the day after the american election i had a brief converation for the kids i work with in the afternoon about barack obama and what it meant for a black person to become president in the USA. i asked them what they new about slavery, about segregation and limited rights. they didn´t know much. i had been warned beforehand that nery, the sweetest and gentlest of the six children, was racist against black people, of which there are almost none in our part of nicaragua. i didn´t solicit his opinion while i talked about obama´s election. at one point nery clapped his hands together, maybe out of boredom. i took this as a cue for a round of applause for barack obama, and everybody joined in graciously, even nery.
we gave out final exams today at los angeles de morales, my favorite of my four schools. we graded the tests and handed them back, either with congratulations or gentle chiding for the slackers, we said our goodbyes to the students and headed past the cow, down the hill and across the street. my favorite student from the class, a soft-spoken and enthusiastic kid named hector, followed us to the bus stop (a tree) and told us that today is his birthday. mairead and i wished him a happy birthday and asked if he was celebrating it...he said that no, nobody was, and that his mother wouldn´t remember it because she was away working for two more weeks. mairead dug into her backback and found him a green pen, which he was very excited about. i found a little flashlight that beth gave me for christmas (and which i have used a lot, thanks beth) and hector was thrilled. it was difficult to explain to hector that we wouldn´t be back for the next semester, that we had to go to mexico or the states or wherever. more than ever before my own plans felt very thin and very arbitrary.
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