Thursday, January 19, 2012

Morning at Ste. Marie Madeleine School

I'm looking out from second floor verandah in the guest house.  It's recess time.  I hear the happy squeals of the preschool children as they play.  Boys play soccer, (here they call it football), except they're kicking a plastic bottle, not a soccer ball.  Kids here make do with what's available.  Two boys proudly play with toy trucks that they created with plastic bottles, using red plastic bottle caps for wheels. Kids here never cease to amaze me with their creativity and ingenuity!

Lumenn, one of the school cooks, limps from the cooking area in the back of the guest house, (one leg is shorter, the result of an accident) carrying on her head a basket of aluminum bowls and spoons that will hold the children's meal for today.  Jabon follows, carrying a huge aluminum pot filled with today's lunch, probably rice with bean sauce.  Guy follows Jabon.  He has another pot that looks very heavy.  One of the boys runs over to him and helps.  A mentally challenged young man has been hanging around, probably wanting something to eat.  The ladies give him a job to do...they don't send him away.  The cooks have been busy since early this morning.  The sounds of them chopping garlic and spices with a pestle while I'm still in bed is comforting.  I know I'm where I need to be! 

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