Daddy's away on a biz trip in Pakistan for a few days. We sent him off at the airport on Sunday afternoon and by Sunday night, we were all missing him already... especially Caleb.
At the airport, as Caleb stared at Daddy getting his boarding pass at the counter, he started asking a lot of questions.
"Why's Daddy taking so long?" ... "Where's the aeroplane?"... "I'm going too?"... "Why no?"... "Why is Daddy going by himself?"... "He's coming back tonight?"... "He's coming back tomorrow?"... "Why not? Why so long? Why? Why? Why?"...
At the point when I told him that we're just sending Daddy off at the airport and we're not getting on the plane with Daddy, Caleb looked really sad. He just stared at the floor with his mouth turned down. I had to try really really hard to cheer him up and distract him.
Later that evening, I was changing Caleb into his pjs and we were talking about our usual prayers before bedtime. I was telling him that we should pray for journey mercy for Daddy and that God will keep Daddy safe and sound throughout his trip. That's when we started our conversations about the "good" and "bad" people.
I don't mean to stereotype but Pakistan isn't exactly the safest place to be in, especially when the news we get of the country are generally on wars, civil unrest, suicide bombers etc. So when Caleb started asking me why we have to pray for safety for Daddy, I had a little bit of challenge trying to put things into perspective.
Caleb: Why Mummy? Why must we pray for safety for Daddy? He's in a dangerous place?
Mummy: Umm... Yah, it's a bit dangerous...
Caleb: Why? there's bad people there?
Mummy:....umm... yah... some bad people. They like to fight with each other so... ya, it's dangerous.
Caleb: Why do they like to fight with each other? They're naughty?
Mummy: .... Umm... yah... they're naughty. They never love each other so they fight....
Caleb: Why Daddy go to a place with bad people???
Mummy: well... they're not all bad... there's good people there too. Not everybody there is bad. Just like in Spore. There's good people and bad people around too.
Caleb:... oh... (he looked deep in thought and then he insisted he didn't want to wait till bedtime but wanted us to pray for Daddy's safety immediately.)
Last night, Caleb asked me all of a sudden, "Mummy, who bring Daddy safely to the hotel? The good people?"
Mummy: Ya, the good people
Caleb: Who's the good people?
Mummy: Daddy's colleagues. They'll take care of him and bring him safely to the hotel.
Caleb: Oh...They'll keep him safe from the bad people? (Deep in thought again and then...) Mummy, let's pray for Daddy that he's safe.
Mummy:... ok... (what a sweet boy right?)
This afternoon, when I picked him up from school. Just before we left, he turned to his teacher and said...
Caleb: Teacher Agila... My Daddy is overseas.
Teacher: Oh, issit? Which country did he go to?
Caleb: Pakistan. (pauses for a moment and then...) There are bad people there you know!
Teacher: (Eyes wide open) Oh Really?!! (Teacher looks at me and I look quite embarrassed...)
Caleb: (Sees his teacher's reaction and as though to reassure her...) But there's good people too...
Teacher: oh...ok... (gives me another look.)
(That's when I think... ok, he's quite affected by this "bad people" business. Well, thank God Daddy's coming home soon. I suspect Caleb's going to go on about this "good people" and "bad people" talk till Daddy's back.)
Anyway, the boy is really sweet and really attached to Daddy. Tonight when we said our good night prayers, I asked him whether there's anything he wanted to pray about and he immediately wanted me to pray for Daddy again.
The night that Daddy left, Caleb woke up at 4am and came over to my bed looking for Daddy. He started asking me why when I told him that Daddy's not coming home for a few days. Since yesterday, he's been telling me he misses Daddy. And just now, he was walking beside me and then he just said he's looking forward to Daddy coming home.
Well, though I get lots of questions from Caleb during these few days that Daddy's away, I'm glad that there's a strong bond between Caleb and Daddy. And that Caleb has someone who's really awesome to look up to. Way to go Daddy!
