Cali was up before I was, waiting for me to wake up, anxious to get back to school. I couldn’t have created a more ideal school setting for her. We skyped home for about ten minutes, but everyone in both locations needed to get to school/work.
Today, thanks to Cali, we learned that you cannot simply step out the front door onto the callejon (little path). First a bicycle whizzed by, scaring the wits out of both of us. Then as she was going to try again, a motorcycle flew by. We didn’t hear either of them approaching. The motorcycle was so quiet. We won’t make that mistake again.
Madi and I reviewed some Spanish words, then walked to school. On the way to school the conversation was a bit on the gnarly side. Madi likes the gross stuff. Topics included her asking how big the rat was that I saw squished on the street, what part of its body was squished, where did the carcas end up, do I think those worms from the orange are growing in Cali’s intestines, what do I think they’ll do to the pig heart that Kier is dissecting in school tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, I may want to eat breakfast after I walk her to school.
When we walk into the school there is always a buzz. The kids are excited to be there. The teachers have created a positive atmosphere for learning. Madi can see the volcanoes and lake from her desk, she thinks that’s pretty sweet.
We have Spanish classes out on the little back porch of the school. The teacher knows four languages, Swedish, English, French, Spanish. During the less we are visited by the occassional dog. Madi and her teacher are both dog-fanatics. This they have in common. The teacher has no hot water, but three dogs. I’m sure Madi would make that trade-off in a heartbeat, and the girl likes her warm water.
After Spanish class I walked to get a coffee and read my book. I decided to go to this little cafe that is at the apex of the action here in town. It’s where the chicken buses stop, at the top of the main street that goes down to the lake. Lots of tourists wandering in with their packs who, after a drink, either make their way down toward the lake to catch a boat, or are absorbed into the town.
Today the cafe was full of cranky old men. Actually not all of them were cantankerous, but most were. Conversation ranged from, what qualifies one to be a geezer to “Where’s all the women?” My opinion is anyone who asks that question should qualify as a geezer. But arrive, the women did. There is an older contingent of women expats, who seem to own most of the businesses and restaurants in town. They are confident, many of them loud and opinionated. Forces to be reckoned with. They can take any sized room by storm. Now I understand what the men were waiting for…entertainment. I also understand by each man was sitting at a table alone. At first it didn’t make any sense why they would yell from table to table to talk to one another. But if they are sitting alone, they the women come in, and chose who they will sit with to talk to. An older version of the dating game. Ohhhhh yes, make no mistake there is method to the geezer madness. One woman was planning some type of event. She explained the event to each of the men, with huge animated arms and voice. She sat with one guy for a while, then she’d go to the next table to vet her plans, and then blew out the door. The energy! I was tired just watching her.
Met some more friends I hadn’t seen yet. Good conversation. Lots of interesting people here.
While I was reading, a little gang of shoeshine boys descended on the coffee shop. Most of them went to the men who were wearing shoes. Makes sense. But one clever entrepreneur strayed from the pack and came over to me. He offered to shine my shoes. The only glitch was that I was wearing sandals. Was he offering to clean my feet, or just making fun of my little Japanese toes. Cuz I’m not buying that my short brown toes are all that different from your short brown toes. Maybe he was offering me a pedi? I do not know. Kept pointing to my feet and asked for 5Q. Perhaps he thought I was just dumb, or perhaps this method has worked before. Just think if these boys learned how to do pedis, it would double their clientele base. Think of all the women backpackers who pass through here. They could get callouses removed, heels shaved, have a spunky new color on their toes to hit the trail. Then there are all of those older gringo women who own most of the businesses around town. They’d be all in for an inexpensive pedi while having a coffee, delivering their latest pitch, flirting with the self-declared geezers. Those boys would make a small fortune.
I made my way through town and picked up a few more things we need for the house.
Straightening up the house is much more simple here. We have fewer things to keep track of. I don’t have to ask the girls to clean up their rooms, since they don’t have singular ownership of one. Now they only need to straighten up a shelf, which is the extent of their belongings. Technically Cali has two shelves to straighten out since I relented and gave her bear Pinky a shelf of her own. It takes the girls about two minutes to clean up their stuff. Sweeping has to happen daily, but even that takes only a few minutes. Life is more simple here, for sure. Today I bought a mat for the bathroom, hung a make-shift curtain, rearranged the furniture again. Progress.
Cali took shorts, t-shirt, tennis shoes to school for gym. She came home and said they aren’t allowed to show their legs at school, ever. Oops. Now we know that “sports clothes” mean soft long pants that aren’t jeans. You are allowed to show your arms, whew. So Cali needs “soft sports clothes.” Perhaps the first place we’ll try is that paka that got a new shipment in last week. Maybe we can find some leggings or soft pants there.
We picked up Madi from school and went to the paka and did find two pairs of leggings for Cali. One pair was white (they didn’t say they had to be clean, just soft) and the other pair was a more practical brown color, but are a little big at the top (they didn’t say they had to stay up, just have to be soft). It was the best we could do. Calli was the fastest runner in two grades, and was very pleased with herself. If she isn’t the fastest tomorrow we’ll know it was because she was the only one who had unincumbered legs.
The teacher also told Cali that today was the last day she is allowed to print her words. From now on she needs to write in cursive like the other kids. Cali told her teacher she doesn’t know how, but that didn’t seem to change expectations. So tonight we are doing a crash course in cursive writing or as Cali calls it, “letters connected.” We are up to G. She did learn some of the letters last year, but she’ll be learning the rest at lightening speed.
The church service seems to start up right around Cali’s bedtime. She doesn’t complain about it and manages to go to sleep. Services aren’t marathon long. There’s a different guy playing drums tonight, same person trying to play trumpet. Only time in a worship service I’ve ever looked forward to the singing being over and the sermon beginning.
We did a quick Skype home tonight. K has a presentation due tomorrow.
Cali’s Frog Blog: I woke up before everyone in this whole wide world, even the roosters. Then I went to school. The tuk tuk was waiting for me today. At school we had sports. I forgot that I didn’t put on my tennis shoes so I went back to my class and got them. I learned that I’m the fastest runner in two classes. ME, the fastest! Then I had lunch. I went to recess and we played Up and Down. It’s just a game that we play on the slide. Then we went inside for computer class. We played a game where we dressed up a girl and chose her background. Next we went to English and played Bingo. I found that we aren’t allowed to have bare legs at school. We need soft long pants for gym, but I don’t have any. We now have all the people in our class, three girls and three boys. At night we had a yummy super and I went to bed. But there was a dead mosquito on my wrist. I didn’t like that and had to wash my hand.
Madi has a lit project due tomorrow, so couldn’t blog today. She said she had a good day.
Congratulations on your winning the curling championship Kier! Your dad sent us pictures during the tournament. We see you wore your lucky mouse ears hat. Made it easy to find you.