Ricardo was one of the kids at the SOS Village. Wild and untamed is how I would describe him....He hung around with a group of boys who were always into trouble and on September 30th it caught up with him. The boys had climbed over a wall to escape the village, were running across a busy street when a car struck Ricardo, killing him instantly. And now I'm left wondering what could have been...Here are my strongest memories of Ricardo:
At the KG: When I was volunteering at the kindergarten last year, I had many run-in's with Ricardo. We tried our best to make him stay in class and listen to the lessons, but he was always too antsy, he literally couldn't sit still! And if he did stay in the class he was generally disruptive and combative towards the other children. So much of the time he spent running around in the courtyard or helping the custodian, Uncle Andele. But the sweetest memory I have was when he graduated from kindergarten last year, he told one of our other volunteers to "Tell that guy (Denzel) that I graduated!" He was so proud and wanted someone to know!
When I would see Ricardo in the village in the evening, he was always in motion, running around, climbing things, he couldn't be bothered to come down and talk to us boring old people!! But at the same time he loved to go into the hall where we did a lifeskills program with the teenagers and wreak havoc! That is how most of us from YFC remember Ricardo. Running around, being disruptive, but impossible to catch to talk to, impossible to get him to stop for a moment and listen to you...
I don't know what his background was, all the kids at SOS have suffered from either abuse or neglect or both and have been sorely let down by the adults in their lives, he has 3 other siblings still living at the village.... I don't know how long Ricardo had lived at the village... I know his SOS mom worried about him and had trouble keeping tabs on him, try as she might... I always wondered about Ricardo myself... since he couldn't stay in class, how could he learn? And if he had no education, what was his future? To be honest, I thought without some sort of intervention, Ricardo would end up in jail. And so maybe God knew Ricardo was too wild for this world, he couldn't be tamed and he couldn't be forced to conform to society, so now he's at peace and I hope his soul is free.... I miss seeing Ricardo race past me at the village... and again, I can't help but wonder what might have been... I have nothing but love and memories of this wonderful, wild child...Ricardo
1 comment:
Oh Bobbi, I'm so sorry to hear that! I'm praying that his siblings will be comforted, as will you.
Post a Comment