Jackson

Before I came to Nepo, I was told by more than one person, “Go with no expectations.”  While I tried not to come down with many expectations, I did have some preconceived ideas about what my time would be like down here.  Some of those ideas have been close to reality and some couldn’t be further from the truth.  But, one of the things that I never expected (in retrospect, I’m not sure why I never considered this) is the reality of boys coming and going in this place.  While I did give some thought to the fact that we would probably get new boys during my time here, I never once thought about having boys leave and how very difficult that would be.  Such is the case with a boy named Jackson.

Jackson was one of the first boys that I met here at the orphanage.  Unlike a lot of 15 year old boys that I used to work with at the middle school, Jackson was an absolute sweetheart.  Always the first to smile and offer a great big thumbs up every time you walked passed him, he spread joy wherever he went.   Jackson was very eager to learn English and always wanted to know how to say things in English.  Conversely, he was just as willing to teach me Portuguese and his lessons were extremely helpful.  On one of my first days here, it was Jackson who asked me in Portuguese if I wanted to stay here forever.  During my second week here, it was Jackson who came to my window and asked me in English to come here please.  I went to the front door and when I opened it, I was greeted with a large living fish flopping around in my face along with Jackson’s smiling face.  Jackson quickly learned the phrase “Kaych (how they pronounce my name in Portuguese) come here please” and I knew that whenever I heard that phrase some type of adventure and laughter would soon follow.  J 

Thursday, February 23 seemed like a pretty typical day….we watched the little kids in the morning and on my lunch break, I did some puzzles with Jackson, Bruno, and Tulio.  I helped Marcela in the afternoon, and in the evening, I played Trouble with Jackson, Fabricio, Alan, and Jessica.  Little did I know that it would be my last day with Jackson…..on Friday at lunch, Viktoria mentioned something about Jackson’s departure and I asked her what she was talking about.  She then went on to explain that Jackson’s mother had called a few days earlier and after 7 years of him living here, his mom decided that she wanted him back.  So, that morning she had come and picked him up.  I had no clue he was leaving and initially was quite shocked to realize that he was gone for good.  I would love to have had a chance to say goodbye and to thank him for how welcome he made me feel here (although with my limited Portuguese I probably wouldn’t have been able to say even that  J ).  While I do miss Jackson…his smile and helpfulness, the way he would randomly take off his flipflop on the sidewalk to start a game of flipflop soccer…I am so thankful for the two weeks that I had the pleasure of knowing him and the lessons I learned from him.  Along with the Portuguese he taught me, I have learned to expect anything and be grateful for everything, especially every single day that I have with these boys, because you never know when it will be your last and they will be gone. 

Playing Trouble with Jackson on what ended up being his last night
at the orphanage.
(The photo quality is not the best because it was taken by one of the
boys and they don't quite know how to properly use a camera...
meaning they often put their fingers in front of the flash and
sometimes even the lens itself )  :)