Perfect strangers

OUSIE Norris always has sleepless nights thinking about what to feed her more than 100 children.

She says the last meal they had was the night before, after a stranger blessed them with three sacks of rice.

Earlier today, she was wandering around the yard, wondering what the children will have for lunch.

She always feels nervous whenever she glances at the time and it is almost 13h00. The children will be home any minute from their respective schools. And they expect to eat something.

With the little faith she has left, sometimes Ousie Norris puts the pot with water on the fire, hoping someone will bring something for them on time. Sometimes when the little ones arrive from school, she can see hunger in their eyes.

It is on days like these that she does not know how to tell them there is nothing for lunch.

If no stranger walks through that door with food, they simply go to bed hungry. Sometimes she asks them to thank God for the food, even if there is nothing in the pot.

Sometimes Norris cries quietly in her office, worried about how she will feed these children who look up to her for their next meal.

Sometimes that pot keeps boiling and boiling on the fire, with nothing in it but water.

But on this Friday afternoon, two gentlemen walk into her office, asking if this was Moria Grace Orphanage.

One of them asks Norris where her mother was, and she replies: “She is at the farm, but I am the one in charge now.”

The two men are carrying food parcels and toiletries from a car outside. One asks: “Who can we give these to? It’s for the kids.”

She breaks down in tears: “Thank you so much, I didn’t know what to feed them today.”

She calls the children outside from their rooms. With smiles on their faces, the little ones start singing: “Thank you Jesus. Amen! Thank you Jesus. Amen!”.

The strangers leave them with something to pay for their electricity as well. She cannot believe what just happened, but at last, they have something to eat for today. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Hopefully another perfect stranger will walk through the door.

*Norris Afrikaner (27), takes care of more than 140 disadvantaged children at W.I.N Afrikaner Private Hostel, also know as Moria Grace Orphanage in Dolam, Windhoek. The orphanage also caters for orphans around the country from disadvantaged backgrounds.

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