As soon as he left the room, the women showed me a thick stack of pictures that their students had drawn for the children in California, along with a letter from the teachers asking for school supplies and "lotion for dry skin".
As the second half of the book progresses, though, especially after a man attempts to cut in line in front of him at the ATM, he dives into longer and longer passages of pure description: the stench of the marigolds a janitor/priest wraps around his neck, the monkeys that disruptively run past, the endless stream of children asking for "school pen, school pen".
In the case of the schools, black and white testers went to schools asking for school registration papers, and the report cites an incident in which a black man was told he could not pick up forms for his own grandchildren, but a white tester was given forms for her "cousins by marriage".
"It's a nuanced ask for schools, for parents and society.
But there's no doubt that raising the participation age is a big ask for schools – perhaps it's time the extra demands being made of us received the attention they deserve.
Many people in suburbs decline the opportunity to have sidewalks and then ask for school buses for their children.
I refused to go and ask for schooling records, and, for my purposes, my mother's actual citizenship certificate did not pass muster with the department of foreign affairs and trade.
Her children - seven-year-old twin daughters and an eight-year-old son - have been admitted into a local school, but those returning with older children say they are being asked for school-leaving certificates.
The children also asked for school systems to respect and incorporate their languages and clothing, to ensure access to technology and decent classrooms and facilities.
Asking for a school with a roof that doesn't leak is a good example.
