when people ask "how's sunday school?" i reply with either (depending on the person asking) a pained i'm-managing-barely grimace or a "oh, ok, ok... i just make the kids colour all the time, ha, ha."
but actually teaching them isn't half bad. even with their attention span of houseflies, their single-minded colourpencil hoarding and confused tumbling across the room like lost pets. i guess it's at least better than 40 deluded 14-year-olds who think they're babboons on exhibition at the zoo. these kids are just so small and cute that no matter what they do they just have to grin/pout/smile at you and you just can't be angry with them anymore. the power of kids cannot be underestimated! maybe we are programmed, like other creatures, to be extra protective of our young. and it helps, of course, that they're so adorable.
so i spent yesterday snapping happily away at them at work.
the one time i can take a break! they'll be so engrossed in colouring they wouldn't care if the Big Bad Wolf had burst in the door - unless the said Wolf ate their colour pencils.
nesan (say "nay-san") the ultre-talkative, chronically late boy. they get chops, see, for being on time, and he almost never gets it. but he displays amazing precocity at times.
"nesan were you late again today?"
"yes i was late again. i'm always late, and i don't know why."
"do you wanna sing us a song for another chop?"
"no, it's ok, one is enough for me."
then there's stacey, who's a quiet, serious girl who looks after the younger ones and makes sure they get their colour pencils (which is like gold in 5yearold currency). and she said to me,"teacher i also have a phone." and whipped out a samsung camera phone with gliterry stick-ons all over, and i almost fainted. FIVE! they're FIVE! ok, six, but STILL. i was FIFTEEN before i got a phone!
joshua and jodie. (jo&jo!)
joshua's super shy and anti-social in big groups and sticks to his mum like fly on flypaper. but in class he'll talk and ask "where's my sticker? i don't have a sticker!" and he always jams his shoes proudly on - the wrong feet.
jodie has huge eyes and lashes i wanna curl!! and he's so cute when he's jumping up and down going "sing, bosannah, SING BOSANNAH". hahaha.
him being a monkey. he's old and wise enough to shout "don't look at the camera!" but still succumbed to being shot in unglam poses. but then again kids are never unglam cos their ugly shots are just funny-endearing. (except for the horrid birdpark one of the girl in yellow with her face contorted into a bird's. so not her fault, sack the photographer!)
charles (his sister's elizabeth!) <
>
another pic, cos he's mel's beloved.
she: "look at charles, he's soooo cuuuute!!!!"
"did you see that?? did you see charles?? sooo cuuute i LOOOOVE him!" hahahhaah! such a paedophile, melmel!
but charles is really utterly fetching, all the more so because he's so out of it. he wanders around like a (verycute) sotong and speaks in a monotone. and he'll suddenly grab kevin's shirt, and when i go "charles! why did you do that!" he'll wander away and find colour pencils. and i can't do anything cos he's so cute. haha. maybe it's a filipino thing (jodie's filipino too!). and when he goes "one, two, twee, pour, pibe" it's so charming! haha. makes you wanna have kids. maybe rochelle will have 5 cute kids (and she can flap her hands at them) and then i'll be a grandma! yayyy!
