Today was one of my last days teaching at Berlitz. One of my favorite students, Mohammad, brought me flowers. This really touched me, primarily since he is 5 so you know he had to ask his mother to get them for me or told her about me but also because I don’t feel that I have been particularly successful as a teacher. I guess regardless of that, the little ones like me. During recess Mohammad is always a few feet away from me, my little shadow. I will even miss Omar and Laith, who are the naughtiest ones.
I recently started a private class of a brother and sister who are such well behaved children. As we were finishing up a class today they did not want the lesson to end and even tried to persuade me to stay longer. This class is on their weekend, their day off from school, they should be dashing out the door! So for one of my last days there, I was in really high spirits walking home with my flowers and crafts the kids made and was thinking fondly of Syrian children.
As we were walking home Bobby told me that one of the neighborhood kids had thrown rocks at him that morning, I guess to try to get his attention. Typically all the children in the neighborhood play in an open courtyard in front of our apartment. We are always greeted with “HALLO, HALLO, HOWR YOU?” and a lot of hand shakes and high-fives. I was surprised to hear that it was one of these kids who threw the rocks at him.
We were finally reaching our courtyard and as usual, the kids are outside playing. Today since I had all the flowers and crafts I did not have any hands free to shake hands or high-five and all of the kids expectantly swarmed around me waiting for their greetings. As I went through the door one of the little boys hit my BUTT! I was so shocked that this happened, I instantly dropped my things and spun around after him shouting “Eib Balak, wein umak!!!” “Shame on your, where’s your mother?”. This was the same kid who threw rocks at Bobby. We darted after him but he was already off to the busy Bab Mousalla district to get lost in the crowds. We waited by our neighborhood vegetable vendor hoping he would pass by again so we could scold him. All of his friends stood there with their jaws dropped and we started asking them what this kid’s name is, where his house is. Apparently his name is Jamal but they don’t know which building is his. So all the local kids and our neighborhood vendor knew he did something wrong and we were on the lookout for him.
It was such a shock to see this kind of behavior, here it brings huge shame not on the kid but the whole family. So his actions were certainly the exception, not the norm. Our friend thinks he was just trying to get our attention, and didn’t mean any harm by it. I do believe that, It was just a bit of a shock to have two extremes in one day. Dropping the flowers that one little boy gave me so that I can run after the one who hit my butt. Since the event, the little boy has been in hiding and will probably not come out for some time, after all, we Americans are the ones they think “kill children in Iraq”.
