The village idiot of Las Vegas gets lectured by his fifteen year old Honduran friend...

"Mr. Rob, it's time to wake up. The park is closing." I spent the better part of yesterday getting drunk and then sleeping it off in the park right next to my apartment. My young Honduran friend Felipe was kicking me in the shoe to let me know the park was closing and it was time to go home. "Mr. Rob, you're worse than all the cholos in Las Vegas. Why you sleeping drunk in the park like a culo? Mi madre made you some tamales." My friend Felipe is only fifteen, every day you can find him and a number of his buddies playing soccer in the park. I helped him awhile back with some of his homework and we've been friends ever since.

"Mr Rob, you're such a smart guy. Why don't you find a good job and stop sleeping in the park?" Felipe, his three brothers and their mom live in the apartment right below mine. Everyday you can smell his mother's cooking from my apartment window. Every so often they will bring me a plate of tamales or burritos. Felipe and his brothers are 'anchor babies.' His mother and father immigrated to the Untied States from Honduras eighteen years ago and started a family. His dad was deported a number of years ago for trafficking drugs. His mother was granted a permanent work visa, but not citizenship.

"Mr. Rob, go home and take a shower. You look like hell." It's a humbling experience to be lectured by a fifteen year old, but at the time my head was hurting so bad I didn't care. "OK Felipe, thanks for waking me up and tell your mom thanks for the tamales. I'll bring the plate back after I finish." I then stumble to my feet, walk over to a park bench, sit down and immediately begin devouring the tamales Felipe had given me. "Mr. Rob, can I tell you something?" Felipe and the rest of his family are wonderful people with big hearts. So when he told me he had to tell me something; I was more than happy to listen.

"I read your blog post about how you thought you were cursed. I told my madre about it as well. She told me that she had felt that way after my padre was deported. She wants me to tell you that she knows how to lift your curse." When he told me he had something to tell me; I figured it would be along the lines of how he scored a couple goals at his soccer game or how his brothers were getting on his nerves. The last thing in the world I expected was for him to give me advice on how to shake a curse. "Mr. Rob, mi madre says that you need to look deep into your soul and ask yourself what it is that is holding you back. She believes that once you release those demons, things will turn around for you."

I like to end every post of mine with a thought I'm having...Call it the village idiot thought of the day. "I've got to hand it to Felipe and a lot of the other 'barrio kids' in Las Vegas. They do without a lot of the conveniences that most kids their ages take for granted. Felipe and his friends keep themselves entertained the old fashioned way: They play sports and read books...I'll tell you one thing is a certainty. You don't see many fat kids in the barrio I live in."