A Great Smile

Gypsies. Gypsies can be found begging around Sarajevo both young and old. Usually I always ignore them because they squirt water on your windshield and clean your window. Which is great, but then they except something from you. It bothers me that they come up to your car and when you are telling them "no" they proceed. 

Often Zack and I see the same gypsy girl begging at the stoplight near the grocery store where we shop. We think she is about nine maybe ten. We have commented to each other that she looks pretty clean when we see her and she is always smiling. One day we were at the light going to the store and I am looking out the window in the opposite direction and Zack says, "what a great smile." I turn and ask him "who are you talking about?" He says the gypsy girl. She was ahead of us and didn't make it to our car before we had to turn. She really does have a great smile. Zack says that her smile reminds him of our niece Samantha, who also has a great smile.The gypsy girl is one of the children that is probably told by her parents or someone to spend the day begging to see what they can get.

Another time going to the store we saw her again. I thought that we should get something from the store and then give it to her on our way home. Unfortunately, when we got into the store to do our shopping we forgot to pick something up for the gypsy girl. when we got back to the light she wasn't there anyways. It is almost like they are there for a minute and you turn your head and then they are gone or squirting water on you car windshield.

Well today I had to go to the store after school to get a couple more things for our trip to the coast tomorrow. I was stopped at one light waiting to turn the corner and I saw the gypsy girl on the other side of the street. I quickly thought to myself. I should buy her something today and hopefully she will still be at the light. While in the store thinking about what we needed for our trip I almost forgot about the gypsy girl.  I went back to get her a Kinder egg. For those of you who don't know about Kinder eggs, they are a hallow chocolate egg and inside the egg is a small plastic egg which contains a small prize. I love these eggs and the prizes are great. So I thought this might get a smile from the gypsy girl. I bought one egg and was so excited to get to the light so I could give her the Kinder egg. I kept hoping that she would still be at the light, so I could give her my Kinder egg.

My day was made after leaving the grocery store. I was approaching the light and I could see the gypsy girl. I purposely slowed down the car, so I would get stopped at the light. There were about five cars ahead of me, so I waited patiently for her to approach the car. She slowly walked by the cars not standing and begging. If they gave her something great, but if not she kept walking. The car in front of me gave her some change. I rolled down my window because I was next. I showed her the Kinder egg and gave it to her and she gave me one of her great smiles and said "Hvala" (thank you). I said "Molim" (your welcome) as she was walking away. That was a great way to end a day. Too bad Zack was on a bus coming back from a school trip to Italy.