Day 20 at St. Florence: Powerless

for the first half of the day we operated without power. this was scheduled electrical maintenance; some switches needed to be replaced and for some reason this couldn't be done on the weekend. the replacement procedure required a complete shutdown of the power in the area, and it took a few hours to reboot. this makes for a crazy day for kids because they need routine, or else their wires get all crossed up. most of the older students were off to Track and Field today, making for a further break from routine.

the one advantage of power outages is that everyone naturally becomes quieter with the lights off (on top of cutting out the white noise of air intakes, etc). and it was a gorgeous day. not overbearingly hot, with a gentle breeze and almost no humidity.

the rest of the afternoon after recess was spent enjoying the lovely weather at the playground with three other classes. while the teachers were busy chatting, i tried to supervise about 60 kids. fortunately two of the classes were grade 5 and 3 respectively; they didn't need too much monitoring, and they took care of their younger siblings.

LCG pulled me aside and told me she needed to talk to me in private. this struck me as a little bit weird for a 6 y.o. girl to ask of me, but it turns out she only wanted to ask me some personal questions.

LCG: how old are you?
me: i told you two weeks ago.
LCG: fifty-two?
me: yep.
LCG: are you hairy?
me: [points to head] yep.
LCG: and on your legs?
me: very.
...
LCG: do you have hair on your nipples?
me: no... [LCG], what do you talk about at home? these are some weird questions.
LCG: whaaaat? do you have hair on your bum?
me: yes. it's like a carpet.
some random grade 3 girl listening in: EEEEEWWWWWW
...
LCG: do you have a girlfriend?
me: no. why do you keep asking me that? do you want me to have one?
LCG: if you don't get a girlfriend, you can stay a kid forever!