With the exception of the large clatter on the roof, everyone slept well. The older three girls were all set to get themselves off to school, so I rode my bike down to the hotel to meet my brother and his wife for breakfast. We walked back to the upper Deli for coffee since the lower one is closed on Tuesdays.
Paul and I, in our continued debugging efforts, gathered laundry, pjs, the other comforter, and Paul took them up to the laundrymat. Next we went to the grocery store and got stuff for the kids to pack their lunches. Then Madi, Kier, and their cousin, who were all going to go to Spanish class found out the teacher wasn’t able to attend. I don’t know the reason why, but I’m sure it will be pseudo legit and likely interesting.
Kier was calling me because she couldn’t find her laptop. I had hidden it, since we were in Santiago for the weekend, in case someone broke into our house.
Personal Side note: This is an old habit that stems back to my childhood. My dad was a teacher and in the summers we would go camping all over the country. This left our house unatteneded in a highly sketchy neighborhood for a few months. Before we left we would have to creatively hide anything we didn’t want to have stolen. The best place was up in the attic under insulation because the only way up was through a trapdoor at the top of a staircase. We would chain up the ladder in the basement and hide it with lots of junk. That was the only way we kept our tv for so many years.
So, I’d stashed Kier’s laptop so well it took me a few minutes to remember where I’d hidden it. I did remember and she found it. Then the three girls walked to met us for breakfast in the tree restaurant. They entered the small restaurant, a small hurricane of chatter, there wasn’t a millisecond of silence. It was a high energy meal from beginning to end. Elias, the guy who makes pens, found us in the restaurant and my niece got a couple of pens made for her friends.
Kier left for school, she had a presentation about urbanization of the Nile valley of Africa. I let Madi skip school. Cali is skipping for the entire week, partially because family is visiting and partially because she is the only one in her class who doesn’t have lice. We’ve done lice before, and I’m not sure how to do lice and stay sane without my own washing machine. I’m sure I’d just have a pity party, go out and buy a machine, and start to drink.
After breakfast it was practically lunch time. But we needed to run some errands. We took my brother to the bank, looked in the Catholic Church. There was a rather drunk man who was persistent in his request for money. A friend of mine said she once offered a drunk guy food instead of money and he got incredibly irritated with her.
We went through the market, which is easy to do on non-market days. At least 60% of the vendors are still selling. The two people I buy from are there all week. We bought a couple of pineapples, and enough cucumbers, tomatoes, and limes to last Madi for a couple of days. Next Madi wanted to show her cousin the pet store. This store is mainly to sell animals which will eventually end up on the table. Not sure they realized that. They do also sell dog food and leashes, although I haven’t seen a leash since I landed in this town.
Since both Cali and Madi got a lot of sun in Santiago, we went to a paka (secondhand clothing store) to buy them t-shirts they can wear in the pool. Clothes are piled to the ceiling on the one side and you have to rummage around. We are pro-paka shoppers and found what we were looking for in minutes. Cali also got a new skirt. Prices in our favorite paka are standard, you can skip the dickering.
We went down to the hotel where my brother is staying, and swam in their pool. It has a waterslide and is heated. The four younger girls swam for 5 hours, until trapeze practice. I took the three older girls up to trapeze practice, then everyone else came to watch for about 20 minutes before we walked over to The Porch for supper. I was very impressed with what they were learning. There were two long pieces of fabric attached to the ceiling and one trapeze. There were about 12 kids participating, it was impressive what they were doing, not easy and requiring a lot of upper body and arm strength.
My sister Mia was busy organizing projects for her house. She is getting a loft built in the one bedroom, some patio and garden work in the backyard, some cushions made for the bench around the table. She met us at The Porch for supper with her errands complete.
We had a great meal at the Porch. There was also a group of about 25 people from Texas eating there. The band played for about an hour, Paul played pool with the girls.
After the meal we walked Mia out to the street to be picked up by her ride. Her daughter was sad to leave the family, which was understandable.
We walked home except for Kier, who met up with her friends and came home later. It goes without saying that we stopped for ice cream.
When we got home we were having a few blackouts, which made the whole camping situation upstairs, that much more real. The girls were all having a ball. The grandparents are also upstairs, so it’s a party up there. They have their own balcony, bathroom, and toys Sandy brought. Grandkid party central.