I slept well last night, ahhhh. I say that because it may be the first time since we’ve arrived here. It’s significant enough to me that it deserves mentioning. The night started with what sounded like two large glass objects shattering one right after the other. But after that, all was quiet, I mean relatively speaking.
Spanish lessons today went well. No licking dog or earthquake distractions, just straight-up noneventful teaching and learning. When Madi concentrates she absorbes more quickly than I do. Our teacher is an interesting person, with many experiences throughout her life. She always has an interesting story to tell during the course of the lesson.
Cali like to buy things at the store by our house.
After Spanish class I walked down for a coffee and croissant at the La Parada. I had a good conversation with the Solomon’s Porch founder. Found out even more about their organization and the history of how he and his wife decided to come to Pana. Interesting! I connected with a couple more people there. There were two people who said hello to me on the street who I didn’t recognize. I think they may have been at the church?? Don’t really know. I think I’ll make a little book for myself of the different people I meet here and their amazing stories. That may help me with the new names and faces. The morning goes quickly and before I know it, Cali is being dropped off at home. We always do a bit of her work right when she gets home. Then we get Madi from school. Weekday evenings are all about the normal life stuff, eating supper and doing homework. They both get lots. Before we know it, the church service is on, a signal that it’s Cali’s bedtime.
Kier, we were thinking about you during your guitar concert. Hopefully your dad was able to video it. You must be so excited to get your braces off tomorrow. We’ll have to skype to see that new smile.
Cali’s Frog Blog: Today I had lots and lots of fun, except for one part. I stepped in dog poo. Daddy, you really don’t want to know this, but I stepped in very fresh red dog poo with my Birkenstocks. It was juicy poo and it made me slip. I was on my way to the store to buy myself a treat when it happened. I wish you were here to help me clean it off. Because mom just said, well go rub your shoe in some grass. You would have cleaned it much better, like with a stick and then with some soap and water. Mom just didn’t care that much, dad you should have a talk with her. I also stepped on an orange, which was very slippery and I was worried for a minute that I had stepped in more poo. Mom says my shoe has to sleep in the backyard tonight. From now on I will be more careful, daddy. Other than that, the rest of my day was very good. In school, first I had my normal classes. Then during math class we always have a story. The story was about a school and a little girl. At recess we are still playing lava monster because we like that game so much. In Arts English class we wrote down different words. Then we played Bingo. There is a new boy in our class today. Now there more boys than girls. At the end of the day the dad picked me up in the tuk tuk, not the teenager. After I got home from school I went to the store for a treat, and that’s when the poo thing happened. Again, I’m very sorry daddy. In Paris you always tell me to watch out for the doggie poo, but you weren’t with me to tell me about this one. My homework tonight is to draw a picture of my family. This is taking a very long time because I’m putting lots of designs on all the clothes, except daddy’s. Since we have four girls in our family, that’s a lot of designs. Sorry daddy. We had chicken nuggets for supper, which were very good. The music is playing at the church which means it’s past my bedtime. But I’m not finished coloring my picture. P.S. I love you all.
Madi: Today I took the computer to school so I could do my projects at school. The projects I’m currently working on are, my Language Arts essay on the importance of clean water in Haiti after the earthquake. In Literature I’m working on a new project from the book Cry The Beloved Country. I got a 10 our of 10 on my first project for that same book. I also have to choose two African countries to do a project on. I’m leaning towards Madagascar and the Republic of Mali. I’ll learn more about that project tomorrow. Right now I’m drawing Cali as a princess while she draws her family picture. We went grocery shopping after school and then we came home. Both of us have homework to do, it seems, every night. So we eat supper and do our homework. Bye for now.