Cry, my beloved people

Happy Part 28

The next day Gogo took her to the waste heaps on the outskirts of the village.   It was a long walk and she felt tired, but when they started collecting plastics,  the time went by quickly.  They filled up big black bags of all kinds of plastic.  Gogo showed her which ones she should gather.  Gogo smiled at her and told her that she is a hard working girl and she will always have everything that she needs because of that.

At lunchtime, a man with a big truck stopped next to them.  He smiled happily when Gogo gave him ten bags instead of the usual eight.  Gogo laughed as she tapped Lindie on the shoulder and said:  "I had a little help today."

The man said:  "That's good, she is already earning her bread for the day."  Then he gave Gogo some money.

"That's a good idea, I think I can afford some flour to make us some bread," Gogo said and smiled at Lindie.

The man laughed and said:  "And tomorrow it is jam," and drove off. 

Lindie saw something green between the rubble and picked it up.  "Look Gogo it's growing," she said and showed Gogo a piece of onion with fresh green shoots on it.

"Oh Lindie that is nice, you should plant it next to the house and water it, then you can grow your own onions."

"I'll do that, thank you Gogo," and she hugged her leg.

As soon as they arrived home she started her vegetable patch, by planting one onion and five dried beans that Gogo gave her.  She watered it well as her mom showed her.

From that day she was always collecting bits and pieces of vegetables for her "Veggie patch" as she called it.  She planted tomato seed and celery and some more onions and was delighted when Gogo started using it in their soups and stews.

One Sunday after Church Gogo was chatting with one of her friends.  Lindie was looking around when she spotted a vegetable patch behind the church.  She walked towards it and was staring at the nice big butternuts that were lying all over the place.

The priest saw her and offered her one.

She took it and said excitedly:  "Thank's, thank you so much, I'm going to plant the seeds."

He smiled at her enthusiasm and asked:  "Do you have enough space to plant all of them?'

She looked doubtful:  "Maybe one or two, but not all of them, they grow quite big."

He laughed and said:  "Here is enough space, you can plant some of them here,  I'll clean up some land for you."

"I would like it, can I bring the seeds next Sunday?"  She asked.

"Yes, and if it grows well and bears fruit, I would like to pick some of them for the needy people in the community, may I do that?"   He asked.

"Yes," she said excited," we are going to have lots and lots of pumpkins."

That was the start of Lindie's "Veggie Patch" at the church.  She surprised Gogo and the priest by working every Sunday after church in the vegetable patch, planting cleaning and watering it.  She produced a lot of vegetables for the community.

The priest encouraged her to sell some of it and she and Gogo took a basket of her fresh produce to uncle Bill.  He was astonished at what his "Little one"   achieved and promised to send his delivery man twice a week with an order.

"This will help us paying for all that stuff you will need for school next year,"  Gogo said as she hugged  Lindie.  Lindie felt so happy and so blessed.