Ahead is a day of begging. They will joke and laugh and pester people as if they didn’t have a care in the world but their objectives are deadly serious: enough money to eat and purchase another night of shelter. Four lari (US $2.50), a huge sum for a child living on the street, buys a place to sleep at the café and security from rain, freezing temperatures and human predators.
Sometimes the boys stay up all night playing computer games. Then they buy a bus ticket and sleep in the back seats. But today, after a good night’s rest, they are heading for the central streets of Tbilisi to beg by the fancy shops, supermarkets and five-star hotels.
Kakhelo, 13, is Vasiko Simonishvili. His nickname is the name of his home region in eastern Georgia. The country is renowned for good wines and the people for their hard work, good character and directness. They tell you exactly what they think.
Although Kakhelo avoids eye contact, looking down as he shares his story, he is direct. He tells the brutal truth. A natural leader to whom even older street boys defer, he lets down his guard here. Bottom line, he appreciates that someone is interested in the life of a street kid.
My mother left me when I was little, so I lived with my grandparents and father until my father went to prison. He was given three years for stealing. My grandfather is a drinker. He came home nights, argued with me and sometimes beat me up.
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“I found my mother but she told me I was not her son. Sometimes I think my life would be different if my mother did not leave us. It was then my father began drinking.”
Sitting on a park bench, Kakhelo regards other children walking with their parents. His eyes reveal his longing to be in their shoes.
“My father will be released (from prison) this year. I don’t know, maybe I’ll go home then,” Kakhelo continues. Then he hangs his head and reminds himself of reality: “But my father does not care about me. Even when he was home, he would always break everything. I had a small TV and tape recorder, but he broke them both in one of his fits.”
“Freedom is good because you can do anything you want and nobody can tell you what to do.” He articulates the addictive nature of street life, no one to tell you its time for bed or you can’t go play with friends. It is unbridled freedom.
