Little Larry Likes to:

It seemed a good idea to make a best friend early on in his new class. School started almost a week ago and larry negus jr. had already had his best bud “on lock!”. Dennis Reads; the freckled faced, chubby kid, that shared his fish shaped snacks on the very first day!

“Does your dad cook for your mom? Larry jr. asked Dennis, excitedly.

“Noooo!” Dennis exclaimed in a low voice. “My pops don’t cook for nobody!”

Junior threw his short, thin little arm over his pal's shoulder, “it’s cool man, your pops must work a lot!” squeezing his buddy and smiling.

An almost silent, “Nahhh!!!” released from under Dennis’ breath. He chuckled and continued his sentence, as he sensed junior’s grip on his shoulder loosen, “my pops don’t work either!”

Suddenly, in a more serious and negative tone, Dennis began to mock Lil’ Larry for asking such a question.

Dennis, hurriedly, snatches away from junior, yelling, “Ewww...man!!! Ish’you L.G.B.T and stuff?!”

L.J slowly drops his arms in shock!

“Whyyyy…would you say that mannnnnn?!” L.J yells, with less than anger but more of disappointment on his face. He stands up straight. When he looks up, junior notices the other children standing around, trying to instigate them into a fight.

Junior stood there.

Now the “best buddies” are eyeballing one another as if they were strangers.

Little larry thought to himself, “my dad always tells me that ‘all dad’s are not the same’”

He looked at Dennis and noticed how sad his face was and then understood why his dad told him, “people say mean things, a lot of times because they are sad inside.”

He realized, ”Dennis mos def looks sad when he is talking about his dad.”

Larry Jr. gathered himself and told his ex-pal, “you know what, buddy, I gotta go…”

But Dennis refused to back down, continuing to say mean things and tease Lil’ larry, “Your pops must be L.G.B.T and stuff…” laughing, as only a little chubby, ten-year-old could, as he pointed at junior walking to his seat in room #28B.

Mrs. Kathie’s room is always the place to be for her students. She has forever been known as the ‘fun’ teacher for all of fifth grade. Her specialty is knowing and understanding that the children are still learning the concepts of time and responsibility, on top of reading, writing and arithmetic.

This was junior’s favorite teacher and class: History! Little larry got comfortable in his seat at the table.

At the front of the class is where he and his “former bff” chose to sit because they both love Mrs. Kathie. But Little larry, had a bit of a crush on her, as well. He even told Dennis, on the third day of school!

Larry began to get upset all over again, just thinking about how his “old pal” tried to play him.

On his right; the hard, plastic elementary school chair, next to him scraped loudly across the floor.

“Shreeeeeeeeeekkkkkk!!!!”

Junior scoots his seat over to the left a bit more, as he grabs and moves his pencil case to the left side of the table. Thinking to himself, “he won’t be sharing markers with me, today!”

“Hiiiiiiii, Mrs. Kathieeeeeee!!!” Dennis reports, proudly. Trying his best to flirt, as only a ten-year-old could; missing teeth and all. He smiles, heavily, as his anime zombie backpack gets caught on the back of his seat. Little larry scoots to the left, even more.

“Grand rising, class!” Mrs. Kathie says as she looks and smiles at Dennis. “Hello, Dennis.”

He giggles as he adjusts his backpack.

Little larry scoffs and raises his hand.

“Mrs. Kathie, may I move to the next table, please?”

“Sureeeee…Mr. negus! But would you mind waiting until after the first break?”

He smiles, glowingly, “Yes ma’am.”

Moving to the next table meant that he would be further away from that “trader…dumb Dennis” Junior thought to himself. And he’d be a little closer to Mrs. Kathie. Junior sat up straight and crossed his fingers. He was ready to learn.

“Boys and girls; since we have been discussing the Sudanese civil war, we are going to take a short detour and get to know a bit about “The Lost Boys of Sudan”. Mrs. Kathie begins explaining the lesson plan for the day and writing out the notes on the chalkboard.

