T.I.H. and Taxes

T.I.H., for the uniformed, stands for "This Is Honduras," an acronym which originated from some gringos needing a way to label events that would mostly likely only happen here.   My Honduran husband, it must be noted, has even picked up the phrase.  Take Monday, for example.  Our conversation went something like this:

Daniel arrives home after supposedly going to replace his drivers license.
Me: "So did you get your license?"
Daniel: "T.I.H....."
Me: "Oh no... what happened?"
Daniel: "I have to go back on Thursday just so they can tell me which day I have to go back again to get my license."

You see.  T.I.H. is quite handy and states so much in so few syllables.

Today at work, a pretty epic T.I.H. moment occurred.

We're reading Stone Fox, a classic book, in which Grandfather falls "ill" because he's lost the will to live. The reason, we just found out today, is because he owes $500 in taxes.
I stopped our reading to find out if/what my kids knew about taxes.
One girl raised her hand to share.  "It's like my aunt. She owns a store and she has to pay taxes to the bad men.  If she doesn't pay them the taxes they will go to her home and hurt her or take all of her store."

T.I.H.

My student understands taxes all right... only, what she understands is the war tax, paid to gangs so as to basically avoid their wrath.  Check out this post I wrote about the market fires and the war tax.

T.I.H., where students don't think twice about bidding their teacher farewell for a morning so she can go file a police report for her stolen goods.  T.I.H., where some kids understand the war tax better than a regular one.