I couldn’t get to sleep until 3 a.m. Our winter nights at home are so silent and still, mainly because it’s just too cold for anything to be going on out there. But here, the wind is a raging tyrant and does what it wants. I don’t remember the wind being such a presence last time we lived here. I had more trouble sleeping due to the all night dog antics. I think they were actually playing paintball in the streets after the village went to bed. Used to irk me, after a sleepless night to see the dogs peacefully catching up on their sleep on every sunny corner.
The night sounds at this house are different from our other Guate home. The wind is like a director of this crazy night orchestra. We have two roofs for it to play on. Dirt, pebbles, large rocks, bricks, large leaves, garbage, huge sheets of loose tin, and of course cats, meteors (who am I to say it ain’t so), all sound very different when pounded onto our tin roof. Then there is the thatched roof which is lots of amplified rustling. You can hear things being blown down the street like empty plastic drums, plastic bottles. Throw in a couple of dog fights, angry cats, roosters, rattling windows, flapping plastic, bumping noises and it’s a regular Stomp recital on my roof. Pardon me for not demanding an encore.
I’ve gotten to the sad point in my sleepless nights, where I can usually identify the different sounds, until last night. There is a new unidentified noise that sounded like a huge licking sound. I know how crazy I sound admitting that, but it was like a huge creature was licking the door of the house. Now of course I could have opened the door to see what it was, but I just wasn’t psychologically ready to find out. I just held very still in my cozy bed and hoped the door wouldn’t fling open at that particular second with what???? on the other side? Eventually sleep came. I admit the next morning I checked to see if the outside of the door was particularly clean. It wasn’t. Might be developing a mild case of nightdimensia.
In the morning there is often a boy who rides his bike-cart through our neighborhood to sell fresh baked goods. We have yet to buy from him, but will get around to it. Mom, I thought you’d enjoy this since you used to deliver hard rolls in Germany when you were probably his age. But he doesn’t hang them in bags on doorknobs, and then slide down the banisters. He uses one of those honky clown horns as his calling card. Distinctive, yes. Cannot be ignored, yes. Really annoying, yes.
We walked Madi to school, it was her first day. We aren’t sure if this is the school where she will end up because she is determined to go where her older sister goes, and that is still a bit up in the air. But we dropped her off with her school supplies, snack and money for lunch. They call lunch orders over a restaurant that one of the student’s mom owns. Madi called me secretly at noon and said she couldn’t eat the rice she ordered because there were too many “things” in it. I guess that’ll be my supper. She’ll be taking her own lunch from now.
After we dropped Madi off, Cali and I walked up to her school to get her registered. First we stopped at the bank to see if my Credit Union card worked. Our branch didn’t have Guatemala authorized as a place you could withdraw money, and they made a change that was to have taken effect in 24 hours. It only took an extra 9 days, but I don’t mind. It’s all working now. I had another bank card which worked, but this one was going to be my primary. That was progress.
Cali’s school building is very nice. It’s a Spanish girls school started by a woman in Austin, Texas. It’s a great facility and apparently the only school in town that has a computer lab. Cali may be the only gringrita there (my word). Last time we were here she was four years old, became fluent in Spanish in about two months. I had her in a smaller preschool in the morning and in a public kindergarten in the afternoon. The public kindy was like the wild wild west for little people. Surviva of the fittest for toddlers. There were 44 four year olds in her class, and one poor, poor teacher. When her back was turned boys were karate kicking each other in the necks, wrestling. Cali’s crayons would disappear every day. I would send her with a new bunch daily until everyone in the class had new crayons. Then hers stopped disappearing. Magic Strega Nona pencil case. I was waiting for her to refuse to go to that school, but she never did. So every day I’d take her back and she didn’t complain.
Cali got to meet her teacher and see her classroom. This was all great without any students around.
This time around, Cali’s school experience has the potential of being much more civilized. Although one should never assume just because the building is nice, that crazy things won’t be happening within it’s lovely walls. Cali was much more pragmatic about this than I think I’d be at her age. She knows she is going in without much language. She knows her teacher doesn’t know any English, but a few people we met do, in case of an emergency. Cali said, I can do this. It’ll be just like when I started going to the French school and didn’t know any French. I just need to know where the bathroom is. We found it, and she is good to go.
When we were walking back into town, she said she needed to get a school bag. I told her we brought one with us. She said that she needs a bag like everyone else so she doesn’t stick out. If she thinks a different bag will make her blend, who am I to tell her any differently. So we went and got a little Guate school bag which will act as her little Gringo-girl cloaking device. Star Trek has nothing on us.
One thing I will say for all three girls, mostly they will go boldly into new situations. Cali repeatedly has gone into settings where she cannot understand the language and she sucks it up. When we started sending her to an all French daycare Paul and I kept saying, “Wonder when she is going to realize that she doesn’t understand a word anyone’s saying.” When I brought her to Guatemala and put her into an all Spanish school I kept wondering the same thing. But perhaps with children this age, they are absorbing new words constantly and it just doesn’t matter if the word are in their mother tongue or a different language. It’s all absorbed equally.
The school forms included designating if a tuk tuk will pick her up, number of tuk tuk. I also signed many forms in Spanish that I couldn’t read, much less understand.
