chelewa

Yesterday almost all of my watoto were late for shule. When we first begun our school this was a chronic problem as none of them have watches or clocks at home but I made a deal that if they come on time they get a pipi (candy) (in addition to ya know filling their brains with wonder and such) and that seemed to have watoto hanging around our house all afternoon waiting for school to start. They know that if they are even 5 minutes chelewa (late) they get a pole from me when it comes to candy. I have found that it is universally true that when something is important enough to you you can be on time even if that is not a cultural value. Usually a few arrive late and suffer the consequences of “pole and hamna pipi” (no candy…I know I am cruel) but almost all of them are on time. But yesterday almost all of them were late and I was thinking they forgot it was a school day. After about 10 minutes they arrived in a pack carrying fish, squid, octopus, and clams piled neatly on chipped, dented, and well used plates. They were beaming and informed me they were selling the catch from that morning (it was a good day for their fathers) but they hurried back for shule. I decided that was a pretty good excuse and after buying 3 fish we all ate pipis and started shule.