diario - journal

What you'll read on this page are either reflections on personal events or on stuff I read in the news. Any opinions reported herein are merely personal, and subject to change, since that's how my brain works.

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McD and The Community
We were cleaning the whole house on Sunday, so Daniela and I decided to get some carry-out McDonald's for the kids.

I take the (four) kids with me.

When I get to the restaurant, an old lady approaches me and asks me if I can make a phone call for her. I tell her she could use the restaurant's phone. She says she already asked the manager.

So I take her piece of paper and I stop the manager as he is walking out the restaurant. I ask him to please let the lady use the phone. He gives me the "corporate line": "This is our policy, we cannot let customers use our phones, if this is an emergency we'll call an ambulance,..."

I look around: The walls are decorated with brochures about McDonald's and the community, etc., etc. I make him notice that.

He answers there is nothing he can do.

He leaves. An employee takes the piece of paper from my hand and places the call, "There is no answer." I wink and smile at her. McDonald's and the community...

I tell the lady I can take her home in twenty minutes, after I drop the kids home. She says she can't wait.

When I came back later she wasn't there.

I talked to the kids about this incident while eating lunch. An interesting lesson on what to do when you have rules from your boss, and rules in your heart.
Entered on: Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 at 18:24.
New Family Member
We just acquired a new family member! Heleo, the veiled chameleon. We christened him Heleo from the Greek word for sun, "elios" and the word chameleon.

The kids call him "puny" and want to play with him all the time, but I had to explain to them that chameleon are not very social. In fact, when you stretch your hand into the cage towards him, he starts hissing and puffs up incredibly! He is so interesting. It is amazing how quickly he can change color too. What an amazing animal...

In terms of reptile pets, nothing compares with the bearded dragon, who are practically attention-prostitutes!!!
Entered on: Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 16:12.
Kids with Cameras
We watched a really interesting documentary on Saturday called Born into Brothels. It's relates the experience of a photographer who starts a project in the brothels in Calcutta, as a professional photographer, and becomes involved with the children of the prostitutes she went to photograph. She begins a photography class for the children to teach them to "see" through the lens of cheap cameras she bought for them. Later, she tries to find schools for the children and runs into many challenges, some created by India's bureaucracy, some by the families, and some by the children themselves. In the end, she succeeds in showing the kids' photographs in New York and in Calcutta, she signs up the kids to a boarding school, and one of the children travels to Holland to meet other children from around the world, as part of an international project. But not all the children end up staying in school. The parents of some take them out, some leave of their own will, and three of them remain. The moral for me (as it happened in my own experience too): You give opportunities, and people may or may not take advantage of them, and there is nothing you can do.
Entered on: Sunday, October 29th, 2006 at 10:02.

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