Just to finish off the story about the little girl we met outside McDonald's in India.
We went back to McDonald's the following day and after our meal we bought a couple of the chocolate dipped ice-cream cones and went outside hoping to see the little girl again. We couldn't see her anywhere so we left the main street and went down a few back alleys.
On the other side of the road from us, on a rubbish strewn piece of waste ground, we saw a makeshift shelter. The little girl was there, she was carrying a baby. We waved her over. When she arrive we could see that this wasn't 'our' little girl, but one that was slightly older, perhaps 10 or so. She did look very much like our girl though, I think they were sisters.
She held out her hand and we gave her an ice-cream cone, which she immediately gave to the baby. He was perhaps one year old and was naked except for a tattered vest. I looked at him a little more closely and noticed that he was definitely blind in one eye, and, judging by the way he reacted to sound only, perhaps blind in both. He held the ice-cream to his nose for a second and then put it quickly to his mouth.
By this time, three more children had arrived, one was a waif like boy of about 6, another was a Black African looking boy of about 12 or 13, (God only knows what he was doing there with these others, but I've heard that street children often band together in little 'family' type groups for company and security) The last one was the original little girl that we had met yesterday.
Now we had a problem. Too many children and not enough ice cream. We motioned them to follow us back to McDonald's. They quickly did so, but the older girl sat the baby down in the middle of the footpath and left him behind. I signed my concern about this to her but she pointed to a stick wielding security guard at the top of the street and by doing an excellent mime, made me understand that the guard would try to hit them and the baby couldn't run away.
Sure enough, the guard did try to swipe the kids with the stick as we passed, but they avoided him easily. I told him the kids were with me. I don't know if he understood, but he grudgingly left them alone.
Mrs Red and I went into the McDonald's while the kids waited outside, anxiously watching us from a safe spot 20 or 30 yards away.
By the time we came out they were beside themselves with excitement, they were all desperate to get an ice-cream, but all concerned that everyone else got one to, one of them even managed to make us understand that there was another member of their gang sitting under a tree over the road doing shoe shines, and would we take him an ice-cream too?
The older ones did their best to make sure the younger ones behaved properly, and the girl who had left the baby sitting on the pavement continually ran back to the corner to make sure he was OK.
When they had finished their ices, we gave them a few hundred rupees and said our goodbyes. I have never had so much pleasure from spending so small an amount of money. And I've never been so happy and so sad at the same time either.
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