The whole street in front of our house is tinted red from all dust into the air.  Mom and I sit on the side of the road where the boys are playing football, watching and waiting to see who the Lord has for us to talk to today.  Instead of tall people, little ones come instead.  Slowly, shyly they come up in pairs, running to catch up with each other.  They stand behind us waiting to see what we will do.  Talking and pushing each other towards us.

I draw a smiley face and try to hand the pen to her.  She just stares as I draw another face.  I take her hand and place the pen in it, guiding her hands to draw, first a circle then two eyes and a smile.  She looks up at me and smiles as she copies my picture.  The others slowly gather around, waiting for their turn.  I hand out sticks to everyone and show them to draw on the hard, red dirt.  They all plop down in a circle around me, each with stick in hand drawing smiley faces in the dust covered ground.

The boys come, ready to play football just like every Sunday afternoon.  They come two here, one there, some walking up to watch from afar.  The broken cinder blocks are set up 3 feet apart for a goal on each end and the game begins only to be  stopped by a moto going down the road or a mother carrying water on her head and a baby on her back.  

The ball, once white, is now a rusty red.  Bare feet run over rocks, sticks, glass and broken stone.  The dust cloud grows larger the longer they play.  The ball is kicked and chased, caught and scored.  Young ones run from the sidelines to help fetch balls gone out of bounds, thrilled to be able to play with a real ball instead of a wad of plastic.  

The sun sets, making all the earth look red.  Nowhere else can you see a sun like this.  Big, hot and red.  The light filters through the dust and life is slowing down.  The kids start going back to their courtyards as everyone starts to settle in for the night.  We say goodnight to the boys we have been getting to know and put away the cinder block goals for next week.  I look up at our new neighborhood and can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for us to accomplish here.