Ok, this week I managed to observe some really bad parenting skills. I’m not sure if this is just because of the fact that most of the parents were Maori (New Zealand Natives) and maybe their parenting skills are different….but come on!
First off…I’m waiting for the bus, and all of a sudden a hear someone repeatedly saying “What the (BEEP)” over and over and it sounds like its coming from a kid. Sure enough, it was a 6 year old kid walking with his dad. And the dad was DOING NOTHING!!!! But ohhhhh it gets much worse. Another time (at the same bus stop, which is leading me to believe that maybe there’s something wrong with this bus stop) I see a lady sitting with her baby on a bench. The kid is in a stroller and wont stop crying. The mother sits there staring at the baby and starts yelling “SHUT UP! SHUT THE (BEEP) UP!!!!” I didn’t want to stare but come on….who says that to a baby in a stroller. The baby obviously keeps on crying, and the lady takes a pause….brings her face up close to the kid and yells “Why do you have to be such a (BEEP) for!???” (I’m censoring the words, but I’m sure you get an idea of how crazy these parents were). SERIOUSLY!!! Somebody needs to get over to this island and set up classes teaching people how to parent properly.
Also, since the country is so small and has a population equivalent to that of Toronto, you tend to run into the same people over and over. One of these people I have started to call the “Hello Man”. I think he might be crazy, but I tend to see him every day. He’s always wearing the same Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, and stops to talk to everybody and say “Hello!!!”. This is why I now call him the Hello Man.
The bus I take, which seems to always have the Hello Man on it also drives by a couple interesting places. One of these places is the Knighton Normal School. Yes…this school must be normal compared to the Knighton Abnormal School for Abnormal Children. Why they would even use the word normal school for a school is something I don’t know. Then again, why someone would call their Fish and Chips restaurant “Fush and Chups…The way the ought to be” is another thing I question as I drive by these places on the bus. Hmmmm…..Cant wait to get a car and take a route that avoids these ridiculous places and avoids the Hello Man.
P.S. Did you know cows can run? And they can run FAST. Almost like horses. I witnessed this first hand (also during a ride on the bus). It turns out that if you are in a car driving fast enough towards a group of cows, the cows will actually run. I don’t know why the car was driving towards the cows, but I did find out that the cows will move out of the way. Maybe it was just the fastest way to herd them into a different area of the farm.
Anyways….I need to get studying for an test on Monday. There is a big hot air balloon celebration thing here going on near the university. About 40 hot air balloons will be lit up with the fire thing that makes them fly, at night, to the beat of different songs. The whole town will be there. They even did a parade through the centre of town last night with all the baskets being paraded in trucks down the street shooting flames up 50 feet into the air. It was nice to see. Too bad I didn’t have my camera with me. If I make it to the balloon show thing tonight then I will take some pictures, but judging by the amount of studying I have I probably wont.
You’ll just have to wait until my next update to find out if I went or didn’t and hear some more interesting stories.
See you next time
