Monday arrives, bam. This arrival is made easier since all three are happy in their schools. After breakfast I hooked up the MagicJack, called Paul, my mom, and Mary. We talked for hours, had lots of catching up to do.
In the middle of a phone call there was a knock on the door. Cali had unilaterally decided to come home instead of going to the family’s house after school. She thought she was being responsible because she had “five pieces of homework.” The only glitch with this plan is that I might not have been home.
I asked her what she would have done if I had been out. She said she would have gone to the neighbor’s house and if he wasn’t home she would have walked to another friend’s house, that she has lots of friends. I have no doubt that she could get to half a dozen different houses in town, because she is direction savvy. She probably could also have hailed a tuk, gotten her laundry done and groceries for the week if she had Qs in her pocket. It was difficult for her to understand why I was so concerned seeing how she could CLEARLY take care of herself.
Let me just get my heart attack over with now, while trying to block out predictions of her teenage years. I think if I offered to get her an apartment and a car, she would take the keys and never look back. It’s supposed to take another 10 years to get her to independence and I feel like I should already start looking for another job.
In the afternoon I went to my friend’s class. She teaches English to some of the mom’s of the school where her son attends. There were four women. One originally from Bangladesh, two from Mexico, one from here. They told me about themselves, interesting lives. One woman is an aerobic instructor, one does massage (who doesn’t around here), one sells jewelry (ditto to previous parenthesis), one is married to the director of the bank (as her job). I asked them to answer two questions, 1. What do they like best about living in Pana? 2. If they could change anything about Pana, what would it be. Favorite reasons for living here included the beautiful lake and climate. Items they could change if they could included, ending construction in the streets (they’ve been putting in new water pipes for months now), improving education so that it isn’t just for priviledged kids, changing the perception that if you live in Pana you’re crazy (I thought that one was funny), controlling the growth of the village so it doesn’t turn into a city, ending the indiginous method of justice like burning people alive for stealing. Can’t argue with that last one.
After the class the women told the teacher they hoped I would come more regularly because I wasn’t a normal gringo (I like to think they meant average, but maybe they did mean normal). I asked what that meant and she said they thought I was fun, approachable, not a boring gringo like the others. Mostly I think that can be filed under compliments. After the class the one woman said she wanted to invite my family to dinner and would cook Bangladeshi food. Sweet! I love international food dinner invitations.
I went to try to pick up Mia’s cushions for the kitchen table benches, but they were closed even though the posted hours said they’d be open. No problem. As I was walking away, I thought about how a control freak would go insane here, or become a reformed control freak. I should set up a little resort where control freaks could come for rehab. The therapy would be to send them out into the village with everyday tasks like buying groceries, getting laundry done. We could also add a sex addiction rehab wing and have a booming business until that becomes passe.
While I was walking home I saw dogs on scooters (if that rhymed it could be a Seuss book). One dog was sitting on the base part of the scooter, sticking his nose out into the wind. Next I saw two dogs on a motocycle, one balanced in front of the owner, one balanced on the back. I actually laughed out loud. Not a day goes by when I don’t see something amusing.
All three girls had homework, but everyone was done by 5:30, a record. Kier went out to see a movie.
Cali’s frog blog: Today I had lots and lots of fun. I know I haven’t written in a long time and you probably miss me. Today was fun. At school I call Jose Pablo the King of Rock because last time in the costume festival he was dressed up as a King. Then he was in the dance competition and he won, so ever since that festival day I call him Jose Pablo the King of Rock. Today I wore my new iCarly shirt to school that I got at the paka. But the boys all started calling me iCali. Even the teacher was calling me that. Today I didn’t go to the family’s house because I had too much homework. P.S. I love you all very much.