CHILD'S PLAY

excerpt from TRINIDAD,WEST INDIES (see Aug 31, 2010)

I found out there had been a civil uprising when I got off the plane with my  9 year old son as we were met by a line of Trinidadian soldiers with machine guns.  The country was under curfew for awhile after we arrived.  What a scary adventure I had gotten us into.  Since I had been a Baha'i only six months I was learning quickly that reliance on God was my best protection.

One of the friends I made was the maid of one of the Baha'i families.  This woman had a son who was close to Eddie's age so one day we decided to visit her on her day off.  She lived in a small community on the side of an undeveloped hill near one of the towns.  The homes were lean-tos next to caves or just standing alone in a circle around a community cooking pit.

As my son and I walked up the hill we noticed that the people stopped and glared at us.  I found out later that this had been the hill where most of the guerilla fighters who had taken over the government from the British lived.  If I had known how hostile the feelings were I might not have had the courage to venture into this area but I was very naive.  I went to my friend's home but Eddie said he din't want to sit and listen to us talk.  Could he play with some nearby kids?  I gave him permission but told him to stay close enough to see my friend's home.  Later I hear the story of what happened in his quest for playmates.   This platinum-haired, blue-eyed son of mine went up to a group of about ten very dark, brown-eyed kids and asked them if he could play with them.  They immediately rejected his overture of friendship and told him he was too white.  They couldn't play with a white boy.  Eddie went to the cooking pit, rubbed charcoal all over his face and came back saying "now I am as black as you are, can I play?"  He looked so funny with his platinum hair and blue eyes and this black face that they laughed and accepted him.  They became very good friends.  We received many requests from them to come back and play when we moved to another part of the island.