Such creativity

I assigned my students to write a few stories while I was in La Paz these past two weeks. Each is assigned a beat in Santa Cruz and is responsible for developing sources and finding stories there. Despite threatening zero credit if I didn't receive the assignments by email on the appointed deadline, only about 20% of my 30 or so students emailed me the homework. Many others, however, sent me some quite elaborate excuses. Thought I'd share a few good ones:

"I was away all week at my cousin's house in X town where there's no electricity. So I couldn't send the homework."

"My parents wouldn't let me go to the beat you assigned me after the jailbreak (27 violent felons did, indeed, bust out of Santa Cruz's Palmasola prison last week)."

"I'm pregnant (ed. note: though just barely showing) and I don't have a car and it's hard for me to walk around."

"I didn't come to the last class, so I didn't know what the homework was."