T-Shirt Prison Day

I mentioned before that the kids didn't have school on Thursday or Friday. This was due to "Dia del Maestro," or "Teacher's Day". El Señor (I've recently learned that his name is Jose, but much too late for me to switch) asked me if we have that in the US. I did a quick inventory of my Spanish vocabulary and grammatical abilities in order to discern whether or not I would be able to explain to him that we do have something similar though it is not quite so much of a holiday as school is still in session, but more of just a day in which you're generally supposed to say "Thank You" to your teacher, or at the very most if you're not such a great test-taker present her with a stuffed bear holding a heart embroidered with the phrase "World's Best Teacher". My verdict was that he wouldn't really care anyway; he already thinks America is just a bunch of people dancing naked at the gas station. (He watched some documentary on a San Diego nudist colony?) So I just said "Sí." He asked me what it was called. I should have lied and just said "Teacher's Day", because it turns out "appreciation" isn't the easiest word for someone unfamiliar with English to swallow and I felt bad listening to him say over and over something that sounded more or less like "T-Shirt Prison Day".

So anyway, yeah, no school and I spent all day there on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This required me eating lunch there, which having seen the dirt-caked insect-infested "kitchen", made me a bit nervous. But I couldn't resist the squeals of excitement that followed Alicia's inquiry as to whether I'd like to eat with them, and so I agreed. I'm already pretty much convinced that considering where I work, there's not much chance of me getting out of here without at least one instance of getting sick or contracting lice or something. But, we'll hope otherwise, and so far so good.

I'm happy to report that, though deprived of so many of the culinary wonders of the world, and more than likely some of the nutrients they should be getting, at least these kids are not starving. As I mentioned before, breakfast is always warm milk and bread. The most popular way to approach this meal is by breaking the bread into little pieces and putting it in the milk, and then spooning out the soggy result. I think drinking milk is disgusting in the first place, so I try to hide from them the grimace that I know starts to form as I watch. Even worse is when they put the rim of the cup down at the edge of the table to corral the precious dropped crumbs into it. Judging by lack of disinfectant products, that tabletop probably has more germs on it than the bottom of my shoe. I thought about buying such products, but they wouldn't be able to replenish them, so I don't know if I'd be doing more harm than good when considering the tolerance for germs they seem to have built up in their immune systems from living like this.
Lunch Thursday was noodles with tomato puree and a piece of bread, Friday was rice with tomatoes with a piece of bread, and Saturday was polenta with tomatoes and a piece of bread. Where they might suffer from the lack of protein, I'm sure it's doing me good to have a meal a day that isn't a steak or a sausage. I feel bad taking their food though, and dish about half of mine into the kid's bowls when El Señor isn't looking. It's not that he would mind them having extra food, it's just that I have a feeling he would assume they asked me for it and a lecture would then ensue.

He can be very firm, even mean. He yells, he sometimes expects Tutui to be behaving like an 8 year old even though he's 3, and he never calls Fabiano by any name other than "El Gordo" [Basically, "Fatty"]. You can tell he's a good guy somewhere underneath it all though. I mean, he's taking care of these children that others have abandoned. He jokes with them, dances with them, and is always trying to find little ways to brighten their day, whether it be with a few swallows each (literally) of Coca-Cola or an occasional bowl of popcorn for everyone to share.

Anyway, it's getting late.
I had more to write but I think it'll wait until tomorrow...