I wish I could say that it was just the excitement of the
party planning and Gabriel’s first bath, but frankly it’s just a free-for-all
every night. The matrons stay in
the kitchen with whichever older kids are helping to cook and we volunteers try
to wrangle the groups we put together to tutor while helping individual kids
work on their homework, but about half of the kids are inevitably roaming the
compound making mischief and leaving trails of destruction behind them. Somehow
they all know when dinner is ready, drop everything, grab their bowls, line up
to collect, and then eat. There’s
one table; a picnic table on the porch which the older kids monopolize. The rest of the kids inhale their meal
strewn about the compound. The
matrons eat in the kitchen, and the three of us eat every meal at the small
desk-table in the office. It’s not
much of a haven from the chaos, as before every meal we have to clean off the
desk and pick up the whole room.
Actually, almost every time we walk in to the office we have to clean
it. We clean and organize, then go
to the bathroom, and by the time we return someone has destroyed
everything. No one ever knows who
did it.
Their bedrooms suffer similar fates, as well as The
Hall. And the compound itself is
often littered with lonely flip flops, wrinkled and sad articles of clothing,
and bits of broken toys. Any child
with a favorite toy must either keep it in their clutches at all times, or find
a really, really good secret hiding place. If they don’t, their toy is as good as dead. Justice has had to repair his beloved
tape player twice this week alone.
When Edem materialized during dinner, he found a pile of
newly donated books shredded in a pile in the Hall. He was ripshit.
Emergency House Meeting.
I was impressed with how he handled it. He started off by telling everyone what
a good job they’ve been doing at not hitting or insulting each other
lately. Then he launched into
it. He’s upset. Very disappointed. He
paced in front of the lot of penitent children who hung their heads. People work hard and spend
their own money to buy toys and books and school supplies and look at what
happens. School pencils lost. Toys destroyed. The office is a mess. Edem stopped, turned to face them and crossed his arms. He’s not a tall man, but right then it
felt like he was seven feet. He
asked them to think about this problem and come up with things they can do to
take better care of their toys and what the punishments should be for those who
do not care for things.
After he left the kids worked on decorations, a little more
solemnly than before, and trickled off to bed.
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