Whatever Happened to Loyalty?

The first kid I ever met in Bomborokuy was Papa. Papa is probably about 10 years olds- too young to be one of my students, but he goes to the primary school in town. He's a quiet kid; he usually doesn't talk unless he has something important and/or profound to say. That's something I admire about him. He's also really good at chasing the chickens away when they wander into my courtyard.

I met Papa in April. The day I met him, he was wearing a blue t-shirt with a picture of Nelly (the rapper) on it. Every single day since then, Papa has worn the exact same blue Nelly t-shirt. Papa can get a bit smelly at times, but here in Africa, I can get a bit smelly at times, so I don't give him too hard a time about it.

When I was in the process of painting my Red Sox logo, Papa, wearing his Nelly shirt, came over to my house and told me what a huge Sox fan he was. He wanted me to take all kinds of pictures of him with the logo (see the photo of Papa in my entry for November 13 ). I think Papa was almost as excited as I was when the Red Sox signed Josh Beckett.

Fast forward to last week. Papa, for the first time in at least nine months, is wearing a new shirt. It's new and shiny, and it broke my heart:

Maybe he was a big Johnny Damon fan. Maybe he wasn't as excited about the Beckett signing as I thought, I don't know. But when I saw him wearing the shirt, I just laid into him. I spent about half an hour explaining to the poor, confused child why his shirt was bad and why he couldn't wear it anymore. I couldn't give him all the history of the rivalry, but I tried to inform him of the highlights. From what I can tell, it was an honest mistake on his part and not actually a sign of defection to the Evil Empire.

The next day, Papa was wearing his Nelly shirt. You can be sure, however: He'll be getting a new, shiny Red Sox shirt soon enough.