“Have either of you ever heard of ‘The Lost Boys of Sudan?’” she asks the children as she continues to write.

“Nooooo…” a chorus of ten and, almost, eleven-year-olds sang across the classroom.

The chalk wrote, “…there was plenty of food, but they didn’t know how to cook…”.

Mrs. Kathie turned to the students, “Dennis, would you like to explain to me why you said the mean things that you said to larry Junior, in the hall during bell-time?”

A reign of “Ohhhh’s and ahhh’s” filled the classroom. The class did not know that Mrs. Kathie stands near the door during bell-time. She had heard the entire conversation between the “ex-buddies”.

“And while you’re thinking of an explanation, I would also like for you to think of an apology.” Mrs. Kathie explains this to Dennis, in the most somber yet stern voice the children had ever heard from her. “Do you understand me, young man?!” she says.

“Yesss ma’am.” Dennis mumbles as he sinks into his seat.

Little larry, shockingly, sat up in his chair like an arrow and began opening his green, three-ringed binder, specifically for his favorite class.

On the first day of school, Mrs. Kathie and the students discussed all their favorite things. Come to find out; green is Little larry and Mrs. Kathie’s favorite color. So, it only make sense, to have a green binder.

“Everyone take out a pencil and some paper. I would like for you all too copy the notes from the chalkboard. After the break, we will go to our computers and complete some research. Do you all understand?”

“Yes ma’aaaam!!!” exclaimed the choir of 20 plus little voices.

“Shayna, please, stop whispering. I can hear you, my dear.” Mrs. Kathie interrupted the chorus and began her lecture:

A woman named Ayen Koul found a group of Sudanese young men who had been displaced in Australia due to the civil war happening in their country. ‘Remember again; we spoke about this particular war’. All together; more than 20,000 people from Sudan were displaced during that time.

The interesting thing is that when Koul found the four young guys, men, ‘excuse me’, they were laying around fussing about being hungry. As they cried, Koul noticed a plethora of food, fresh fruits, vegetables and all kinds of things not far from the young men.

The problem was that none of the boys or young men knew anything about cooking or preparing food. And because of this, they laid there, hungry and complaining.

The class stopped their note writing.

“That’s dumb” said the boy that sits next to larry negus jr. on the left-hand side.

“Yeahhhh! That’s just stupid, Mrs. Kathie!” yelled a young lady that sat two tables back, behind Junior.

“I know that you want to immediately ‘judge’ these four boys. However; I would like for you to hold your opinions until the end of the lecture, please.”

Julia Kathie always instructed her students to listen, read or observe the entire account before concluding or drawing an opinion.

“Let’s do some critical thinking, my friends.” the teacher smiled and continued.

“Historically; in a Sudanese household, it has been ‘taboo’ or against tradition, considered to be wrong or improper for a man to step foot in the kitchen. In the Sudan, cooking and the preparation of food is considered ‘woman’s work’.” She continued to explain to the class. “Quite frankly; a man in the kitchen, in Sudanese culture, is considered ‘weak’.” she emphasized.

Another dilemma for a lot of the children who were displaced is that they were without parents. A lot of them had been lost and separated from their families and only had the group of people that they ended up with to lean on for support. Men were without their wives and children and women were separated from their husbands. All of this happened in the scramble for them to flee their country because of war.

A little girl had her hand raised when Julia turned to continue speaking to the class.

“Mrs. Kathie, are you saying they lost their parents?”

“Yes Mariah! That is exactly what I am saying.”

She turned to Junior, “Larry, if you were without your parents would you be able to feed yourself or cook for yourself?” Mrs. Kathie, knowingly, asks the ten-year-old.

Excited to answer, Little larry says, “Yes ma’am! My dad showed me how to cook some breakfast and some lunch.”

“Ohhh! Your father taught you?” She expressed with a smile.

“Alright, larry, let me finish the lecture and then we would like to hear more about it!”

They nodded at one another in agreement.

“So; class, these four boys were laying on a mattress, complaining of hunger, with food at their fingertips, when Ayen Koul found them.” Mrs. Kathie got back to the purpose of the lesson.

