A quick revision

I bumped into the "Dog" again today. He was looking quite obedient as usual. I wonder why the Dog is a vegetarian. I just had a scrumptious steak dinner yesterday; it's unfortunate that he's unable to experience such delicious murder. (In the picture, he is hanging his head in envy and shame) I started volunteering at an elementary school doing an after school program which has recently brought much joy and excitement to my life. For quite a while, life has felt like a dried up prune but this has placed the juices back in through finding something meaningful to do.

Here's the typical schedule: after school, we join the kids in the library to assist them with homework and play games with them (such as boggle or sticks or molding figures out of clay). It's been a few years since I've volunteered with kids and had totally forgotten how much fun I gained from interacting with them. The best portion of my day is spent going outside to play on the playground. I can't remember the playground being this enjoyable (i do have a terrible memory which my explain it) back in the day. Grounders is an awesome game but the kids have an upper hand because I barely know the arrangement of the playground. It's the best of times.

Here are a couple of new things that I've learned from working with these kids:

1. Sometimes children make unrealistically estimations with the material they have. Each group had around 4 soap bars worth of molding clay. With that amount of clay, they sincerely projected that they would be able to design an entire house with an attached garage and a car to go inside it. I told them that they didn't have enough clay for their project but they didn't believe me and they even showed me their estimated sizes (I actually laughed when they showed me that they wanted to make it the size of a small TV).

2. If a kid looks up to you, he/she will be more likely to imitate your actions. Last week, S-Monster brought rice crackers from the homeland. One boy said he didn't like it before he even tried it. I told him to give it a try and he took a small bite then spat it out. "It's terrible!" he responded. Once again that brought a smirk to my face. All he desired were slices of cheese. I like to try weird food mixes to I wrapped the slice of cheese around the rice cracker while eating it. The boy saw me do it and asked S-Monster for 1/2 a cracker to try out my combination. He ended up liking it and finished a good portion of the package. I asked him what changed his mind and he told me that it was not the same thing he tried earlier; the first one was burnt. That made me laugh once again because I ate the other half of his piece and it was quite dandy.

3. It seems that a lot kids have been bombarded and exposed a lot more to the world and the media. It's somewhat scary what they know at such a young age. It's unfortunate that they are pressed by negative influence and dirty thoughts at such a young age. Although this situation is not something to be rejoicing over, working with this kids gives me a great sense of purpose in guiding their upbringing. It's such an honour to be one of the positive influences in their lives. I'm sure that my other volunteer friend feels the same way. The succeeding generations do not have to continue morally regressing but a counter-culture can be sparked within these kids with a few positive role models in their lives. I've always thought of this regression and corruption as a concern in the back of my head but only now have I felt it change from "That's a good idea" to "I can actually do something to help form society."

I'm just kidding. We love you Scott