Fun Facts

I stared at the student-made anchor charts about World War II displayed around the classroom.  I have never seen descriptions of the Holocaust followed up by a couple of "fun facts" before, but, to each his own I guess.

"I just take it when she does it."  Alejandro said, shaking his head.
"I cry, because I'm weak, but I just get it over with."
"Yeah...." the other kids seconded, while speaking of their parents' corporal punishment practices.  I was surprised that all of their parents do it, but I guess I shouldn't have been.
"Does your mom do it, or your dad, or both?"  I asked them.
All said mom, except one, who said both.
"Gustavo runs away.  He makes her chase him through the house and climbs under the bed.  He snatches the belt away from under there."
I couldn't help but smile.
"There is this thing, this thing that Spanish moms do...." Patricia began and the other Mexican kids started laughing, knowingly.
"Let me guess, la chancla?" I asked.
"How did you know that?!"  Patricia howled and what was a somber conversation changed to a funny one.

Every time I look at Gustavo, I can't help but laugh, interiorly, at his badness.  I picture his little self whipping through the hallway of a house I've never visited, too fast for his mom, thinking hell no, I'm not just going to let you fucking smack me with a belt.  You're going to have to work for it.
"Jaime is sick."Alejandro continued.
"We went outside to feed the dog with our hair wet and now he doesn't feel well....."
"Your dog stays outside?"
We have been experiencing a cold snap and it was been in the twenties at night.
"Yeah, it used to come inside, but my mom didn't want him to come in anymore....."
I cringed.
"Does he have a little house, a blanket?"
"Yeah....he has a house, but he ripped up his blanket and his bed."
"Do you guys play with him a lot?"
"No....we are too busy." he responded.
I tried to tell myself it was cultural and not to judge, but I can't stop thinking about that dog.  And the beatings.  I don't like the way I am feeling about the parents of a family that I have admired since I started teaching their kids.

Bugs have been seeking refuge in the trailer from the cold.  They're gross.  One landed in my hair.  The little gecko lizards that usually hang out outside have been visiting indoors as well.  Them, I like.  Sometimes when I sit in the trailer and the rain beats on the cloudy windows and I see little geckos on the walls or camouflaging on a table, I feel like I am in a surreal submarine.
The life aquatic.