I Just Told a Child to F**ck Off

Having spent over two months in Africa is starting to wear on me.  I told a child to fuck off today.  In my defense, he was more like a pre-teen or a malnourished teenager. And to further my defense, this is what I’ve been dealing with for the last couple of months: constant shouts of “Japan” “Korea” or "China" wherever I’m walking.  It’s not even to sell me something, it’s like passing commentary, like you would shout if you saw a tiger walking down the streets of your city.  Alternatively, people shout "Konichiwa" or "Arigato!". Or "Hello Japan!" like it's my name. It’s been over two months of this and my patience for it has been stretched thin.

On this particular day, I had already been bothered by a middle schooler on a school field trip. He ran over and pinched me and then ran away.  So by the time the offending teen pretended to throw his keys at me, startling me, I’d finally had it. The funny thing is that I wasn’t having a particularly bad day and I wasn’t in a bad mood, but I did tell him to fuck off. He was with his friends and they all just laughed and thought it was funny.