Little Man is a pretty brave kid. Not much freaks him out. But one thing that has stayed with him from his days as a toddler is his fear and dislike of 'go-gee-choes' (phonetic spelling.)
When he first came home, every night he would ask me if there were gogeechoes outside. He was terrified. He didn't want to go to the bathroom alone. He didn't want to be in his room alone.
I did some research, and discovered that in the rural area where he spent his early years there were only a few different animals that it possibly could be, lions, crocodiles, or hyenas. Unfortunately, he couldn't explain to me what exactly he was afraid of, he was just scared.
I decided to do what any good mother would do. Find away to convince him that the gogeechoes were all gone and resign myself to checking google every so often to see if I could ever find a translation for the word.
I first tried explaining that it was too cold for the gogeechoes to live here. It didn't work.
I tried telling him that our dogs would keep them away. Still didn't work.
Then one night I had a flash of inspiration. I told him that when the bathroom fan pumped certain 'odors' outside, the smell killed off all of the gogeechoes. Problem solved. Suddenly, every smelly bodily function was a natural tool for exterminating his greatest fear.
A couple of years ago, my brother and sister-in-law met someone that came from the same village that Little Man came from. They decided to ask him if he knew what gogeechoe met. He didn't, but he emailed a friend who knew Little Man's tribal language and finally the mystery was solved.
Gogeechoes are hyenas.
Tonight, we were attempting to watch a show on the National Geographic channel about lions (his favorite animal.) Unfortunately, they also were covering the story of the lions enemies, the hyena (his least favorite animal.) As a seven year old, he no longer is openly afraid of hyenas. He just calls them stupid creatures. But we still couldn't watch the show. It was just too much.
Little Man is a success story for 'older' child adoption. He is charming, loving, a hard worker, and just a fun kid to be around. By all appearances, he is just an average seven year old. But, he is also a child that will always have the experiences of his early years as part of who he is. Some of those experiences were good, some not so much. He will always bear the scars of that early loss and struggle. But all of the things he has gone through in his life, whether in Ethiopia or here are making him into the amazing kid.
Makes my fear of snakes seem kind of pitiful.
So sometimes old fears rear their ugly heads.
But we tackle the fears together.
