In the story “Whistling my troubles away”, Camila is the camp director and Benito is substituting as counselor for his cousin, Luci. Benito is supposed to come up with a play for the kids to perform by the end of two weeks.
On his first day, Benito gets discouraged by how difficult it is to control the kids and have them focus on a single task. That night, however, Camila thanks him for his help and tells Benito a foundation will send a representative to watch the kids’ play. The man will decide if the camp’s drama program shall receive money from his foundation to be implemented. Camila also lets Benito know that a big production is not expected from him and the children, but he feels very nervous anyway.
His reaction to the conversation is to start whistling, since that’s what he does when he is nervous. And such reaction serves as foreshadowing because whistling is exactly what helps Benito come up with a skit. On his last day before the performance, a completely-out-of-hope Benito begins to whistle and one of the little girls, Mariana, asks him to teach her. She learns fast and all the other kids are impressed and want to learn as well. That ends up being what they perform, and the representative is satisfied. He tells Benito, ‘You got them coordinated on a single task. They had fun. They gave a performance. What more do you expect from seven-year-olds?’
