My Little Friend! Teacher Nick Hanlon

One of the wonderful aspects of life is that it affords the opportunity to meet so many different types of people. Last December I was fortunate enough to meet a little girl called Clara. She was only three at the time but she already had a working knowledge of three languages-English, Thai and French. Soon I volunteered to be her baby sitter for a night while her mother worked as a bartender. It would be a bit of an understatement to say we got off to a rough start. She bawled her eyes out for well over an hour when she was separated from her mother. Everytime I tried to comfort her she pushed me away saying she didn’t like me. Eventually a Pakistani man called Omar came to my rescue. He runs a shop that is right near the restaurant where we were situated and immediately befriended Clara by playing games with her on his iphone and by singing songs to her as well .Guess his experience as a father helped out.

Over the next few weeks I would go to the apartment where Clara and her mother Connie were staying. Her parents were divorcing and the father just really couldn’t be bothered babysitting her during the week. For the first couple of weeks a lot of crying happened in the first hour after Connie left for work. After that I would read her a book or watch some cartoons with her. She would often fall asleep easily enough after a couple of hours but I do remember one night when she was howling for her mother to come back through the window at 11 p.m. Somehow she managed to calm down enough so that when Connie came back she was sleeping. But the first few weeks were pretty traumatic for her.

After a month or so she was a lot calmer about me babysitting her. There was a lot less crying but she still told me “I DON’T LIKE”, pointing a finger at me. Me, I just let it slide. We got into the habit of playing a lot together-whether it be games on the computer, drawing, reading or just acting crazily. She loves to sing and dance-does little Clara. She directed me to sit and observe while she performed standing on the bed. This could go on for the best part of half an hour or so. Gradually she decided she was going to put up with me.

After a couple of moths Connie moved out of her apartment and moved into mine. Along came the little fireball of energy called Clara. Soon I was taking her to kindergarten .I had never taken anyone to kindie before and there was an odd sort of happiness about it. Get up at 7.30 a.m., help her find the right clothes, give her some toast and jam and a banana. Cross the road holding her hand. Get in the tuk-tuk and ride with her to the kindie. Help her out of the tuk-tuk and deliver her through the front gate. On the way home she always insisted upon some chocolate roti at the stall just outside the gate. By now I was insisting that she always say please and thankyou whenever something was bought on her behalf. In thai of course. And then the singing and dancing would commence once she got home. Just after I’d spolit her with an ice-cream or a chocolate-flavoured milk drink-again. And yet another piggy-back ride.

One Sunday remains with me. It was the day that her parents had to do a visa run on a bus to the border so they left me with her for the day. We spent the whole day together, culminating in an afternoon at the local park where there rides for the kids, such as the jumpy castle, the merry ground and the trampoline. She loved that and she loved me for it. The idea was to let her have as much exercise as possible so that she would be sleeping when Connie came back. She went non-stop for hours but eventually I bought her a balloon and took her home in the tuk-tuk. When we arrived home we played some more by dragging her along the tiled floor in a blanket. Eventually she did tire enough to fall asleep. This time she cuddled up to me and told me she loved me as she was falling asleep. After all the heartbreak, the anger at being left alone with a stranger, the pain of seeing her parents becoming separated she had found some comfort with me just as I had found happiness by looking after and sharing the joy of her childhood. Now I had to remind her not to call me daddy, but Nick.

One day I was cycling down from Doi Suthep mountain and stopped at the traffic lights. There was a great big chopper motorcycle with a little girl wearing a pink dress and a blue helmet on the backs seat,wrapping her tiny arms around the guy riding the motorcycle.It was Clara, of course. She was being minded by someone else. W e said a few words and she gave me a goodbye kiss and we high-fived  before she sped off down the road, holding on tight to the man controlling the chopper. After another two minutes of cycling along the same road I noticed a small red object lying on the road.                       

I slowed down to have a look at it and I just couldn’t believe what it was. It was “Ling”, her toy monkey. Ling had a slight smudge mark but it could be cleaned up.Clara had just dropped Ling and I had been fortunate enough to pick up her toy just minutes later. A few days later when I presented Ling back to her she posed for some photos with Ling, her favourite pet toy. You can see her sense of ownership in the photo and she was very pleased to have Ling brought to her by yours truly.  So much so she ran around our table with Ling for about an hour.

Life can truly be a blessing at times. I didn’t know life could be so joyous, but I do now. Thank you Clara for being my little friend.

Teacher Nick Hanlon