“Ayen Koul made a decision! She focused and chose to help these displaced boys and men break this ‘taboo tradition’ and teach them how to prepare and cook food, for themselves!

It was interesting and sad to see that even without out wives and mothers, these boys and men were contemplating hunger, rather than look ‘weak’ in a kitchen”

The teacher continued.

“Ms. Koul began her journey with very little support. Her own mother expressed her concerns over the ‘taboo’ behind her mission. Koul persisted with her plans to begin a cooking school for men.

Ayen’s first class was as empty as the hall after bell-time ends!

It took a few of those empty classes before her first, male, student showed up. However; Ms. Koul did not let that discourage her.” she began to round up her lecture.

“Can anyone tell me what it means to get or be ‘discouraged’” she asked the students.

The little boy that sits next to larry on the left side, raises his hand, hurriedly, “It’s like you don’t want to do something!” he hollers out before Mrs. Kathie could get his name out of her mouth!

“Exactly Derrick; you got it! My dear; would you mind waiting until I call your name the next time, please?”

“Yes ma’am!” he smiles.

“As Derrick said, ‘discouraged means: you were excited or wanted to do something, and then something or someone made you feel as if you shouldn’t do that thing you wanted to do. That’s just a general explanation. The definition goes as follows: please copy it from the board,

discouraged (adj.) – having lost confidence or enthusiasm, disheartened. “he must be feeling pretty discouraged”

~google.com/search (from Oxford Languages)

She continues.

“Let’s say, for example, you’re a boy who’s excited about cooking, Larry…” as she points.

Larry sits up even higher. “Yes ma’am!”

“Class, Mr. larry negus jr. likes to cook! His father taught him how to use the stove, which is very dangerous. He also has shown him how to prepare a meal. Am I correct so far, larry?” the teacher questions.

“Yes ma’am.” he smiles

“May we hear the rest of the story, larry?” with an open palm, she points at Little larry. Go ahead, please.”

“Yes ma’am! My dad owns a restaurant that stays open all night, EVERYDAY!”

Mrs. Kathie interrupts, “24/7! Twenty-four hours, seven-days per week, class!”

“OHHHH!” they exclaim in unison.

“That’s coooool!” a kid hollers.

“Thanks, man!” Junior yells.

“Yeah, so, my mommy, she loves her work, and she goes sometimes. She does hair!” He continued.

“Ahhhh!” Mrs. Kathie and the class exclaimed.

Dennis, scoots his chair closer to his “former buddy”.

“Yeahhh, and my dad loves to cook! He makes healthy food for my mom on the days that she works! My mom is a pesca-vegi-tarian or something like that.” he rambles.

“A pescatarian, that is, larry. They only eat seafood and poultry along with a, mostly, vegetarian diet.” The teacher interrupts, again.

“Yes ma’am, that’s it. So; my daddy, mostly shows me how to cook on those days. He told me, “you gotta be able to survive, without a woman.” Junior mocks his dads, deep voice. “Then he said, ‘at least until the right woman comes along!’” they all laughed.

Little larry negus jr. sat up as high as he could possibly sit and crossed his fingers, smiling back at Mrs. Kathie.

“Exactly, young man! Well said. I must tell you that you should never feel as if you must explain yourself, ever again, in life. As long as your decisions are not hurting anyone.” she continued.

“You may have to explain yourself to your parents…and maybe a wife and children when you get a little older.” she giggles.

“Whatever you do with your life is your decision, just try your best to be a good person.”

Well, class, “Mrs. Kathie’s Moral” for the day is:

you don’t know what’s going on in someone’s home, house, apartment or family. Therefore; to assume that Mr. negus jr. here, is ‘L.G.B.T & stuff’ simply because he talks about cooking. Or to say such mean things about his parents, or father to be exact, is discouraging and mean.

Let us really strive to get-to-know some things about one another before we project and assume the worst or what we think is the ‘worst’. Especially with you children! Let one another live!

“LET THE CHILDREN LIVE!”