My Sweet Friend, Famous

I have had the blessing of spending time with a young boy named Famous who is probably 12 years old, but because of his size looks younger. He was rescued from a life of slavery and lives in Marita Barnett house. He is such a sweet, gentle, and kind boy. He picked a flower off the tree by my house and gave it to me yesterday. He also told me I was handsome and that he loves my hair. This past week I was asked by several of the children in Famous' house to teach them how to draw the human face. So I have spent some evenings this week teaching and drawing with Famous and the other children in his house. While I was drawing one evening, Famous stood right above my shoulder watching and gently playing with my hair.

There are some really incredible and gifted young artists like Emmanual and Kojo who live in Marita Barnett. Last time, I was there for an hour and a half in the evening, and for almost a straight hour, the kids kept asking me to draw things for them instead of them drawing. I drew boys, girls, planes, ships, birds, flowers, sharks, and lions for the children. Famous saw how all the children were asking me to draw this and that for them, and he told them that I was not a machine and that I could not draw that fast. I just laughed. Then I told him about a photocopy machine and his eyes got really big in amazement at the possibility of making 25 copies of my drawing to give to all the children.

After I demostrated how to draw a boy's face, Famous asked me if he could keep the drawing. When I gave it too him, he said it was handsome and that it was him. He asked me if I would draw a girl on the back of that paper, but he said he didn't want to worry me so he would wait until I finished drawing pictures for everyone else. After I finished, I drew the girl for him and he loved it. He said that whenever he is sad, he would look at the drawing and that would make him happy because it was so beautiful. It was really precious to see his face and his amazement at the beauty of this simple sketch I drew for him. It meant so much to him.