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The boy's 13. Both of his parents work for us, with the father earning $8.63 a day, and the mother around $7. They raise a few ducks and chickens, grow some black pepper. It's rare to see a kid this fat here, and his nickname is actually "chubby."

The more remote an area, the higher a teacher's pay, yet the government still can't recruit enough. Kids here only attend school from 7AM to 11AM.

Chubby told me about the corporate punishment at the school, about how kids are hit with a ruler on their hand or butt, or have their ear twisted by the teacher. Once he suffered three strikes for having a math problem wrong, but he told me it was actually the teacher who misread what Chubby had written. "Sometimes the teacher hit you so hard, he breaks the ruler!"

Kids also fight among themselves, usually after school, and they don't just use hands and feet, but sometimes sticks, steel rods or even knives, though the last is just for show, when you're in deep shit.

Today, Chubby's parents finally decided to get wifi, which made the kid ecstatic. He even rode around on his bike while hollering, "We're getting the internet! We're getting the internet!"


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