Chapter 498: Poor Children Manage Affairs
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The boxes under the tent were piled up high. Li Du went to take a look and said, “Are these the cookies that the children are selling?”
Mother sa smiled. “Yes, this is the first batch. We are rushing to put in the ti to order and bake more.”
As she spoke, she opened a box and passed a packet of cookies to him, indicating for him to try so.
Inside the packet were so regular cookies. Li Du took a bite; the taste was great as it was fresh out of the oven—fragrant and crunchy.
The cookie flavor was peppermint. It had a sweet, refreshing taste, and was more delicious than the cookies he had bought from the supermarket.
Li Du comnted, “They’re yummy. No wonder you guys are confident about making more. Mother sa, give two big boxes—no, make it four big boxes.”
The black woman’s eyes glead. She said, “Take two big boxes first. They taste better when they are fresh out of the oven. Co back when you want so more. Hans, that kid, also loves them.”
Li Du asked, “How much are they?”
Mother sa waved her hand, and said, “How much? Don’t worry about it. They were baked by this old lady for the children.”
After hearing that, Li Du could not bear to reject her kind offer.
A few children ran back, perspiring as they pushed a small cart along, and said, “Mother sa, we finished selling all of them. Load so more for us.”
It was cooler than the sumr, but it was still warm enough for the children to get hot and tired after pushing the cart around.
At this point, Li Du had an idea, and said, “Mother sa, I can’t just eat your cookies for free. How about I help you today? I will be the driver, and ferry these boys and girls around, in exchange for the cookies.”
Mother sa asked, “You are not busy today?”
Li Du replied, “I’ve got nothing going on.”
Hearing that, the children were thrilled. But the reason for their happiness wasn’t because of the transportation to deliver the cookies. “Wow, can we work with the ocelot?”
“We can definitely sell more cookies if we bring the ocelot along to promote them!”
“His na is Ah ow. He is Brother Hans’s best buddy.”
“And Crispy Noodles—I know their nas!”
Li Du laughed as he opened the door of his car. He brought Ah Ow out. “There’s a new little buddy. She is Ah Ow, she’s an obedient kid.”
Mother sa glanced over and asked, “Wow, where did you get that wolf from?”
Surprised, Li Du asked, “How could you tell?”
Mother sa chuckled, “My father was a hunter in Tucson, protecting the farm and ranch. They often hunted wolves, and when I was young I followed them for the experience. Of course I can tell.”
She had a look of nostalgia on her face as she recollected. “How ti flies! There were so many wolves then, so commonly seen. We were filled with fear and hatred when we spoke about them. Now, they are all under our protection.”
The children had returned to take a break, but they did not rest at all. They all helped out with the chores.
There was an empty room in the welfare ho, which had temporarily been transford into a bakery. There were two large ovens in there and so elderly folks were busy baking the cookies.
Ingredients like eggs, milk, butter, and flour needed to be mixed together; soone weighed out ingredients, soone adjusted the proportions, soone mixed the dough and soone rolled it out. The people at the welfare ho had ford a production line of sorts.
The rolled-out dough was cut into various shapes using cutters and then baked in the oven. They were sorted after they had been baked; there was also a packaging machine, to be used to seal the packets of cookies up.
The children were responsible for packing; they were busy, hot, and sweaty, but they were high in spirits. They talked and laughed joyfully as they worked.
Li Du asked, “Is this how they rest?”
Mother sa smiled at him helplessly. “Yes, I know—the children are tired, but there ain’t much ti for the Scouts to sell the cookies. We have gotta take advantage of the opportunity.”
The scouting activity of cookie selling could not be carried out any ti they wished. They had to make use of the Scout’s na to conduct any business-related activities.
This was to prevent child labor or the hindrance of their developnt and studies. Ultimately, for most of the children, this activity was just to have fun. However, for the children of the welfare ho, this was an opportunity to make earnings for their own livelihood.
Looking at the children working hard in front of the packaging machine, Li Du suddenly recalled a ti when he was young.
He was in school then, dealing with stressful school work. He would learn mathematics, followed by languages—the alternating of subjects was considered a break.
The children were in a similar situation, alternating laborious work with less laborious work. It was indeed very exhausting.
With Li Du’s help, however, they could ease up a little.
He loaded the boxes into his car; there were one hundred small boxes in total. He would help sell them to the community at the malls and shops where there was a lot of people.
As he was about to leave, an ecstatic and agile Sally climbed into his car for a look, shook her head and said, “Not enough, bro. You can still load another 50 boxes!”
Li Du was stunned. “So many?”
“Each of us can sell 40 to 50 boxes of cookies each day,” the little boy Kent said proudly.
Li Du exclaid, “That’s aweso!”
The children of the poor needed to manage their own affairs early in life—they needed to learn how to do well and make money. It would also be difficult for the welfare ho to survive if they only relied on the governnt’s funding and donations from the public.
For regular Scouts, the sales target of their one-off activity could be about 100 boxes, and that would be for the whole week.
However, that would not be sufficient for the children in the welfare ho; they needed to sell a lot more cookies.
They were so much more driven than other children because, according to the Scouts’ regulation, the money that the other children earned would go to the Scouts, whereas the children of the welfare ho could keep the money that they had earned.
Mother sa was a selfless woman. Not only had she adopted these children, but she had also ensured that they grew up healthily. This did not only refer to the health of the physical body, but it also included their ntal health.
The few children who were with Li Du did not feel tired; instead they felt blessed to have his help.
Using his pickup truck as the mode of transportation, Li Du brought along more small carts so they did not have to share any.
In the car, a few children excitedly discussed their sales tactics.
Listening to their conversation, Li Du learned that the Scouts Association had sale experts give them lessons during the Scouts training camp to teach them how to promote the cookies.
These children were keen learners. Beside applying what they learned, they had also practiced with each other to gain experience and had shared their conclusions with each other.
They drove to a square where Li Du had planned to drop the children off. Here, he saw that there were already a few Scouts performing the activity with their little carts. Furthermore, they had their guardians with them.
He suddenly realized sothing, and said, “You guys ca out here all by yourselves before? Isn’t that dangerous?!”
To Li Du, the public security in the US was much worse than that in China. Even back in China, parents wouldn’t allow children to do any sort of promoting like this outside alone.
In addition, for so unknown reason, there was an exceptionally high number of pedophiles in the US. After he had arrived in Flagstaff, he often heard about sexual predators attacking children in the news.
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