Snezana

Snezana

I had been in Riga, Latvia for four days and the weather was cold and gray that January. Perhaps I was a little homesick, because I was craving a hamburger. I sat in McDonald’s in the heart of Riga overlooking the plaza around the Freedom monument. It felt like a little piece of America in the midst of the former Soviet country where I could sit and watch all the people scurry about. I bowed my head and gave thanks for my "Big Mac Komplekts". As I raised my head I felt a child tugging on my arm. It was a little girl tightly bundled up in a coat with a dirty knit cap and an outstretched hand begging for a handout. Her face was severely scratched with what looked like fingernail marks. Blonde curls poked out from beneath her knit cap and her long eye lashes swept back elegantly. Her light green eyes were empty and her countenance was fallen as one with no joy, no peace and no hope -- certainly not what a young child should be.

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I spoke to her in Latvian and asked her name. "Snezana", she replied. I thought if I gave her money that it would be used to buy alcohol for her parents. On the other hand, when these young beggers return home with nothing, they are beaten. From the looks of her face, I guessed she had seen her share of abuse. So I gave her a few coins and she quickly disappeared. As I turned to consume my Big Mac I was no longer hungry. I sat there and stared at my food and wept not only for Snezana, but for the many other needy children in Riga that I had seen. I packed up my food and went outside to give it to the little girl.

As I stood and made her picture with my video camera, a young man approached. He was a Russian street vendor that I had met a day earlier when I bought some postcards from him. "Is she Russian?," I asked him, "and where are her parents?". For the next several moments, he interrogated the child on my behalf. "Yes", he said, "she is Russian. She is six years old. Her father is in jail and her mother sends her and her eight year old brother out on the street to beg. She has a younger brother that is two years old and there is no food in the house." After several more minutes of talking with the child, she said that her mother was waiting and she had to leave. She ran across the plaza and disappeared around the corner. "What does her name mean?", I asked my friend. "Snezana," he said, "it’s like a snow flake, you know. It means snow." On this cold January day I had met a very special snow flake, as individual and as beautiful as any I had ever seen.

Three days later I couldn’t seem to forget about Snezana. It was my last day in Riga before returning home, and I felt that there was one more task I had to complete. I went to the Central Market, and for about $15 I purchased two smoked fish, two loaves of bread, a wedge of cheese, a smoked sausage, a few oranges, bananas, dried apricots, and two cartons of milk. I returned to the plaza to find Snezana and give her the food, but she wasn’t there. I found my street vendor friend and asked if he’d seen Snezana. "No", he said, "not today. She’s usually around here, though. Come on, I’ll help you find her." We went to a couple of places where she and her brother were usually begging, but there was no sign of them. For nearly two hours we sat in the plaza and talked about the people of Latvia and the many difficulties that they face. Then, we spotted her brother. When we asked him about his sister, he said that the authorities had picked her up the night before while they were begging outside a restaurant and had taken her to a children’s home. He took us around the corner to where his mother and baby brother were waiting. As I gave her the food, my friend explained to her that I had met Snezana several days earlier and wanted to help her. Her mother was very appreciative of the food. I was disappointed that I was unable to see Snezana again, but hopefully she is in a better place. No child should have to roam the streets and beg for survival.

There are many children in this world that have been robbed of their childhood. There are many children that will go to bed hungry tonight. There are many children that will suffer at the hands of their alcoholic parents. There is one child in Riga that touched my heart; one small snowflake that I shall never forget.