Cali’s first day of school. Her tuk tuk leaves at 7:15, so she had to get up at 6:30. This will be an adjustment for all of us. I have to be up by 6:45 on Tuesdays and Fridays anyway to give the garbage to the man. There are stray dogs who seem to know the garbage route and run ahead of the men with wheelbarrows to destroy any bags which have been set out ahead of time. I think those dogs know the entire route. Here it’s not only survival of the fittest, but survival of the smartest.
At 7:15 and the tuk tuk wasn’t here, I was a bit concerned that perhaps I’d miscommunicated. I didn’t want for her to be late her first day, so I hopped in a different tuk tuk with her. As we were starting down the street, our tuk tuk showed up. She popped over to the other one, I gave the boy a 5Q even thought we’d only gone a few feet. Off she went. She was starting to get a bit nervous wondering what she would do if she doesn’t understand the work.
Then Madi and I had another hour before she had to leave for school. She is clipping through another novel. I’m glad her school has some books for her, I can’t keep her in books. Then once Kier is here there will be two people I can’t supply enough books for. It’s a good problem to have.
I walked her to school and she started with a Spanish lesson. The directors of the school said I could also attend the lessons, otherwise Madi would be alone. Turns out the teacher is the same person who tutored Kier in French the last time we were here. We sat out on the porch for our lesson. The lesson was helpful.
I went to the grocery store to get Madi some lunch stuff. She isn’t going to eat ramen soup for a little while to see if that is what is giving her the rash. We can’t figure out what it is, grasping at straws, however unlikely. Doesn’t seem to be clothing, so we’re wondering if she has some kind of food allergy, which would be a first in our entire family. I doubt going off of soup will make any difference, but we are trying anything. I went and got some turkey slices to make her a sandwich. Met a couple people on the street who I knew, ended up talking to them for quite sometime. I went home made Madi’s lunch, delivered it to the school and the morning was over. How did that happen? It does make a huge difference in the amount I can accomplish when much of my time is simply getting from point A to point B. Right now I’m stil enjoying the walking. When it becomes tiresome, I’ll hop on the bike.
Cali’s school was over at 1pm, so by 1:10 I waited for her at the street. Ten minutes passed, another ten, then it’s 1:30. Ok, now I’m getting concerned. I called the school and a janitor answered the phone. I asked if Cali was still at the school, he didn’t know. I asked if anyone else was around, he said no. Then I called a friend who called the school to find out where she was, who knows more Spanish. The reason the janitor couldn’t get anyone was because they decided to have school until 1:30 today. Hadn’t considered that they would just go a half an hour longer. My life has been too structured for too long! I assumed schools end when they say they’re going to end, silly me. I was worrying for no good reason, whew!
Cali arrived in her tuk tuk school bus with a huge huge grin, jumps into my arms and says, “I love my school!!! And all my dreams came true, I have a new friend.” I thought it was an all girls school, apparently I was wrong (first time). Her class is the opposite of the wild wild west. She has one girl in her class and two boys. There are perhaps two more students coming. The girl knows English–so much for immersion, but that will help Cali get instruction on assignments. Cali already has her phone number and an invitation to come over.
She was equally as pumped that I have everything necessary to assemble a turkey sandwich. It’s a good day for her.
At 3:30 we picked up Madi from school. The teachers teased me the minute I walked in, “Heard you lost your kid on her first day of school,” snicker, snicker. We walked down to Solomon’s Porch to a meeting about the musical they are putting on, Moulin Rouge. While the girls were having an ice cream someone else I know yells across the street, “So, I see you found your daughter.” Always happy to provide a good little chuckle to the whole village at my own expense.
The Moulin Rouge presentation was good. They know how to sell a show. The production sounds like it will be amazing, lots of different kinds of dance, salsa, trapeze, hip hop.
We walked home at five and the wind was starting up. It had taken a break for the entire day, so I suppose it’s only fair.
Like the last time we were here, the girls have started naming the stray dogs. There is Puddle, because is he always sleeping in the same round ball in the same place, Winnie the Pooh, Chalk, Limper, Barks-a-lot, Barney, Voldemort, and Nipple (don’t ask), just to name a few.
Cali was tired, so didn’t like any of her supper choices. Just wanted to eat chips and chocolate. Well, don’t we all. I put her to bed a little early just to give my ears a break from the whining. The wind seems to be drowning out the singing next door, she is already asleep. The last words she said were, “I’m so glad my dream came true and I have a friend at school. I love my pretty school.” So, there it is.
I realized I didn’t ask any of the kids at Madi’s school to translate a note that was sent home with Cali from her teacher. So I put it into the Babelfish translator online. The note said, “Se le informa que el dia de manana tienen fisica.” My translation came back, “One inquires to him that at some future date they have Physics.” I think we’ll go with the Cali translation which is, “I need to bring gym clothes to school tomorrow for tennis.” If it turns out they are starting Physics and not tennis tomorrow, that’s fine with me too.
We had ice cream at Saritas after everyone’s first day at school.
Cali’s Great Day Frog Blog: I went to school today. This morning I woke up very early and mommy made me an English muffin with peanut butter. Then my private school bus tuk tuk came to pick me up. Then we went to school. I was the first one there. He didn’t just drop me off at the street, he went up the long lane and dropped me off at the school gate. Then I walked to my class and I remembered where it was. I didn’t have to go to the principle at all today to ask any questions. Then I noticed a girl who speaks English in my class. Today there were three other people in my class. But my new friend said there should be two more. Back to my story. Then my teacher taught the class and taught us spelling. We played musical chairs without music, so I guess it should really be called Chairs, Chairs. Then we ate lunch. We eat at our desk. Our desks were really dirty, but I think that’s how it always is. They gave each one of us a pencil, eraser and sharpener. Nothing more. There are two boys and two girls. The boys got blue sharpeners and the girls got green ones. We drew pictures for people in our class. I drew a picture for one of the boys and he had to draw a picture for me. Then we had snack and went to recess. At recess me and my new friend were playing modeling on a log. When we fell off the log the other person would go, Booo,,,we came here for some modeling, booo. When she was modeling I would be the photographer. When we came out of our recess we had a little snack. Then we had art. We drew pictures of what we wanted to be when we grow up. I drew a picture of just me because I don’t know what I want to be. So I just drew myself doing what I do best in life, just being me. Then we had English class and we played Bingo. Then my teacher told me at the end of class to bring some sport clothes because tomorrow we are going to play tennis. Her name was Miss Luna and we weren’t allowed to speak any Spanish in our English class, which wasn’t hard for me. We learned how to spell words I didn’t even know how to spell like “toothbrush” and “chicken noodle soup.” Then Jonathan, the oldest boy took me back in the tuk tuk, my very own tuk tuk. My day was really really really fun. I’m so glad that I love my school and that my dreams came true about having a new friend at school. I love you, my new school more than my whole family. I’m just kidding family, I love all of you still.
Madi’s day: Today at school mommy and I had our first Spanish lesson with Kier’s old french tutor. After we had chemistry with our teacher we had snack. We had lit reading, then lunch. Mommy brought me a turkey sandwich and tomatoes. We had language arts, then math. I have language arts with all the high school students and kiki when she comes. That’s also the case with lit. reading where we are making booklets of certain quotes about racism in a book we are reading. We also had Human Geography where we are studying Africa. Then we went down to Solomon’s Porch to talk about the production of Moulin Rouge. I’m auditioning for the dwarf Bohemian. We came home and I started practicing my lines because the audition is in two days. Now I need to get to my homework.