To Give Or Not To Give

That is the question!

And I had a lesson here. I think I could even consider that a "sermon", but very well taken. And I will have to try to remember this lesson.

The scenario:
About 2++PM going to 3PM, I arrived from the city (Cebu) and got off the jeep just before Jollibee (Consolacion) on the way to V&G.

I hopped in and ordered my usual (fave snack) TLC. At first I said I wanted it "to go" but on second thought, I said "dine-in" because I saw the dailies, a chance for me to read-up and/or catch-up on current events. Oh yes, CDN, The Freeman and Sunstar are always available here for "free-reading".

When I reached the second page of The Freeman, I saw this 'beautiful' news about two lady cops being awardees of the country's top. I got my phone so I could take a snap of the article (rationale: when I get home and see my pics, I'd be reminded of that news article, then look that up on the web).

Unfortunately or fortunately, as I attempted to take the pic of the paper, a boy came up to the glass wall and posed as if he was the subject of my shot! I did that anyway, and gave him a thumbs up.

I thought that would have been all about it. But he shrieked something and two of his friends came to the glass wall in front of me. They were saying things that I could not hear (of course, glass wall yan eh), but it was obvious they were asking me for food.

I signaled I did not have anything to give them, but we all know them, right? They stayed on and persisted to make faces that they were 'starving'. Hasuus!

Anyway, I think the idiot part of me succumbed! Without their knowledge, (or was that, really?), I stood up, went to the counter, and told the crew that I wanted to add 3 regular fries to go.

When my order(S) arrived, I asked the guard (this is near the second entrance where a guard is also posted) to give the brown bag with 3 regular fries to those 3 dudes. I was sure, even if they could not hear me, the boys knew I was asking the guard to give the fries to them.

Guard very courteously said "sorry lang sir, pero kun puydi, ikaw ra hatag nila unya ig-gawas nimo". I was a bit protesting when I said "what's the problem, itunol ra gud ni nila" (as I pointed to those boys).

As if on cue (or I now think, the crews knew what my additional order was for), the store manager was behind me saying "sorry sir, we are discouraging our customers from giving to those kids, kay maanad na sila, diha na lang sa gawas manambay, di na mu sud sa school".

I think I felt like the manager poured very cold and very hot water all over me. I realized the wisdom in what she was saying, and every which way I looked at it, I was like being a "konsentidor" for these kids to feel like they don't have any good reason to go to school. Argh!

But I already had the brown bag with three fries in it. Well, okay, I gave it to the kids when I went out of Jollibee and starting walking on my way up to V&G.

But.., today.., I made a commitment... never again.