"Mommy, this Santa is fake"

I accompanied my cousin to a bowling alley the other day where the cub scouts were having an outing. In no time Santa came along and all the kids got excited as they lined up to take pictures with Santa. After some time, one of the kids came running up to her mom, highly excited and told her "mommy, this Santa is fake". Her mom said "how do you know?" and the kid replied "his belly is fake". My heart went out to her, she sounded so disappointed.

The mom on the other hand was in a fix. The look on a her face conveyed that she was lost about what to do. Obviously, she wanted a couple more years to go by before she had to help her daughter confront the fact that Santa is fake. She recovered pretty quickly and replied "maybe it's Santa's helper". Her daughter seemed happy with that explanation and went of to continue her game of bowling. Whew!

The thing is, I always knew that Santa was fake. Santa, or Christmas for that matter isn't a big deal back home. There are the people who celebrate it, but its a very small minority. Since Ive been here, I have had to answer questions like "does Santa come to Sri Lanka too?" and "what did Santa give you for Christmas last year?" and I have no answers. I don't want to burst the bubble and tell them the whole thing is fake. At least, not yet.

Ever since I knew I was coming here to study, I have been preparing for it. Never did I think though that little things like Santa would create such confusion. I have been completely unprepared for moments like this, and though they pass soon enough, they remind me that it is not only in the classroom that I have things to learn.