Experiencing Horses

I had one of those experiences this week where I got to watch something that warmed my heart and then spent the rest of the day smiling as I was thinking about it over and over.
So let me back up and tell the background to this:
We have this new van at TOA. We got it a few weeks ago but it has been in the shop getting painted and getting seats put into it so it hasn’t been at TOA and none of us have been driving it around. Well this week all the work in the van was completed. It looks great and everyone is so happy that we have it.
When we first got the van we were in Dar es Salaam (about a 10 hour drive from where we live in Moshi). Eli and I drove the van back to Moshi so I had driven the new van a chunk of the way back home. But Jodie did not have a chance to drive it at all since it immediately went to the shop after arriving in Moshi. When we got the van back this week Jodie mentioned to me that she had not driven it yet. So on the day I planned to go buy the eggs (I buy eggs at an orphanage run by Catholic nuns who have a lot of chickens and make extra money by selling eggs), I asked Jodie if she wanted to come with me and we would take the new van so she could drive it. Jodie was a little hesitant about driving the new van since it is a 5-speed and Eli and I had told her it drives really different from the TOA truck that is also a 5-speed. So I drove the van to buy the eggs and Jodie said she would drive the van on the way back. As she was driving it she was enjoying the smoothness in the van and the power…is really drives nice! So I told Jodie to drive up the road to the international school so she could get more practice driving it. Then I remembered someone told me they have horse riding at the international school. We had Moses in the van with us and he has never seen a horse except for the two movies we have with horses in them, which happen to be his two favorite movies. Moses LOVES talking about horses. He has a horse stuffed animal that he loves to play with. So I told Jodie we should just drive into the international school and see if we can check out the horses. Sure enough we drove in and parked. We walked towards the place we thought the horses might be and as we were walking we saw someone we recognized. Jodie asked this person about the horses and he pointed to a place just around the bend. As we walked on towards the bend we immediately saw two girls on horses riding past us. I looked at Moses to see how he was going to react. He was just calm but I could tell they had captured had his attention. We kept walking until we came to the place where the horses are kept. We stood outside the gate and saw some men putting shoes on a couple of horses. About 20 feet away was a white horse by itself, not tied up, just eating the grass. Moses said, “Look at how beautiful she is.” I knew he was in awe and loving this moment. From that time until we left I stopped watching the horses and kept my attention on Moses. It hit me: This is his first time for him to see a horse and he is in awe of the horses.
I told Moses to call the white horse because he is a nice horse and he wants to come over and say hi to him. I started making a clicking sound with my tongue and Moses did his best to imitate the sound I was making. THE HORSE LOOKED UP AND CAME OVER! She walked right up to Moses as he was sitting on the gate and I was holding him. It was so sweet. Moses, Jodie and I touched the horse and talked to it and then it went back to eating the grass.
After that Moses asked if he could go to the nearest stall and say hi to another horse. I told him he could and he went over and started talking to that horse and it came over to him so he could pet it. It was so amazing to me! Moses was so happy and brave and sweet with the horses. He talked to the horse and pet it on the head and face. I just watched and smiled and it warmed my heart to see him so excited about the horses. When we finished and were leaving Moses skipped all the way to the van. He told the other kids at TOA about the horses and I told them that I would take them next week to see the horses.
I think I am looking forward to taking them to see the horses more than they are excited about going. I get to relive that moment of watching them see a horse for the first time! Moments like this are so sweet!