Plastic Bags

On the way to the library.
This afternoon we went to the library with Sophie's class. There is no library at the school, so they had to get on a bus to get there. While there, the kids practiced typing on the computers by tapping out "Pierre et le Loup" ("Peter and the Wolf") in the French version of Microsoft Word. It just took me about three seconds to type "Pierre et le Loup". It took the kids about 7 or 8 minutes apiece. Then one of the librarians read them a story. Afterwards they were free to look at whatever books they wanted in the library.

Unfortunately, near the end of the visit it became apparent that someone had had a very serious "issue". There was a bathroom five feet away from where the children had had story time, but no visit occurred and the accident did. It was not going to be possible for the boy to sit on the bus in his condition, so the teacher's assistant got a huge plastic bag, like a Hefty, and wrapped his torso in it. She had to put a bunch of tape around his waist to hold up the plastic bag. It looked like an enormous black diaper with swaths of tape all over it. Only the diaper was over his pants, which were not in good shape. He then made the long walk with the class to the waiting bus and went back to school. No one made a big deal out of it and it was interesting to watch how Sophie's teacher protected the boy.

I'm not sure what I learned from this experience except that certain problems happen everywhere. And certain issues smell really bad.