This is actually an old story but as people seem to like my banter I thought I might share this little expedition with you all.
A couple of years ago we decided it would be nice to take our 7 sponsor/foster/adopted us (who knows what's going on and how 2 people who never wanted children end up with 7, by the way we are now comfortable with just 5, having tracked down the parents of 2 and given them jobs so they can take back 2, unfortunately Miss 6 that is now living happily with her mother may have been hubby's favorite but he won't admit that but fond memories of the 3 years we had her in our home, god bless her).
Anyway, the idea was to take them to museum of volcanology, I mean they were born in a village that is inside a volcano and they stare at an active volcano every day, so good idea at the time.
Then it was, can we bring a friend, sure, why not, then, can we bring our friends little brother/sister, okay, why not. So, we hired a second car for the day and set off with 21 children under the age of 10. We had received a donation of clothing and shoes recently, so perfect opportunity to fit them all out with new outfits, very cute in their little denim jeans, jackets, funky tops and new sneakers.
Off we went, only to be stopped by hubby's uncle, who also works in the same village to ask if we could possibly fit in 6 more (children of his staff), sure, this is Bali, who needs to worry about the number of seats in the car, let's just squeeze them all in like clown cars.
So, on the wise advice of old uncle we did a head count, 27, did you get that? 27 children, okay lets go.
Driving with that many children in the car (2 APV's, me driving one and hubby following in the other), may be a problem when you come across a random police check, but no, the children loved using the electric windows (which I eventually locked) to yell to the cops that they were going on a trip and that the cops looked funny in their uniforms, basically they teased the cops, cops laughed and waved us on (must have thought we were school teachers). Speaking of school teachers, I will repeat this again later, you have the toughest job ever, before this Bali life I ran multimillion dollar deals and I have never experienced stress like I experienced on this one particular day, more on that later.
So, we get to the museum and in we go, first a head count, smart heh? 27! Bought the tickets and we were in, we had the whole place to ourselves, children running and screaming and then dead silence, they had come across these funny looking things and stood dead in their tracks, they were in fact computer screen with the mice so you could click on the mouse and learn about volcanoes. The very nice lady guide said that they could use them and our kids just went silent, that was the only time they were silent. You have to realise these kids are from a poor traditional village and it is even rare for them to see a TV. So, we encouraged them to try it and there were squeals and silence, nope, could not interest them, bless their little cotton socks (which they also had by the way). So, no computers, what else could interest them, how about a movie? Yay, everyone upstairs to go to the cinema, hubby and I sighed and took a breath and thought, great, let's check this place out for ourselves. Nope, the kids would not let the movie start until we were there, something about these funny chairs that flipped up every time they stood up, scary stuff those cinema chairs, so hubby and I followed the annoyed museum guides up the stairs looking at each other as if, damn, we nearly got away with that.
So, we got comfy, I became the jacket holder (bit warm in the cinema), lights dimmed, oooohhh, and silence, movie starts. Quite interesting movie about the Mt Batur eruption of 1927, then 1963, then on the screen, people running and screaming being chased by lava, oh sh*t, tears started. How stupid of us, these kids live below an active volcano! All of a sudden any young child screaming was trying to fight for a place on my lap, jackets going everywhere.
Lights came up and red faces looked at us as if we want out of here. Okay, how about we have a look upstairs at the big rocks, yep, good idea. Up we go, now it starts, I want to go to the toilet, okay, well there it is..... nope, there is a funny thing in the toilet, have you ever tried to take 17 little girls to the toilet and explain how to sit on a toilet, why on earth are there western toilets in this place?
Okay, has everyone had enough excitement for one day, I know I have, let's all take back our jackets (I was still managing to hold on to them), and let's do a head count before we leave. Children running to the front doors I carefully blocked the glass doors with my body while hubby rounded them all up and counted, 27, yay, good job.
Now to the carpark, no other cars, easy, pile in kids, one more head count, 26, WTF, count again, 26. Must be one in the toilet still? Ran in to find the museum closing, please let me in, check both toilets, nope, back outside and door closes firmly behind me and locked.
Okay, count again, 26, kids, who is missing their little brother or sister? No-one, all here! No, you are not all here, who is missing!? Now, I know 21 of these children by name and face and so do my kids but someone threw in 6 spare so it has to be one of them and does anyone know their names or faces, nope.
Okay, now the stress is really building, did I mention that I believe school teachers have the hardest job in the world. 26, count again, 26, OMG! Okay, after nearly 1 hour of pacing, asking Ibu's at the fruit stands, have you seen a child, may be a boy or may be a girl, we realized we were 30 minutes past our due back time.
Okay, lets calmly drive back to the village and find out who is missing, I mean, surely once a mother comes to collect her child and we don't have it she can give us a detailed description and we can call CSI.
On the way back we asked if the children wanted to stop for icecream, no, they wanted Nasi Goreng, okay, we can get that in the village, maybe the mums can make that while we get out the blue light to find this kid. So, we drive back, still very stressed, show up at the meeting point to find all the mothers, kids pile out of the cars like clowns, mothers all walk off with children rambling on about their trip and no mother left standing there wondering where missing child Item A is. Okay, think a minute, did we miss count in the beginning, is there a child stuck in the museum, did this really happen, does the missing child even have a mother?
To this day, we have never found who was missing......................................and I say it again School Teachers have the hardest job in the world!
P.s. we believe, after sleepless nights worrying about Missing Child Item A that maybe a father came past on a motorbike saw Item A and picked Item A up, we can only hope, all Uncles' staffs' children are accounted for so this was our conclusion, CSI never showed up either.