Good and bad days

Teacher: "Osama, please add two plus three." Osama: "Seven". Teacher: "Wrong". Osama: You always criticize me that is why I don't like school!"-  What is mend to be a constructive suggestion for possible improvement is frequently misunderstood as unjustified critique or even an insult. Why? This may be due to lacking self-confidence, the social surrounding adds to a strong personality if there are many good models, encouragements, if infants grow up with the feeling that they are important, someone is always there, just for me. Courage, patience, respect and empathy - children don't learn this by roaming the streets, if they are more or less just provided with a bed space, some food and the decision, when it's time to go to sleep (roundabout 2 a.m.) is left to them. Too much freedom is bad for kids, they like to test how far they can go, what if they aren't told where the borders are, what kind of behaviour is good and which is not, well in this part of Souse several children lack a feeling of wrong doing,

 I noticed. They are not accustomed to being told what to do, not that everybody is happy with their behaviour, it's just that many have given up, as when you say something, you get a mouthful back! - In Israel someone had a good idea how to occupy teens living at the coast, it is called "pick and run". This of cause doesn't mean steal and run, but pick up rubbish that doesn't belong to the beach and run, thus make it a kind of game. The kids here don't know how to occupy themselves (apart from playing football according to their very own rules, which includes ear-splitting yelling) and they appear to be constantly running, may be someone could encourage them to "pick and run" also?  -Children knocked at my door: "One of your cats got hit by a car."  It turned out to be an approx. 8 months old black and white cat, a regular visitor at my cats' table. She had almost crossed the road when she got fatally hit and died almost immediately. At least she didn't suffer for long. Looks like the kids regard me as the person who protects and feels responsible for cats, they tend to inform me if one of them gets injured or dies. - Sunny-boy, a lovely golden coloured tomcat, living in Kairouan, a regular visitor without a permanent home but always welcomed at our house, disappeared for a few weeks. I missed his purring and cuddling. When he returned, he had lost weight, his fur looked dull, he looked neglected and much older than his actual age of 4 years. But anyway, we were both happy to see each other; he purred and cuddled with me, just great. My joy to have him back didn't last long, one week later he passed away in the yard, without any apparent reason, I am feeling very sad. - In Kairouan we once consulted a vet because Bambino, a kitten, was bleeding from the anus. The vet very briefly "examined" the baby cat (thought eating fish caused the bleeding).  I got the impression that cats are not the kind of patience this vet "favours", guess he thought since so many exist, why worry about one. I believe every cat/ animal has but one life and that matters. That's why I can't eat meat. -  When it rains, a road with a sandy surface for centuries always got very muddy in Kairouan and walking along there  you had to be very careful not to get your clothes dirty. A couple of years ago at long last the town got the road tarred. In Souse one  road with a fair amount of traffic has many holes which some folks filled with sand. Works well as long as it doesn't rain, on account of this some holes are now more or less filled with small stones. Much remains to be done and funds are obviously limited. The streets are congested with traffic, surprising so many can afford a new, often expensive car, unfortunately usually a Diesel, as we know this is not good for the environment, the same applies to those motorbikes. Difficult situation as folks here simply love the sound of running engines and the smell of exhaust gas, therefore the driver very rarely switches off the engine when he takes a short break of let's say 5 to 30 minutes. Strange, some guys complain about "too expensive petrol/ diesel".  A lot of education is needed here to make citizen understand they are also contributing to the change of climate, making life difficult for themselves, their offspring and others and last, not least, exhaust gases are not good for ones health. Viewing people/ whole families on a motorbike without any protection whatsoever, some young men even topless, regarding their bare skin to be enough protection ("real strong men") makes me wonder, do they care for their health? May be it's just that feeling of total freedom, live wild, die young. Good night and good luck!