The story behind that single picture: A kid's love for selfie
October 11, 2015. Helping Land, Tondo, Manila. It was my fourth visit as a volunteer in this slum community where families live in an active dump site. The volunteer program is being organized by an NGO that aims to keep the children away from the streets when they are out of school. They gather the children in a hall where we conduct the activities.
Depending on the topic for the day, we conduct workshops for different grade levels. I got children of around nine to ten years of age. This time, we have this kid as an import. He insisted on joining our table and got up onto my lap! I have seen this kid during my previous visits. He is about four years old. He was just running here and there most of the time. Now that he joined our group, I asked my other “students” of his name.
He saw my mobile phone and motioned for it. When I handed it to him, he faced it and kept tapping his finger on it. I got it! He wants to take selfie. Instead of letting him be, I asked a girl in our group to take our photos. From then on, he kept asking for his photo to be taken and watch them afterwards. He enjoys seeing his image.
From out of nowhere, one of the girls asked me to adopt him. I asked where the parents are and the girl said he has his parents but the two of us will be better as mother and son. Huh!? Whaaattt? These kids have sense of humor that I never imagined.
The boy was not paying attention to our conversation. He was occupied with his photos. He got so comfortable that I was even pegged to be his better mother. I was surprised to see this photo afterwards to indeed look like a mother-son tandem.
I have been going back to the same community from time to time but the boy was not present most of the time. I saw him once but he is on his old ways of running here and there.
Somewhere out there, a stranger kid once loved me for my mobile phone. How I love the innocence and contentment.
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How about you? What is the story behind your single photo?
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Wow,great story and a great cause... respect... the looks of that kid,it's affecting... thanķ you for participating..
You're welcome. And thank you too.
It's so inspiring, nice post. Keep do this activity only special people who can do this.
Thank you @marlenny. Anyone can actually do this. 😊
This is so inpiring. I have joined as volunteer also before and I could relate to that wonderful feeling of joy sharing your heart with others. That photo definitely looks like a mother and child bonding each other. I used to be around kids too. I really admire the contentment and happiness of children, they're so carefree and innocent. I sometimes feel like I want to go back in my childhood days again lol. I should be sharing my moments as a volunteer. Thanks for giving me an idea for my next post. 😊
I have been thinking about my volunteering activities as to how I should start the throwbacks. Then I saw @verhp11's post and I immediately remember this photo.
I started volunteering when I started asking myself, what am I doing? 😊
My new post is up =)
https://steemit.com/life/@island-girl/one-of-the-best-moment-of-my-life-wonderful-smiles-from-tingub-elementary-school
I saw it. It is very inspiring. Thanks for following suit with my post and doing the same thing. 😊
Though we serve as their teacher, I still learn many things from children. And one of the lessons I learned from them is to be happy in spite of what life throws at us. That is hard because it is easier said than done. But the children serves as an inspiration for the constant challenge.