Josiah in Sierra Leone

Josiah had a blast in Mokanji. He made so many new friends that are looking forward to him coming back. He would literally play all day with occasional breaks, coming back up on the porch saying that he just wanted to rest and he was 'tired of playing'. 'Tired of playing!!!' I don' think I have ever heard such words come out of my child's mouth before! I love how play transcends language and that to truly play you don't need all these expensive gadgets and gizmos. The majority of the time Josiah and his friends just ran around and played with sticks and the occasional ball.

Another amazing thing was how little I was worried about him. There were several times that I had not seen him for 10-15 minutes and was not sure where he was at, but not worried. He was playing with friends, everybody knew who he was and all I had to do was ask one or two people and they would know where he was or would go and find him for me.

It was so funny, when we would look through these pictures or show other people, Josiah would point and say 'That's me in the blue shirt' or 'That's me in the red shirt'. REALLY?!?!

Just like here in the States, Josiah loves to hang out with the 'big kids'. One of his new friends was Junior, a general laborer helping with the construction of the houses. At one point, they decided to change names so now Josiah is referred to as the 'white Junior' and Junior is known as the 'black Josiah'. I loved watching Josiah (or the 'white Junior') just completely integrate himself into the village. He played and danced with the kids, hung out with the big guys, and even helped Mommy do some dressing changes on some wounds.

It almost seems like he grew in stature and maturity overnight while we were there. Josiah makes friends so easily and is completely uninhibited when it comes to going up to people, especially kids, and introducing himself and starting a conversation. Here he is with Alfred, his self-pronounced best friend in Freetown who he knew all of 10 minutes before we left for the airport.

Josiah got a small taste of a child's village life. He pumped water from the well and said that it was a lot harder than it looked.
 

And he played with the African car that 14 year old Francis made him for his birthday. It is assembled from two sardine cans, two sets of wheels and a strip of fabric to pull it around with. Josiah would find roly polys and pull them around in his car. Not exactly the safest toy, so because of the tetanus hazard and not wanting his sisters to get cut on it or break it, we opted to leave it in Mokanji.

Josiah was so exhausted from all his fun at Mokanji that he could barely stay awake in the airport and he basically slept while I walked him out to the plane, up the steps, to the bathroom to change and into his seat. This is how he spent the entire plane trip to London. He woke up about an hour before landing, just enough time to go to the bathroom and have breakfast before our next layover and last flight.

Josiah would say often during our trip that he missed Daddy and Sofia (Lydia only a little bit) and was glad to see them. He is looking forward to going back to Mokanji to play with all his new friends.