January 21, 2012

   Well another Saturday has come and gone. The 1^st weekend I got back a new tradition began, between 2 and 10 of my pupils show up knocking at my door to visit. Today they came just before 7:30 am, I was still asleep and was woken by sounds of banging on my front door and a multitude of kids shouting, “Teacher!! Teacher!!” I quickly jumped up and hurried to the door, hoping they hadn’t woken my neighbors as well. There were 4 of my boys at the door with huge smiles on their faces as they eagerly waited for me to unlock my security door’s dead bolts. They hurried in the front door, quickly took off their shoes and made their way to the living room. Moments later there was another knock and 3 more boys scurried in. They spent time coloring, reading, playing games, chasing each other around the house and watching movies.  A couple of hours later, while I was making them all a lunch of rice and beans, yet another knock and 2 more boys.  Luckily, I made enough for all 9.  They all sat on the living room enjoying the meal and making jokes about the sounds beans cause…what do you expect when you have a house full of boys. I really couldn’t help but join them in the laughter, its contagious. After they finished their meal they finished watching, Night at the Museum as I made chocolate chip cookies. A few of the boys snuck into the kitchen to try and figure out this apparently new smell. The watched as I took the 1^st batch out, placed them on a plate and began spooning the next round of batter onto the cookie sheet. They watched with curiosity in their eyes and then one of them finally asked, “Teacher, what is that?” I explained they were biscuits (what they call cookies) with chocolate in them. They did a little “happy dance” and bent down to watch the dough in the oven expand as it baked. I turned to get some water for a few of the other boys and when I made my way back to baking caught one of the boys tasting the cookie dough. HA! I guess that is not a learned behavior. Once the 2^nd batch of cookies came out of the oven most of the boys were peaking into the kitchen wondering what was smelling so good. I had them all make their way back to the living room and started passing them out. Needless to say and not surprisingly at all, they loved them.  Such an “American staple food” was something none of them had ever tasted before. Seeing them enjoy every bite made my day. I love filling little bellies. By the time they left it was after 2 and a storm was starting to roll in. I called one of my regular taxi drivers (after giving them one last cookie) and we packed the 9 of them in and he took them to the school plot so that they would not have to walk so far and risk getting stuck in the rain. Walking to my place can take them anywhere from 40-70 minutes depending on which part of the slums they come from. We will see how many show up next weekend.