Laughter

Today I subbed for a special education aide; I would give teachers a break, rotating classes and taking them outside to play on the playground (with parapro help). I wasn't the only one with such ideas, many other teachers brought their kids out for a break, and I found myself enthralled with how the normal kids acted.

The screamed, a lot. I do a lot of special ed subbing, and they can be quite, preferring to point instead of speaking. Of course, there are those who do nothing but scream, but they can't really talk either.

No, these kids did a lot of play screaming. And laughing. They fell so many times, and got right back up and without even taking the time to brush the wood-chips from their pants before running again. I was alarmed at first, watching them fall, they could be hurt!, but the other teachers with me weren't concerned and I relaxed.

The kids on the monkey bars still scared me though. It was low, level with my mid chest. Kids would try to get across, and many fell. Because of the low height, the next kid in line would then proceed to kick them in the face if the didn't move.

It surprised me how many of the kids didn't move. Sure, they didn't always see it coming, but it's just common sense to get out of the way. But when kicked, they would just jolt away, get up, and laugh. So it couldn't have hurt that much, but I still don't see why getting injured is something to laugh about.

Except...laughing is happy. It makes minor things okay. And I expect lots of minor things to happen while I'm away. I've heard from recent RPCV in Ethiopia that working with the government in hairy, that I will make many cultural mistakes without knowing it.

I'll be laughing a lot. Good thing I'm well practiced. I just hope I don't develop laugh lines this early in life.