… and suddenly out of the crowd - towards me - came this stern little 12 year old boy with his dark eyes....

He looked a bit apathetic, his mouth standing a little open. Staggering from one leg to the other, he took my hand, and while we started swaying to the music, he started smiling.

I wanted to smile back at him, at him who was too weak, malnourished, ill, his joints sticking out underneath his skin, his ancles swollen, his bare feet with infected open wounds. The whole child dirty, his skin dirty, his sweatshirt torn and stained, his dusty trousers hanging loose on him...

There we were tapping from one foot to the other, holding hands.

I felt I could do nothing for him, though there was the desire to do so much... to feed him, wash him, give him new clothes, give him medical care, an education.... But what could I really give, that was not just alms? -

A smile was all I could offer him for the moment.
The smile that cost me the most effort, ever. Face, come on, you have to look like a smile, even if you feel like crying.

And then I smiled at the boy who touched my hand but whose eyes touched my soul. An encounter that will give me the strength and endurance to transform the helplessness of this moment into sustainable help in the future.