Chapter 22, What Homework?
“What about your homework?” asked Hagit our first-grade teacher.
“I didn't do it. It is too confusing.” I said.
“What so confusing about it? All you had to do was to copy exactly what you wrote in class yesterday.”
“Well, it's exactly that ...” I said with half a smile on my face.
“Let me see your notebook.” I handed the half size notebook to her unwillingly.
“Is that is all you wrote?” she almost screamed. “A word and a half?”
“Well, like I said, it was confusing.”
“What was confusing? All you had to do was to copy what's on the black board.”
“I wasn't paying attention; I think I kind of fell asleep. It was boring!”
That was it, Hagit lost it. I don't quite remember what she said but it wasn't fun I am sure she was yelling and screaming at me. All I remember was the yelling. “I am going to give you a note to take to your Mom,” she said. “You give it to her and make sure she reads it and comes to talk to me tomorrow.
I took the note and put it in my pocket.
On the way home I kept on thinking, “What should I do this note? My mom Can't read it nor my dad – they don't read Hebrew; Even I have a problem reading it. I always had hard time reading. I never volunteered to read in class, and no one ever helped me. I was the “slow kid, the hopeless one, the different one, not the Ashkenazi one. The one that no one thought would become anything, so why try to help him?” I took the note out of my pocket, dug a small hole in the ground and buried it in. What I didn't know was that Yona the dirty kid saw me, waited until I left, dug it out and gave it back to the teacher the next morning. As soon as I walked into the class, Hagit faced me and said “I am walking you home today. I will talk to your mom myself.”
That afternoon we walked silently back home, and I looked for a place to hide when she was talking to my mom. All I could hear was Hagit telling mom that they should stop talking French to me because it confuses me, and I will never learn Hebrew that way.
“Wait till your dad shows up this afternoon. You kept on telling me you had no homework while your teacher here tells me you had plenty every day.”
It was Friday afternoon; Dad came home early for Shabat. Do I have to tell you? He wasn't happy. “You are not eating dinner with us tonight,” he said. You will be spending the night outside in the shed where people who don't tell the truth stay, and you will be having your dinner there too.”
That evening, after I showered and dressed up with the fresh pajamas, I took a blanket, my dinner plate and Dad ceremoniously walked me to the shed next to Grandma Okev lived. “You will spend the night here alone.” He said. He stayed outside a few feet away from the shed watching over me. I know because I heard him through the thin walls of the shed, and I even smelled his cigarette.
I finished my dinner and tried to sleep on the floor when he walked in. It was so quiet we could even hear Grandma Okev snoring.
“Did you learn your lesson?” He asked. “We don't lie, we do our homework, and we listen to our teachers. Is that clear? Or next time you will feel my belt on your behind... Get your stuff and come home.” Obviously, he didn't want to stand outside the shed all night...
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Vegetarian Chilly
Chilly is a pepper and meat dish. Yet in new versions many cooks use beans to add substance. I took the meat out and replaced it with beans and other ingredients to enrich the flavor.
Ingredients:
1 Cup of dry Beans cooked to soften (or one full can)
1 Cup Crushed Tomatoes
1 Chopped Sweet Onion
3 Cloves Crushed Garlic
1 Chopped Pepper
1 TBSP Crushed Ginger
1 Cubed Potato
1 Cubed Carrots
2 Chopped Celery Stalks
½ Chopped Jalapeno
¼ Cup Oat Meals
1 tsp Salt
1 TBSP Cocoa powder
1 Cup of Water
Preparation:
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