Questa è Enida

It was just kids being kids, ya know. There were four of them, anak-anak my neighbors around the Zauliya Street Cul de Sac, berlari-larian main aci kejor so to speak. Kids. No, I had no problem with that. It didn’t bother me or Kitty at all yang tengah mengambik udara segar outside before sunset. Aci kejor gradually became aci panjat bumbung porch. And guess whose porch they main aci panjat on? Hah, yours truly lah of corrs.

I ignored them for a little tick-tock thinking that, alaaa kang dia reti ler turun. But after a few tick-tocks they, who are between probably 7 and 10 years of age, were walking all over the bumbung porch yang tersangatlah tak sturdy nya. And these kids are not the tiniest of kids, either. Anak expats omputeh, imagine lah. Comel dan montel belaka-laka. Anyway, dalam hati I was hoping that Be would arrive from work that very moment. I didn’t want to be that ‘witchy aunty’ at 6B, aka Aunty Garang.

But my instinct told me, pogedid! Those kids were being silly, and they were on MY bumbung porch of all. If somebody got hurt at my place right before my eyes, wouldn’t that be sillier? I told you I am a little cantankerous right now. And at that point I was already irritated sebab mana pegi parents sekelian tak supervise langsung anak-anak berlari panjat bumbung porch rumah jiran semua ni? Ko ingat aku ni world wide nanny ke? Echeh! Garangnya diriku ini.

So, lo and behold…Pharaoh spoke lah kan. I was trying to be a bit authoritative yet friendly at first. But the kids talked back, denying that they were playing on my porch roof. Huh? Hearing the silly answer, of course lah lagi mencabar my cantankerousness! Gradually, I became that Aunty Garang I dreaded to be. Especially when they ignored my request for them to come down (they didn’t think it was a dangerous place to play, plus they were not PLAYING up there.)

Lo and behold, again…Be drove in! Phew! Was God watching or what eh! Menchechet lari budak putih berempat semua menyorok takut kena ligan dengan lakiku! Muah hahaha! (I certainly didn’t find it funny at that time. Safety wasn’t a laughing matter. But the kids’ silliness was!) Still and all, after briefing Be of what was going on, he decided to play Devil’s Advocate lah pulak! Cheh! Penat aku menggarangkan diri.

The empat budak putih sudah lari sembunyi in the next door’s garden. Then an older girl sebelah rumah – Emily – came out trying to find out what the havoc was all about. One of the four kids was her bro rupanya, Thomas. Only after chatting with Emily for a few minutes Thomas berani keluar (while the rest menchechet lari balik rumah masing-masing!) Thomas gave Be a silly excuse that he was looking for his frisbee on the roof. Yeah right! And his mom had given him the permission to go on our roof to do so. Roll your eyes, tuan-tuan dan puan-puan, jangan tak roll!

Kesudahannya, nevertheless…Be and I decided to do the door-to-door visit this weekend to get to know our neighbors. We left this place 16 months ago and would like to start over on a good note. Love thy neighbors kan? In fact, our next door jiran pun rupanya dah lain. When Be came back to Oman early this year…it was a Dutch-Bruneian couple with two sons. And now the French family has moved in; Emily, Thomas and their parents that is.

Granted, the Panjat Bumbung Porch incident semalam really made me think. I just realized that I had not had to deal with children for quite a while now. (Meagan and Blaire are a different chapter, though.) I am not quite sure how to tackle/discipline kids, especially those I don’t know, and those between say…5 and 12. Or do I discipline them under any circumstances? I was trained to train big kids – teenagers to adults (mind ya, most adults ARE big kids! Boo!)

Like I said, do I discipline kids ever? The truth is, I can’t help it. Once a teacher, always a teacher, wouldn’t you agree with me? I am talking about unsupervised kids, per se. Of course lah in the presence of their parents, lantak kau lah nak terjun junam ke, bungee jumping ala George of The Jungle ke…see if I care. I mean, what would you do if your neighbors’ kids whom you are yet to know buat perangai like these empat budak putih? Wouldn’t you give sepatah dua kata pembuka bicara? Chewah! My other thought was, besok-besok kalau Kitreena buat perangai as silly, she’d sure get some seulas pinang dan sepotong cili from me! Jaga sedia lah.

Tu lah dia kids.And my motherly instinct told me that I was the only adult there at that time, so it was my duty to prevent the preventable accidents in any way I could. So I did. Nobody got hurt, at the very least. Hoyeh to me. But then, before I went to bed last night…I thought to myself, I could have done it better. I should have handled the situation differently. Less garang, perhaps. With a more matter-of-fact approach, and probably a non-defensive-garang-semacam-je-aunty-ni kinda attitude. Kan?

Hmmm…silly me.