Rest areas:

Note to self: when looking for a bathroom here, ask for a toilet. Otherwise you will be stared at for a second and then asked where you are from.

However beyond this trivial little issue, rest areas are an interesting place to people watch. Here you can see class differences, race differences, etc. one day as I got off the bus, I saw something disturbing. Three young black kids went up to an older white man (who literally looked like Colonel Sanders) with outstretched and cupped hands. The man yelled at them, took off his belt, and shook it violently at them. It was as if he was going to whip them.

The kids are okay. Nothing happened after this. They ran about 25 meters away from him and sat there laughing at the old and slow man. It's hard to make comment on what caused this situation. Racism? It's possible, but it could be a million other things as well. It's possible that this man deals with these same kids every day, and they keep coming back to have a laugh at his expense and run away.

This struck me though because the threat of hitting a child in the US would come with serious consequences. But nobody said anything. Not one of the other people sitting in the area corrected the man's behavior. It was hard to know what to do.

I work with kids all year on challenge courses both at school and at the YMCA. When they are under my care, I am supposed to protect them from the world. I'm supposed to help them to just be kids. Those instincts don't turn off. But I'm far from home here and this world is very different.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy