Kids and the things they do!

Scene: A busy after school club somewhere in the north west of England, me playing table football with a young girl of about nine:

Girl: (Indicating my id card around my neck with a nod of her head) That doesn’t look like you…
Me: (holding my card to inspect it closer) yeh I know it’s cus I’m wearing a white scarf in the picture…I’ve a black scarf on today
Girl: No it’s not just that, you’ve got more freckles than on the picture…

I had to chuckle.

Scene: Another busy junior club also somewhere in the north west of England, me telling an asian boy off for picking on a white boy (a regular occurrence involving the two boys in question):

Me: Stop calling him names! Why do you always call him names!
Asian boy: (In a matter of fact voice) Because I’m a muslim!
Me: (totally gobsmacked at hearing an answer I totally didn’t expect, thus stood there speechless for 5 seconds or so) That does not mean you bully people!

What shocked me the most about what he said was the way he said it, it was as if he had a God given right to harass people!, I don’t think the message hit home though in my speechlessness I lost the moment, it made me so sad though…

Scene: A huge turquoise bus painted with people in a child like style, the inside set
Like a classroom with a group of school children around a table. A nine year old boy with the bluest of eyes, sandy hair, a smattering of freckles and a slight slur to his speech said with the noblest of expressions: “You can replace a lost item but you can’t replace a human” me and the other worker looked at each other and smiled.