I'm not sure which part is supposed to be funny...

So today i was by the ocean (when i say ocean...edit the picture in your mind...i mean, its nice and all, but the shore is big rocks...no sand, and the water is brownish there are some palm trees) outside a coffee shop talking with some of the kids who beg there. (i find it easier to talk with these kids than other times i've encountered kids who are begging. for example on Saturday i was in a part of town walking down the road and suddenly i had about 8 kids hanging on my arms, dragging me down the sidewalk, asking me to buy them food, or give them chocolate...its even more overwhelming than it sounds...cause inside my brain is going about 1000 miles an hour...flip flopping between my desire to shake all these kids loose and "get away" as quickly as possible, and trying to figure out how to love these kids and what that actually means).

So i was talking with a boy and a girl and it was really good...and suddenly this well dressed young man came up to me and asked if he could talk with me. Sure i said, what do you need? He didn't want to talk with me with the other kids, so a few minutes later i wrapped up that conversation and went to talk with him.

They boy showed me his school assignment book, and then explained that he hadn't finished his homework, and his teacher had written a note that had to be signed by his parents, and if he didn't get it signed then his teacher would beat him - but if he showed his parents then his dad would beat him. So my brain starts racing...what to do?!?!

I'm quite convinced that i can't sign this book...i'm not the boys parents...so i talk with the boy and look at the book, i see some other people have signed the book, i ask who they were...i tell him i can't sign the book, i'm not his parent, i don't know anything about his homework. PLEASE he begs, my father drinks a lot of alcohol, and he will beat me. (at which point i'm beginning to wonder why i'm unwilling to sign the stupid paper to save a boy from being beaten...but there are also lots of people around, and i figure he can find someone else to do it).

i explained that for me its important to be truthful - so i can't sign it (seems like a useless detail of life when talking to a boy who is totally convinced he'll be beaten if he can't find someone to sign his book). I apologize that his father treats him like that...and affirm that its not appropriate behavior. I even suggest that he actually finishes his homework in the future so he wouldn't have to be afraid of his teacher, his dad, and he won't have to ask strangers to sign his little progress report (there were 3 other entries that say he didn't finish his homework). And, i should also admit that i suggested that if he was going to keep not finishing his homework then he should get the same person to sign it all the time so it will be more believable to his teacher, instead of his parents having a new signature every week! (if i'm not going to "save" him from being beaten by his father, the least i could do is to help him fool his teacher successfully, right?! perhaps a little grey on the right/wrong scale, but that i was willing to compromise on - i guess...)

This conversation goes on for about 5 minutes...my heart and mind torn, again...trying to figure out what is really the right/loving/good thing to do...and then the boy says to me, "I have one thing to tell you...none of this is real...its a prank - we've been taping you for a gag - see, there in the van is our camera, and there is another one!" (at which point i'm incredibly confused)...and they want me to wave at the cameras...and wear an ugly denim hat that they gave me for participating in their little gag (both of which i refuse to do...i was a little overwhelmed and confused...not to mention a worried that this stupid video might actually make it onto TV and i might be recognized - my one hope is that i didn't do or say anything funny, so if i'm lucky, all the footage they took of me will end up on the editing room floor).

All that to say...i'm still not really sure which part of this whole set up is supposed to be funny?! Really...what is funny about a kid who's scared of being beaten by his alcoholic father asking strangers to forge his parent's signature? And then i just kept thinking, "can't a girl catch a break?! i have enough hard questions i'm trying to figure out answer for without adding fictitious one in front of video cameras!"

This could be the most random thing that has ever happened to me while i've been overseas!