Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The Moth That (Probably) Would Be King

A tale of tragedy and intrigue. Of kindness and honor. I am hardly (probably because I am not looking sometimes) surprised anymore here in Taiwan, but today was one of those days in which I was...delightfully surprised!!

This morning in my KBR class during out trip to the bathroom and to drink water. The kids started pointing at something chatting amongst themselves. I walked over to find out what they were looking at. There precariously perched on the door was a moth! A medium sized light brown moth. The kids were all excited. It was beautiful, there was no denying it.

I decided that I was going to save it. I ran over to the little refrigerator in the secretaries area and grabbed a cap and then got a piece of paper to go save the moth. I went back to the door and pushed through the crowd of children. I put the paper cup over the moth and then slid the paper underneath. I unwittingly, while sliding the paper under, ripped off the wings of the moth.

I took the moth outside and upon entering the kids all asked: Where is the moth? I said: it is outside! and then I had to admit to them that I had killed it! :( They all wanted to go outside to look at the moth. I told them to line up.

I went about my business feeling sorry about the moth, but didn't think they would be anything else. I look over and the kids are standing near the door with the hands held together and they were bowing. They were praying over the moth in unison. They were doing "bai bai" for the moth. I asked them what they were doing and they replied: We are helping the "butterfly"!


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