Of Weather and Boys

Hi everybody,
I hope you're all feeling lucky, because this is the 3rd entry in the lat 30 hours! I know, I'm prolific. It was HOT today. According to Weather.com, it was 99 degrees yesterday plus humidity, and it felt even hotter today. At the end of the day though, there was a terrific sunset that turned the sky this orange/pink/purple color. I went inside to get the camera to take a picture, and it had already nearly disappeared! However, I think I managed to still get a couple nice photos.




On another weather-related note, this is the 4th or 5th night in a row that we've had lightning on the horizon, although only yesterday did a storm actually hit us. But it certainly makes the nights more interesting.

On a more serious note, I've spent a good deal of time talking, writing and thinking about how cute and wonderful these kids are, but that's not always this case, as I was reminded today. Really, my only issues with the kids thus far have been getting them to share things and play nice, and getting the littler kids to do what we tell them to. However, I have noticed that the kids can be mean, and even vicious at times, in both actions and words. Often, when one child is annoying another child, the child will take it upon himself or herself (it's equally prevalent) to physically berate the one who is doing the annoying. I witnessed a boy take a girl by her hair and nearly swing her around because she was annoying him. The girl wasn't hurt, and didn't even seem to seriously bothered, but I was mildly shocked. There have been instances that end in crying and tears, especially among some of the younger ones, who are a bit more fragile (although seemingly no less vicious). It's difficult to try and explain to these kids that they shouldn't be doing that to each other, especially when a frequent answer is "well, he was annoying me."

However, I think that to be less of a problem than the following issue, which was particularly noticeable today. There is one young boy of probably 7 years old or so who seems a bit fragile. He is very quick to cry if he gets hurt, even if it's not seriously, and is very clingy, always looking for attention and positive feedback. I've noticed that a number of the kids seem to make fun of him, and target him, for no discernible reason. This came to a head tonight when 3 or 4 boys about 9-11 years old were mocking this particular boy and giving him a difficult time. The boy seemed particularly upset by this, so I told them to stop, which they eventually did. I asked why they were so mean to him, and they responded that he was a mariposa. Mariposa means butterfly, but is also (derogatory) slang for a gay man. He's a mariposa they said. Le gustan a los hombres. He likes men. En la noche, siempre quiere tocar a los hombres. At night, he always wants to touch men. I had absolutely no response.

These kids are otherwise sweet, cute 10 year olds, but here were mocking a 7 year old for being gay, which seems implausible and wrong on a number of different levels. The lone boy and the group of boys went off in their own separate directions, and I was just left standing there, trying to figure out what was going on. Why a group of boys would want to label a 7 year old as gay and mock him for it was (and is) beyond my comprehension. At most, this boy is small, shy and soft-spoken. Is that why he was labeled as gay? This left me far more concerned then kids fighting over toys or being annoying, and I still don't know what to think.

Tomorrow is my last day before leaving on Saturday, and hopefully it will be a good one. I hope everyone's doing well back in the States! Adios