crazy kids.

These kids are crazy, always providing stories to be shared.

I came back from a run yesterday to find five kids in our yard: two were sleeping on the chair, one was eating a piece of watermelon much larger than her head, one pounced on my lap and starting blowing in my face to cool me off, and last–the last little girl of about seven, Neh Wey, was eating a raw Thai pepper on the end of a shish kabob stick.

For your random knowledge, the Scoville scale measures the heat of peppers. Your standard jalepeno pepper is about 5,000 units and in the same realm as Tabasco sauce. A habanero pepper can range from 100,000 to 350,000.  And a Thai pepper, which this girl was munching on, ranges from 50,000 to 100,000, in the range just under the habanero peppers.

And she was eating raw and alone!  I was the only one slightly concerned while the other kids seemed unfazed.

She then proceeded to request water with great urgency. I couldn’t help but give a look of confusion: didn’t you do this to yourself? Why am I being pressured to give you water after such choices?  I gave her some of course–four glasses, actually, which she chugged.

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I’m not sure if Yuh Meh Oo got her ears pierced or if she simply got these new earrings, but she came over with great excitement to show them off!

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As I made dinner on Christmas Eve, these two special friends came over to play. They brought a phone with them: your classic coiled cord phone with a few broken buttons. It was very clearly a treasure, and they were so excited to use it. They would pick up the handset, make a “ring, ring” sound, and call out the name of who they wanted to call in the next room–usually Stephen or my mom by her many names, including “Sinny”, “Mom-my” and “Motha.”

We would then answer our cell phones and say what little we could understand of each other: “How are you?” in English or Burmese; “I am fine,” in English or Burmese.  And then, “Bye, bye!”

It was  simple game, but they loved it.

The joy on their faces was absolutely priceless. They loved having Stephen play with them and respond to them, however little they understood.

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Yesterday we were attempting to get back into the swing of “normal” before we go back to work after the new year. Stephen was busy cleaning his studio while I was putting away Christmas gifts and bringing water & Memory cards to the kids at the front door.

Two little girls didn’t like the crowds of our front steps, so they came around to the kitchen door to play Memory. This let in their little brothers and their friends, who were then playing with magnets on the fridge.

Stephen came out of the studio into the kitchen and I heard, “Oh! Hello. Kids in every direction today. From this vantage point, there are kids at the front door, and kids in the kitchen…”

“…and a sucker in the middle,” I added.