Rema

My favorite 8 yr old in the world... Rema. She is 8 years old, has a beautiful smile, has no feet, and burn marks on her shins. She is out in a busy area of town where she begs for money. She can hardly stand and mostly crawls around on the ground. At first glance, you see a beggar. Look a little longer and you see an eight year old girl that loves to laugh and play like any other 8 year old. A few days ago we asked what she liked to eat. Today we took her to that restaurant, which happened to be across the street. Jesse and I had already eaten, but her and the Jman ate. She insisted that we eat something and started giving us her french fries! Here we are, trying to feed this girl, and as soon as she sees that we didn't have food, she started trying to feed us! Not only that, but she also decided that she was going to save her chicken sandwhich for her mother. The whole time she was laughing and talking about all sorts of things. After we had lunch we went downstairs where they had a bakery and got some cake. As we were walking in she grabs ahold of my hand. My heart just melted to the floor. She wouldn't let go of my hand the rest of the time we were in the shop. Soon it was time to leave. We walked back across the street where she begs and went off to the rest of our day. It was hard to leave her there, but as soon as you take her from that spot, she is losing income for her family. I'm sure we will see Rema several more times while we are here. And before we left the Jman explained to her that we were her friends. She said, "No, they're not friends. They're my brothers."... Had to pick my heart up of the floor once again.