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Endurance and Crocodile Tears

When my little sister Lizzie was about two years old I thought she had unmatchable endurance (or stoberness). One evening at the dinner table she did something bad, not anything big, but enough to get Dad to scold her. Which made this cute litttle two year very mad. A few minutes later when Lizzie wanted to be excused and taken out of her highchair, Mom said that in order to get down she had to ask dad. Lizzie just turned her head, looked at Dad and refused to say a word. She didn't cry, she just sat there, and if a two year old can glare, she glared at him. My older sister, Trinity, and I found this hilarious, to the point where Dad told us to leave because we could not stop laughing. Lizzie lasted over a half hour before finally caving in and asking Dad to let her get down. That little girl amazed me with her perserverance. But Lizzie, I have to tell you, you don't have anything on the kids here.
The kids here seem to thrive on crying. I have heard one last over four hours without stopping. You would think at that point he would have been too deprived of oxygen to go on, but oh no, these kids have unbeatable endurance. Now, I know there are those of you out there wondering what on earth could have happened to these poor, sweet Burkinabe kids to make them cry and scream for so long. Let me put your mind at rest. The answer: Nothing. These kids are not injured or sick or anything like that, they are simply trying to be noticed. These kids are the kigs and queens of crocodile tears. They have been left out of a game, or are not the center of their group and so they cry. If it looked like for one minute they would haeva better chance of being included and the center of attention without crying they would stop in a instant. You can even watch them scream loody murder, stop for a second, look around and see if anyone is paying attention yet and if not they go right back to crying. I have watched a kid sit a couple feet away from a group and cry, then when the group gets up and moves, the crier follows at an equidistance. Goes when they go, stops when they stop, all without losing a beat in their tears. The only other thing I have seen come close to having this endurance level is the other Burkinabes' ability to ignore the screamer, but usually the screamer wins. My endurance level is not that high. In trying to cope, I will admit I have walked out of my house, picked up the screamer, walked a couple of fields away, put them down and headed home in an atempt to muffle the sound. And even then the kid doesn't even stop to for a breath, they will just sit where you left them and cry on. If only I could find a way to put this stamina to good use.
**I was going to write this blog on the ear-piercing noise of a donkey, which in and of itself is a far more painful noise than the crying. But, I figured a story on the endurance of Burkinabe kids would be a more heartwarming tale. For those of you unfamilar with donkey braying, try to imagine the noise of a sea lion, a sick pig and the afore mentioned screaming kids all mixed together. Amplify it by 10 and wait until you are fast asleep to hear it. Ahhh Africa, always a new experience.