It seemed like another normal day in the classroom. Students were practicing their handwriting. I came to check on her work, and she just looked up at me with the biggest smile to show me what a good job she was doing. At that moment, it wasn’t her smile that grabbed my attention, but her little forehead. I had noticed the scab the day before. Now it was open and with about 4-5 flies. Were they laying eggs, eating flesh, or excreting waste? Either way, it didn’t matter because she didn’t notice or swat them away.
My heart felt like it went dead. It wasn’t the flies themselves. I’m a Biologist; insects don’t scare me. It’s knowing the sickness and disease they spread that does.
I had no idea what to do. Swat them away for her? Would that make her feel embarrassed? I just smiled back instead and placed my hand on her back for some reassurance.
This girl was just happy to learn and be commended for her work. Maybe she didn’t know the flies were there; maybe she did.
I haven’t encountered many standards of living that I’d consider traumatizing. This one still shakes me.
In that moment, I saw a kind of innocent ignorance. Maybe you’d call it being oblivious. It seemed this girl always had dealt with this.
Maybe that’s the part crushing my heart: knowing that she and other people in this world don’t have to live like that. Maybe they just have never been able to experience the alternative. Maybe they know about it and can’t get there.
Either way, it hurts.
