Arun... aka, potato.

October 28, 2009
If Laxman’s my favorite kid to laugh with, Arun’s my favorite boy to laugh at. Well, not really, because he’s always laughing too, but he’s just one of those kids that you look at and laugh! The kids call him “Aloo,” which means potato. And actually, he really does remind me of a potato! I can’t really describe why. I think it’s because he has this long, lanky body with 13 year old limbs flying everywhere all the time, and this smallish potato shaped head. I totally don’t mean that in a mean way, and Arun totally takes it in good measure!

When he goes up and down the stairs, he doesn’t walk like a normal person, or even skip steps like most boys do. He FLIES. I’ll see a flash of blue streak past, and I know it’s Arun. He goes up and down the stairs exactly like my brother back in Kansas! He literally leaps down the flights of stairs, while his arms wait on the previous level, and then seem to retract down to his body! While all the kids feel like little siblings to me (we really are one huge family here!), Arun really seems like my brother. The other day, he came galloping into my room, one pant leg rolled completely up and the other down, shirt dripping from his hands, with water all over his body! Grinning, he proceeded to shake as much of the water off on me as he possibly could before putting back on his shirt. Thankfully, he’d just washed his hair out in the well, so he was clean!

He has the type of self confidence that I think most people wish they had. He really doesn’t care what other people think of him (at least that I’ve seen!), and is far more concerned with ensuring that he’s properly entertained. He needed a safety pin last week for something, and has worn it in the middle of the front of his t-shirt ever since. It’s not holding anything, it’s just there. And if he puts on a sweater, there it is! He really struggles with reading out loud (which we do every night in devotionals), and I wonder if he’s dyslexic. He’s a sharp math student though I think he struggles some in the other subjects due to the reading. His mind is crisp, but I think he has trouble projecting that onto paper...

If you ever find Arun and he’s not smiling or laughing at something, the world may have ended. He might just walk up to you, grin, and put his arm around you and walk with you. He might come up spray water on you! He might sprint with you to the store as fast as he can, leaving you in his dust, and then turn around grinning and watch you catch up. Or he might draw aliens on the table with you (they wiped off) and then crack up laughing for several minutes looking at them. I think of all the people I know in the world, Arun enjoys life the most!