Mosquito Nets

I just read a post from my friend Laura who just went to Cameroon to spend a couple years there in the Peace Corps. And it made me crave Africa with all of my being. The kind of emotion that makes me want to laugh, cry, dance, and hug many people, at the same time. Looks like I'll be trying to find a way to get back there soon. I kind of miss sleeping under a mosquito net, after all.

Goldfish

Diapers, Laundry, Cooking, Cleaning. These things dominate my life, and that's just while I'm at work. I'm a mommy-counselor-janitor, all in one. I personally believe I deserve a raise.

I was lucky enough to get hired at Isabel's House Crisis Nursery this summer. I like to love on kids, so it seemed like a perfect fit.

Don't get me wrong--it is. I'm elated by the work I get to do, except for when I get so much poop on my face I wear it as eyeshadow, or I accidentally set off the burglar alarm. I still wake up with a smile every day, and lucky for me, I'm greeted with smiles from the kids at work when I arrive every morning at 6:20.

But...WHY are the lives of these children SO messed up? I'm sorry, but no matter what world you were born in, it is still not ok to let your 9 year old child play with a loaded gun. Or rape your five year old daughter. And a kindergarten-aged girl should be worried about how to read "Frog and Toad", not how to escape a house her father just lit on fire.

Honestly, I don't think I'll ever look at you the same again. Any of you. Not because of anything you have done, but because this job has shown me you never, ever know the secret lives of anyone.

I know no one is asking me, but if they did, I would have one piece of advice: If you can't even handle taking care of a goldfish, don't bring a child into your messed up world.