Chapter Next

The hives, bar a trace outline, have gone. Yesterday I walked to work from the central bus station like every time. I was tired from a one hour commute, taken three times in one day for complicated reasons. When I took the walk up the gruesome street that houses the African Refugee Development Center there were more crack-heads than usual, and a large group of angry sweaty children in front of the center.

I don’t know what went on, except that there was a lot of junk food strewn about the ground and the kids were hitting the smaller kids, hard, in the head. It brought back memories of that horrible video of the students that killed their classmate fighting in the hot streets. These moments, for a teacher, are awkward. They were not my children and they were not in my jurisdiction but once a teacher, always a teacher.

When I heard the fists on flesh I started yelling from down the street for them to stop. When I got closer I yelled less because it was clear it was more out of hand than I understood, and there was a chance the kids would turn on me. Angry hurt and hungry children are more fierce than anyone. I saw this in South Africa and I saw this in Brazil and so I started walking away. I was on the verge of tears, those thwaps to the little boy and girl’s heads were hard.

I wasn’t really leaving and not really totally engaging and then people ran out, adults, from the refugee center and a woman grabbed and held one of the girls and a man talked to the kids and then it was over, they dispersed. I was glad I yelled a little. In DC, when I was driving I would sometimes see people starting fights, one time saw someone get shot. When I saw physical fights starting I would honk my horn really crazy like hoping to spook them out of their anger, and/or draw attention to the scene.

Things here change every day. I am staying as a house sitter in a cousin’s house where it is quiet and there are no cockroaches. I am not interested in parties or all night discos. I want to teach and I want to teach well. I want to learn and learn well. And then, I want to go home. In the meantime, I want to rebuild my immune system from all that time sick, and maybe hear some music and walk the beach. I am a simple explorer, not a conqueror.