The School Run

I know for you mums and dads out there the school run can be a major part of the day and requires precision planning.  Round the corner from my house is an infant/junior school which I lovingly refer to as the pink school due to the adorable uniform.  It’s actually called the Becklyn School, being on Becklyn Drive, and the children range in age from 3 to about 8 I would say.

Every morning on my walk to work I meet these children arriving at school.  This takes many different forms:

• The youngest being carried piggy back style by his mum, secured in a lappa (2 yard length of cloth)
• Being dropped off by a driver in large four by four
• Crammed into a taxi with no seat belt and pressing their noses against the window with no adult accompanying them other than the driver
• On the back of a motorbike taxi
• Walking with mum, dad or sibling
• Walking by themselves but holding hands as they pick their way up the road

The last ones are those that always attract my attention as it would be impossible to meet a 4 year old walking by themselves to school in the UK just as you would never see them hopping into a taxi to get home at night – an event I regularly witness.

You would also never see an elder brother with a piece of bamboo cane in hand whacking his sister on the back as she wasn’t walking fast enough.  I was about to intervene when the ladies behind me stepped in first.

Cultural differences? You meet them every day.

Here are two young girls walking past my house