Madi went to visit the one of her school options today. It’s a smaller start-up school, 12 students. They are all in one room but doing individaul work, certain components online, some group work. It’s a cute little setting, more individualized attention, creative approaches to learning. It’s an ideal place for her, a good fit. She had a good time. They played a game, had a snack, were then going to work on some type of literature class. The person running the school is very capable. There are now two good choices of schools in town.
After we dropped Madi off at the school Cali and I went into town. We rented a kid’s movie. Their rental system at this particular place goes like this, you see a movie you want to rent, they’ll burn a copy, you pay $3. We had to wait a half an hour in order to get our movie. We went by Crossroads Cafe which has the best coffee in town, but they are on vacation until the end of January. I think I’ve already been weened from my coffee addiction. I’m used to my weaker Timmies coffee, the coffee here is too strong for me. I can’t handle good coffee, how sad it that.
We also went to the bank to exchange money. Banks are very serious places here. The guard at the door told me to turn my phone off. The conterfeit currency detector is the teller rubbing the bills together with great vigor. I guess if they were fake something would be rubbing off, either that or the bills would ignite and it wouldn’t matter. Then we went to visit Cali’s favorite bakery, but they still didn’t have her chocolate muffins. Those are a bit hit and miss, so next time we see them we’ll have to get a bunch.
After we picked up Madi we tried to watch the dvd, but the player decided to quit. It had put in a good 4 hours, so I guess the inexpensive special had done its time. I don’t know if it’s because I bought a cheapie or if somehow the trip here loosened something that eventually dislodged. We’ll never know. The girls are pretty disappointed. Don’t know if I’ll buy another one while we are down here or not.
Today I bought a microwave. It barely fit into the tuk tuk, not sure how I would have gotten it home if it didn’t. Hadn’t considered that. While on our way home the tuk tuk passed a car who was passing a bicycle, while a motorcycle passed us. So we were four across if you can picture it, motorcycle, tuk tuk, car, bicycle while a tuk tuk was passing a pick up truck coming toward us. Needlesss to say, I was the only one slightly concerned by this but it all sorted itself out within seconds. It’s just the way they roll here. Madi wants to take a tuk tuk home that she can ride to school. Can you imagine seeing one of those in our neighborhood?
We decided to pop some popcorn to christen our microwave. At home this is usually a two minute procedure, with this one it was closer to 5 minutes. After we ate some popcorn, we went on a walk down by the lake. The girls finally saw why there are huge piles of rocks in the riverbed. The men were still working, digging, sorting out the sand, the smaller rocks for gravel, larger rocks, to sell for construction purposes. Madi wondered if they worked for a company or were they worked by themselves. Good question. Some men had small pick up trucks they were loading, but more seemed to be transporting one load at a time by wheelbarrow. Pretty grueling work. There were a couple of men fishing in the lake, there was also a group of guys doing pick-up soccer on a flat spot at the edge of the riverbed.
There was also a couple who looked like they were on their first date walking through the riverbed. Interesting watching the teens date here. Lots of the indigenous couples simply go for walks, may get ice cream, sit and talk. You also notice that if they are going by bike anywhere, they don’t take two bikes, she always sits on the bar in front of the guy. If your boyfriend has a motorcycle, that’s pretty cool. If he has a tuk tuk, that means he has wheels and is employed. If he has a car, then his family has money.
When we got home from our walk, the ants had practically carried off the bowl we’d had popcorn in. The ants are smarter here, I’m convinced. Our ants back home could not have rounded up that many cohorts in 40 minutes and invaded a house. The girls were sufficiently eeked out. Cali also saw another spider in the shower that I had to do away with. But it’s getting better, she didn’t freak out this time, just called for the resident exterminator, which in the absence of her dad, is me. That’s fine, I grew up with lots of bugs, I’m not squeamish. Although I was chased out of the hammock by the bee the size of a baby bird. The girls mocked me, but I had earned it.
The church is jammin’ again tonight. But, but, but what gives? It’s a Monday night and you had two services yesterday! Shouldn’t you be good until at least mid week? So we are listening to Jason Mraz and Jordin Sparks with Guate background drums and bass. Makes for some eclectic sounds.
Cali again took great care in washing her feet tonight, experimenting with three different exfoliation tools–something we usually don’t make time for at home. She was fascinated by the amount of dirt she gets off her feet. Madi will be joining Cali under the mosquito netting contraption we rigged up. We don’t all fit and the mosquitos tend to eat them. Me, not so much. Madi says they like fresh, young blood. I can live with that subtle diss while I look at my bitefree skin.
Cali woke up this morning and said, “I’m Indian.” I dutifully corrected her political-incorrectness by saying, “You mean indigenous or Mayan.” She replied, “I mean from India!” She showed us a red bite between her eyebrows and asked if that means she is single or married. Her school is very multicultural back home. She knows more about the Muslim holidays customs than I do. I guess my work here is done.
The girls are making signs for the bathroom that we can’t throw paper in the toilet. Cali keeps forgetting, while the rest of us are doing pretty well.
We are going to play a few games and go to bed. Still lots of action going on in the streets. Tuk tuks still going strong.
Cali’s Frog Blog: Today we had lots of fun because we went back to the lake tonight. Madi and I made some rooms and chose our planets. At the beach there were these spikey leaves that I took to make a pretend pillow. But they left little black prickleys in my skin so we buried all those plants in rocks so they wouldn’t hurt anyone else. I warned Madi about the prickly leaves. We walked across the rivers with our sticks. We also had to get more drinking water today because we ran out. We took our cart and I strapped it onto the cart and pulled it all the way home by myself. At the same time we bought some mini chocolate cookies and skittles for Madi. I washed my feel again really cleanly. But there wasn’t as much dirt as there was yesterday. I’m running out of skin. We saw two cows that were roaming around and I thought we should bring them home. I’m making my sign for the bathroom so I won’t forget to put the toilet paper in the right place.
Madi Speaks: I went to visit Jobi’s school. There were a few people that I recognized but only one person in my grade. We played Cranium and I stayed there for almost 2 hours. Then mom came to get me and we went home. She went to get a microwave while I sat reading Eclipse in the hammock. When she got back we went for a walk to where we went yesterday to the rocks in the riverbed. Then Cali and I claimed different mounds of rocks that we found. We went home and had buttered noodles which were very good except for the dead ant in mine. We did some of our separate activities like making a sign for the bathroom, blogging, reading. We are going to play some games and then I’m going to sleep in the mosquito netting so I won’t get so many bites.