So poor

I’ve been tutoring these 3 grade 4 girls on Mondays after school. These girls have great English and just want to improve their reading comprehension and writing abilities. They all come from fairly affluent families often speaking of their maids, multiple houses and fancy vacations. One of the girls has randomly mentioned how poor our house looks. It doesn’t look poor, just to clarify. I think it’s just some strange 9 year old humor. The other day this girl was in need of a tissue. I said, “There’s a roll of toilet paper over there on the coffee table.” To which she responded, “Soooo poor.” As if to say that our lack of Kleenex was a financial matter. Then later on she had to cut open a bag of crackers. She asked for some scissors. I looked over at the pen/pencil/scissor jar and saw no scissors, “I guess Mrs.McKenzie moved the scissors. I don’t know where they are.” She, once again, responded “Soooo poor. Do you need me to make a donation to you. I can give you a donation.” Hahaha…this coming from a 9 yr old. It’s become a bit of a joke in our circle of friends now. Anytime someone is short of money or doesn’t have something handy you’ll now here “So poor” said by someone in the background. And in our missionary community these situations are the norm.