Most importantly, Madi is feeling fine this morning. A few people have emailed, skyped, she is totally ok. Thanks always, for your concern.
Here is Madi’s school.
We went into the school to help make pizzas for the musical read through. Madi’s teacher worked as the head bread baker for a year. She has both skills and patience for her younger apprentices. We talked about my German baker lineage and she appreciates the skill it takes to be a good baker. She told us how she brought her mixer down with her on the plane. If you saw the size of her mixer, you would start understanding the depth of her love of baking.
They made the crust from scratch. There are numerous things that happen to baking at this altitude. The yeast doesn’t work in the same way, it works faster, the food tends to taste more bland which is somehow related to she salt, dough dries out more easily, it helps to bake things slightly faster, flour is drier. So, it’s either that or the exact opposite.
While the dough was rising we played ping pong, like good bakers do. We also discovered that the dog’s real name downstairs is Addie, and Cooper is her last name. There you go, she was named properly after all.
After the cast arrived promptly between 15-45 minutes late for rehearsal. The one lead had to be woken up. They did the read through. We ate the pizza, which was delicious! Jobi’s crust was heavenly. Cali and I left because the kids were going to watch the movie. I saw it once, so I’m good, Cali didn’t need to see it at all.
On the way into town we saw Cali’s friend and set up a time for her to come over tomorrow to play. Two very happy girls jumping up and down in the street. Then Cali got a popsicle, one even happier girl. In order to make me equally as happy, I needed a coffee. We went for dinosaur coffee (there’s an iron skeleton of a dinosaur at the door). It’s to the point where it’s impossible for me to go there without bumping into people I know. I only go there if I’m in the mood to socialize. That’s the chatty coffee place, and there are also more secluded coffee places that I’ll use if I don’t want to chat or have dirty hair.
Today our neighbor happened to be there. He grabbed a coffee and we talked for quite sometime–in Cali terms it was a 3 popsicle conversation. That’s what it took to keep her happy. Found out the only reason why he didn’t end up in Canada was because they messed up his draft papers during the Vietnam War. We ended up talking (well, I asked questions and listened) about Guate politics both at the federal level and the village level. We talked for a long time about the lake. Found out a lot of history about the lake’s troubles. We talked about the different carp theories, the educational background of people who are floating these theories. We also talked about the intangible benefits of kids living in different cultures. His daughter has grown up in Pana and is now going to high school in Germany. Son is likely going to school in B.C. next year. Both well rounded kids. Talked about how politics in a Guatemala and politics in a country like the U.S. have similarities. First the people have to convince the politicians to take action, but even if they do, the money often doesn’t make it back to the original grassroots effort. Case in point here, even if the funding is given to clean up the lake, depending on who is in charge of the money, it may never make it to the project. Some people here think funding to clean up the lake has already been issued three times. We talked about Obama’s State of the Union address and how difficult it is to facilitate real change even in a country that is considered to be developed.
Nevermind all that political stuff that effects millions of lives, the most important information was how he shed light on what the heck happens on our roof every night (we share a roof). There are cat wars happening on our roof with his cat being one of the main ringleaders. The back of his house is open, and often cats from the neighborhood will crawl across the roof, try to sneak into his house to eat his cat’s food. I suppose I can cancel my roof exorcism, now that I have a cause. He also says he no longer hears the church services happening nightly, next to our house–it’s like white noise to him. Wow, those are the best tuning-things-out skills I’ve ever witnessed. Gifted.
My neighbor bought some mandarin oranges from a Mayan woman, she was persistent. Found out there are a few live bands playing tonight in different locations, but we didn’t get back in to town for those. I’d love to go, but it’s a bit past Cali’s bedtime when the party starts.
When we were walking home we ran into the Salsa teacher. She is starting lessons on Thursday, right after Kier gets here. She is also going to be doing the tango choreography for Roxanne in the musical.
While we were walking through town Cali was singing, “Oh no you’re not hard core, unless you live hard core.” I asked her what it means to live hard core, she replied, “It means a life full of everything magical, amusement parks, playgrounds, Paris, warm blankets, and SUGAR.”
When we got home it poured rain for a couple of hours. Couldn’t hear skype very well, so we cut our call short.
Cali’s frog blog: Today I had lots and lots and lots of fun. This morning I woke up and had scrambled eggs with peanut and jelly toast. At 9:00 we went to Madi’s school to make pizzas for her play practice. We made dough by stirring in flour, yeast, and water. Making pizzas high up in the mountains is different than making pizzas in the valleys. Don’t ask me why. While we were waiting for the dough to rise we played ping pong and hide and seek. Then the other people started showing up. We had pizza and then they watched the movie again and mom and I left to get ice cream. I got 3 Topolinos, one purple, one green, and one red. That’s because mom was talking to the neighbor about stuff while they were drinking coffee. Then we walked home and saw somebody else that we knew. We saw my friend when we were in town and she is coming over to my house tomorrow to play. Yay! Then we bought some groceries and we went home. At home there was a knock on the door and it was Madi and her teacher. After that it started pouring rain like crazy!! It’s still raining now, not just a little rain, lots and lots of rain. We are going to have french fries and corn on the cob and other things for supper. We skyped Kier and Daddy. They are busy busy, so we couldn’t talk long. I made some really really tall towers of Cheerios attaching them only with my spit. They were really cool. We watched the movie that we rented again and then went to bed. P.S. I love you all very much.
Madi’s day: Today we finished the read through of the musical. Then we had pizza that I helped to make, and watched the movie. The cast is already starting to gel. We started walking home and it started to rain. We stopped at Jan’s house to return the dvd player, then we walked to Jobi’s house so she could drop off her computer. We forgot my math homework at school, so I don’t have any. We skyped K and Dad, but it was very loud because of the rain. We had corn on the cob, fries, snow peas, left over spaghetti. We watched School of Rock for a bit, because the movie has to go back tomorrow. It was a good day.