Monday was a special day, because instead of a holiday Honored Guests (alumni) had come from the UK to give presents to the children. We were scheduled to start at 10am, so anxious to be punctual I turned up at 9.50. I think this was a bit of a shock, because they ushered me into a dark little cupboard where I sat until twelve. I asked what the delay was: apparently no one had asked which of the Honored Guests were actually showing up, so they waited an extra two hours just to be sure everyone that was coming had come.
The president of the Honored Guests began her speech as follows:
"I used to go to this school, but it is so terrible now that I am ashamed to say I went here."
The guests gave each of the children little presents (notepad, pens, pencils, and a book) which they went bananas over, and then little lunch packets which sent them ballistic and their orderly lines turned into a mass riot. During lunch I asked some of the children their names, and began writing them down in my notebook. At first it was just one or two, but before I knew it, more and more were gathering. It turned into a feeding frenzy. They were screaming their names at me to write down, so loud I couldn't hear what any of them were saying. The din was getting louder and louder and the children were climbing on top of each other to get my attention. They had coalesced into a human pyramid and at one point I looked up and couldn't see the sky - just dozens of little faces and big eyes staring down at me. Think Lord of the Flies times ten. I thought I was going to pass out but fortunately one of the teachers saw what was happened and shooed them away.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully. One girl wrote down her phone number for me, they were fascinated by my 1990's cellphone, and a tiny little boy held my hand nearly all the way home. Some of the guys on the side of the road asked me if he was my son. So cute.
