeless and druggies). We talked for a little while.
Then Gorge told me he was going to the Tabak for a cigarette and asked if we would be there when he got back. I told him we were waiting for my husband but we'd probably still be there. He came back with a cigarette for himself and a pastry for the boys to share.
I really have no idea if my suspicions were correct - and that he was homeless - and if he was giving my boys all the food he had, definitely possible, but it touched me how generous people are to my boys. Maybe to them friendliness and sweet smiles are a rare treat.

1 comment:

spemberly.blogspot.com said...

That is a very sweet story. I bet you guys made his day.