Leesay

Ha ha, Leesay, I love this little boy, I try to have a phone conversation today and all I can hear is Leesay screaming and laughing in the background. Leesay is 7 years old this year, I met him a year ago and when I first saw him I felt worried. He was a very tiny boy for his age, somewhat quiet, his belly was very puffy and his teeth were rotting. How could this be? I asked Gcinsizwe why Leesay appeared this way and he said that Leesay’s family has struggled for many years, they have very little food. Leesay has been my inspiration ever since, when I feel lazy or am having a difficult day I pick up his picture and smile at his tiny little face. He gives me the motivation to move forward. Leesay is like many other little boys here in Canada, his favourite activity is playing “leg horsey” and piggy back. Ha ha, oh the sore muscles I would get from bobbing this little boy around on my leg. I would get so tired but he would look up at me with his big eyes and urge me to keep going. Children make me laugh, they have so much energy, how they tire us out ha ha. I could hardly walk a foot without him pulling at my shirt to indicate that he wanted a piggy back. You would swear that he was riding a real horsey, he would laugh and laugh and laugh while I spun him around on my back. Sometimes I would spin so much that I feared I would fall over in dizziness! His little laugh was worth it, I could listen to him laugh for hours. Leesay is not the same little boy I knew last year, for almost a year now he has been receiving food from The Themba Development Project Food Delivery program. Today his puffy belly has been replaced with bounds of energy and laughter. No longer needing to worry about his hungry belly, he now runs around the community laughing with the other boys, his mind filed with nothing but little boy thoughts of playing in the mud and helping his father do big boy jobs around the house and garden.