Day Laborers

There are always little children outside Gavin’s school just sitting around. I know their families work nearby so they have nothing else to do. But, my heart broke yesterday when I saw one of them. As we were turning our car around there was a little girl standing at the gate of a building under construction. She was tiny, probably only 2, and looked so sweet and innocent. She waved at me when I waved. Ganesh, my driver, said her parents are day laborers, which means they work for the construction companies doing construction. They probably live at the construction site and will move to the next one when that job is complete. Ganesh said that day laborers make about $3-4 a day and that their children don’t go to school. I asked him if it would be offensive for me to bring the children food. He said it would be appreciated and that lots of people give them biscuits (cookies). So, I have decided to start buying things for them at the grocery store occasionally. Today, I wanted to give them something but hadn’t been to the store so I brought them half a loaf of bread. When I walked up to the gate, there were 5 of them. I hadn’t counted on that many. Two of the girls and one boy were probably 7-10 years old and then there were two little one-the little girl from yesterday and another small one about her size. One of the older girls ran and got the bread from me. As we were driving away I saw that the security guard sitting with them had the loaf in his hand and all the children were gathered around. Ganesh said he was handing out the bread fairly so the children wouldn’t fight over the food. :(