New Trousers for Owen

So about two weeks ago one of the neighborhood kid Owen, about 10 years old, came knocking on my door asking if I had any work he could do. I couldn’t really come up with anything. I had already been to the market, the yard had just been slashed. He kind of looked at the ground and said he needed to buy some new trousers. I said I was sorry that I couldn’t help (and his trousers looked okay to me). When he turned to go, I smiled a bit due to the view. There were two a gaping holes about 6 inches each perpendicular to the middle seam. While this is not too unusual a sight I still felt bad because Owen did indeed need trousers (“Trousers” not to be confused with “pants”, which is what Ugandans call underwear.) He has continued to wear those trousers along with his usual smile for these past two weeks. He has also been persistent in asking for work, so this Saturday he has been working hard, first washing Heidi’s bike, then clearing our drainage ditch which is forever over grown. And lastly going for a market run which I was happy to pass off on this sweltering day. I gave him a list and explained it... “garlic, you know it?” (enthusiastic nodding) “oh yes it is like an onion, only not an onion.” “yes, one of those, five carrots, a pineapple, etc.”, I continued. And Owen and friend set out, my market bag over his shoulder, returning with an itemized list of how much everything cost. The only mistake was that since there was only one carrot to be found they bought 5 heads of garlic. When I paid him for his work, he had that satisfied look that comes with the reward of good, honest, hard work. The thought that he wouldn’t have be feeling the draft through his trousers much longer was that much sweeter.