Homework, cops and thieves.

Yesterday Eber and Robin came to meet me at Maximo Nivel. Its quiet on a Sunday and they can get to use the PCs to their hearts content. I managed to persuade them to bring in their homework and we did that together once they had enough of the PC games.

I did my Spanish and Eber worked on his Spanish writing, which I was able to help him with. Robin had some maths to do, long division, which he was having dificulty with. They seem to do it different here to what I'm used to, or at least was used to. So when Eber finished his the three of us got stuck into Robin's long division. It proved too much for me. I never was much good at maths, but I have clean forgotten how to do long division. I blame calculators. I just kept thinking where's Coinneach when you need him. You should be here to help these boys you know, seeing as you're the mathematician in the family. The end result was that Robin is going to ask his teacher for more help. I wish I had asked them to bring their homework before now, but as my mother would say you live and learn.

Last week Eber had told me that he wanted me to adopt him and starting calling me papa. Cheeky monkey. Yesterday he decided it would be better if I came back next year and the three of us opened a restaurant together and him and Robin would then have good jobs. Tempting. I think he gets the idea from Yanapay Restaurant. He's always asking about Yuri. They don't believe he comes from Peru. I think this is because of the social class diference. Yuri comes from a totally different social background and they are not used to mixing with that class. But they do fine.

Eber and I had a discussion about religion and belief the other day. He is a believer but does not like church. He thinks God is up in the sky watching us. I think I heard that one before. I didn't give him too much atheism. But he was interested in why I didn't believe. He's a good kid. They both are. We decided to agree to disagree.

I walked them to their bus stop and I had to stop to take their notebooks out of my bag. A policeman came up and gave Robin a clout on the head. Hard. this was totally without reason. He then turned to me and told me to watch my bag as these boys would steal from it given the chance. By then Robin was ready to cause a serious disturbance, and I could not blame him really. But I had to calm him down. I told the cop I knew them and that they were with me. I spoke their names and asked them to walk along with me so that he would be in no doubt that they were with me. He just looked at me as though I was nuts. Its no wonder these boys find it hard to accept the police. It was bloody awful. I was a bit worried that I might have a diplomatic incident on my hands. Fortunately Robin decided to walk away from the provocation. They rightly did not like the idea of me thinking they were a couple of thieves, which I don't think for one minute, but I do understand their being upset. They want me to think the best of them, and I do.