Friends, fun and a nice walk

Intimidating local flora

Today was a day of further assimilation into the ebb and flow of the local culture.  All kids were successfully delivered to and picked up from school, with one extra today.  One of Madeleine's friends, Kelly, came home with Madeleine after school pickup around 11:40.  She seems to be enthusiastic, fun, polite and speaks very little English.  At this time, the two young ladies can communicate some to each other but often come to one of us for help with expressing a thought or asking what the other said.  I imagine this will change with time.  Kelly was excited to show us a local hotel's pools, where anyone can go swim for free so long as you order some food.  Sure enough, the pools were great.  We all agreed to come back another time to swim.  We think that Henry has a friend that lives next door as well.

Pool girls

The girls chatted for a while and Madeleine gave Kelly a few small gifts from the States.  They then proceeded to organize the living room and clean it up!  We like this influence.  There was hide and seek and some homework done as well.  Lots of chatting and attempted communication back and forth.  At this point, Madeleine is leaning very heavily on her friends for a lot of help with her homework even though she often doesn't understand much of it.  It's a unique situation for her, as she is used to having all her schoolwork under control and in order.  Both she and Henry both have some discomfort at not being able to speak, read or write much but their ability to go with the flow is impressively admirable.  We've plucked them out of their comfortable school environment in Portland and transported them to a completely new situation where they have to struggle to understand what's going on.  All three kids really seem to be enjoying themselves and are learning a ton of new information at school and at home.  We really can't ask a whole lot more right now.

The boys also had great days.  Henry played soccer at recess for the first time and said he even scored a goal.  Sullivan had his first class today in the computer room which is actually quite nice.  Likely the nicest part of the school aesthetically.  He repeatedly asked us to ask him questions about it, which made it very clear he thought it was pretty cool.  Each kindergartner had their own computer and they spent time playing games putting shapes together and moving logs onto pirate ships (or something along those lines).

I walked the 4 km home from the school again without incident.  One dog started to approach me, barking, but I simply brandished the stick I'd picked up and he took off.  It's such a gift to be able to walk outside in February in shorts and a t-shirt and feel so comfortable.

Road between school in Nuevo Arenal and home

Caballo blanco

We took a moment at dinner to be thankful for the fact we've all been eating together and talking every single night.  This is something I do not take for granted, after so many years of multiple activities for the kids, hurried schedules and evening work shifts for me.  No complaints here.  We're all looking forward to our beach weekend after just one more day of school.