Her school has an actual nice playground, something to not take for granted here. It also has orange trees in the yard. It’s a lovely setting. We’ll see how the place runs tomorrow.
After we finished registration, we went to about six stores and found a school bag for Cali. Then I bought a trash can for the bathroom, which Cali wore on her head most of the way home. I wanted a taller, more discrete trash can since none of the tp can go in the toilet.
Last night we had our first little blackout, didn’t last too long. This is one of the reasons I don’t keep too much in the freezer, but it doesn’t keep others from being stocked up.
Handyman guy came and looked at the door. Did some adjustments to the lock and doesn’t think it should blow open. That’s nice, but will it keep me from wedging a huge chair in front of it nightly? He thinks it would be a good idea to put a deadbolt on the door, but it’s not a simple task because of the iron door frame. I need a welder, and a wood guy, lock guy. Hmmm….my chair wedge is sounding better all the time.
Cali went and got a five gallon water for us on her own. Can’t tell you how proud she is to do a big person’s job.
We picked up Madi from school, she was very happy. Everyone gets their own work space. Hers is in the sun in front of a window.
In the evening Madi did her homework, Cali watched some Spanish SpongeBob and had to go to bed early since her mini school bus comes at 7:15. I’ve decided not to go with her tomorrow. She knows the drill, knows where her room is, she’s all set. I may be able to start some Spanish lessons tomorrow. I’ll have to see if that pans out.
The cable is off and on. Supposedly due to the wind.
Our musical compliment in the worship service this evening includes a trumpet, in case anyone is wondering. Anyone? wondering?
By the way, I finally had a moment and went back and read comments. Thanks for keeping us company on this little adventure. I went back and commented, I plan to keep up on these from now on. We appreciate feeling connected!
Cali is excited to go to school. I hope it isn’t a let down for her, especially since she won’t understand much of what’s going on. The orange she picked in the yard of her school had these little white worms in them. What’s worse is that she ate most of the orange before realizing it. I’m just hoping they won’t live in her system somehow. We are so careful about not drinking unclean water, cleaning our veggies, washing our hands, it would be a bummer if she ended up sick from eating an orange. Didn’t even occur to me to tell her not to eat it. Madi was totally creeped out and was afraid to eat her cucumber after that.
Cali’s Frog Blog: Today we skyped Daddy and Kier at breakfast. We were all eating breakfast together. We dropped Madi off at her at school. Then we checked out my school. I have a pretty school and I met my teacher. She looks very young except she’s not. I picked an orange off the ground in the schoolyard. Then we went to get a Guatemalan school bag. I didn’t want to use my other one because it was too plain. We got lunch stuff for me. We bought little cooked pizzas at Sandras. I also have little corn snacks, peaches, and pudding. We went to the grocery store and got containers for my lunch. I went today to get water for the whole family because we were out. I went to the store by myself. I had money. I went with the empty water bottle. I went there by myself. When I tried to tie the water onto my cart, I had some trouble. Since I was having trouble, a boy who was buying milk for his mom stopped to help. He helped me except he broke the hook off the bungie cord. So he knotted it at the end and made it work anyway. That’s just what they do here, make things work. But that is my new job, getting water at the store or anything else people need. That’s what all the kids here do, they get things for their family at the store, especially their moms. The huge water things makes a good drum. It sounds different when it’s full of water than when it’s empty. That is water bottle information I thought you should all know. I listened to Mama Mia while Madi was at school because all of a sudden she says she is not into Abba. How annoying is that? I did all my work early but the tv doesn’t work. Mom said there is nothing to do about it, which I’m still grumpy about. The fixer guy says sometimes the wind blows down a cable and the tvs won’t work. I would like to watch Sponge Bob because he’s funny in Spanish. Right now I’m playing with the water bottle by rolling it down the hall. Did you know you can dance with a water bottle? I am excited about school. If I can’t remember what room is mine so mom said to ask at the office and someone will help me. The lady at the office said all I bring to school is my backpack and my lunch. She said no chocolate or pepsi in my lunch. I already have my lunch packed I’m so excited. Love you all.
Madi’s day: Today at school we did science first thing. We mixed a bunch of different things, saw what color it was and had to write it on the sheet. Then we had snack and I’d brought pretzels. We had lit reading. I’m doing an assignment with the high school students on Cry Thy Beloved Country. Then we had language arts. We had lunch. I ordered the Chinese rice, but didn’t like it so I took it home for my mom to eat. Then my teacher gave me a ramen, the kind I like. We had math and since they don’t know what math class I’m in yet, they just let me work on my project due on Thursday. Then mom was already there to get me. I also got a new desk. It’s right in the corner where the sun is. I thought the whole day was fun and I’m excited to do the project with the high school students. I’m the only grade 7 student doing it with them. 🙂 OUr teachers went to the other schools to advertise the play they are doing, Moulin Rouge. My one teacher asked how many kids would want to be in the play in the grade 9 class. Two people put up their hands. Then my other teacher said, “Oh come on guys, it’s a great play. There’re hookers, drinking, drugs.” As he started listing things, more hands went up. On the way home from school we stopped at a little shop and got two tomatoes and a cucumber that I ate for supper. I have to do some math homework and work on my lit project which is due on Thursday.