the most precocious little girl...

I have ever met. Regina was one of the first little ones we got to know. There was something very different about this two year old. She was not like the other kids. She couldn't care less about the yovus. She came over because Dora, her mom came over, but she was not the least bit impressed by us. The other kids loved us immediately because we were different. We had to win over Regina every day.
I have met very few people as self-assured as Regina. She knows exactly who she is and who you are- "I'm Regina, and you're a yovu." She tells you if you piss her off- "Don't take my beads or I'll hit you with a stick." And she knows where she was going in life- "Dora, let's go home right now."
Regina literally acts like a twenty year old. Because Tefle is such a safe village, she is free to wander around, going yard to yard. She bosses around kids four times her age, and is always the leader of the pack. She refers to her mother as Dora, and Dora is the only person who she ever obeys, with a quiet respectfulness.


But, Regina is only two, and she lives in a tiny and frail body. When she came down with malaria, we were all stricken with worry. Dora didn't have the money to take her to the doctor, and Regina's fever was 102. She wouldn't eat. Her head hurt and she didn't want to be near light. When I held her, she felt like a hot, limp doll in my arms, nothing like the rambunctious fighter I was used to. I couldn't help but run statistics of less developed country child mortality rates through my head. I told Dora that we would do anything, anything at all to help, determined not to lose this precious child. We gave Regina some tylenol and told Dora to please let us know if she got worse. But, Regina is a fighter, and slowly got better over the next few days. She was back to her old self by the time we left- it was such a relief when she refused to hug me goodbye.