Jiiiiiiiiimmy

I followed one of our Japanese Guides in order to evaluate her on tour, but it ended up with me joking, laughing & playing with all the kids in her tour group instead, hahaha. They were so cute, and unlike most Japanese kids I meet, they weren’t afraid of this giant Samoan, hahaha.

Towards the middle of the day, I had to leave to go take care of some things. But I didn’t want to say good bye, so I told the kids I would see them again at dinner. I thought I could go do some work, then come back and catch them before they went into the lu’au.

Some unexpected challenges popped up and I ended up getting stuck elsewhere.  So, I missed going over to catch them at dinner. In fact, by the time I was done, I could hear the announcement from the Pacific Theater that the night show was already at intermission. I wondered if I would be able to run over and somehow find them in the sea of 2,700 people at the sold-out show. I thought I should at least try.

I headed over to the theater and walked up and down the aisles looking for them, and just as I thought, I couldn’t see them. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Intermission was about to end, so I started to walk out one of the portals to

head back to my office … then I heard a tiny voice call out:

“Ji-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-mmy!”

I turned around and two of the little boys were running up the aisle towards me. One nearly toppled me over when he jumped on me, and the other came behind me and tried to reach his arms around me, hahaha. 

The smaller one, whose name is Rin, said angrily:

 “Ni-chan, mattetandayo!” (“Big brother, we were waiting for you!”).

Ummm, I very nearly came to tears right there in front of thousands of strangers, hahaha.

“Gomen! Gomen ne!” I apologized.

We talked about how much fun they had during the day & they showed me a fish they weaved in the villages earlier. The lights began to dim. Intermission was about to end, so I quickly walked them back to their seats. I high-five’d them and turned to leave, when Rin reached out and put a little bear in my hand and said:

“Ni-chan, kore ageru. Mata ao-ne!” (This is for you, brother. Let’s meet again!) …

 I smiled at him and nodded my head, but couldn’t say anything back because I was too busy trying to choke back my tears. (I’m a little baby when it comes to kids. I know.)

 I love my job and the opportunities it provides me. What an awesome blessing.