School daze, a committee & fundraising

Sullivan's kindergarten classroom

Today was the very first day that all three kids were in school and at the correct time.  A small but important victory for us for sure.  While Madeleine was in school this morning, I managed to pay a few lingering bills from the Portland days.  Erica’s mom has been kind enough to open, scan and email anything that looks important.  She’s even found a couple of checks.  So far this system is working quite well.  

While the boys were in school this afternoon, we helped Madeleine with one of the assignments her class did today in Social Studies.  They were tasked to read passages about the six regions of Costa Rica and answer questions.  We worked for two hours and finished four of the six regions.  It was somewhat slow going but we had her read the passages out loud and then we worked to figure out what they meant in order to answer the questions.  It’s impressive how fast young brains can work.  There’s little doubt that her Spanish will be great if she keeps working this hard.  

English was her other main class for the day and she enjoyed helping out her classmates.  Apparently they were filling in blanks from a passage read aloud about visiting a farm.  She found it pretty entertaining.  Sounds to me like a romanticized tour of the "Happy Cow Farm".

Note the useful tips from English class today

Henry was a bit more subdued at pickup, saying that he’d fallen down and scraped his arm.  He didn’t want to talk about it much and denies that anyone hurt or pushed him.  He says that the boys all like to wrestle with each other, sometimes even in front of the teacher at recess.  Seems like the girls are not typically involved in this sort of mayhem.  Today was the first day that he expressed his frustration with not being able to understand what his friends were trying to tell him.  We’ll keep working.

We were told yesterday that there’d be a “reunion” for the parents after the 3:30 pickup for Sully’s class.  We found our little man fired up and running around the playground, clearly enjoying himself.  During the meeting of about 20 moms, the morning and afternoon kindergarten teachers, Erica and me, Sully proceeded to wear himself out and finally melt down.  Ironically, I first went to tend to him during the parents’ prayer.

Sully proudly shows the "hammering table"

The rest of the mothers were wide-eyed when our turn came to introduce ourselves.  They literally applauded after we finished our introductions in Spanish.  And not because they were of such high quality, rest assured.  The meeting itself lasted for about 2 hours and 15 minutes!  As Sullivan was finishing his overheated, dehydrated meltdown, Erica took the kids home and I stayed.  

I’d estimate I understood between a quarter and a half of what was being said, with some folks being easier for me to understand.  I think I have at least a vague idea about most of the conversations.  Lots of discussion about how God has given each of the children special gifts, how all of the children will be included and valued for who they are and about how the teachers saw their jobs to help make the children feel good about themselves.  There was discussion about things the classroom needed such as a new phone, new clock and some painting in addition to a bulletin board or two.  I think.  Loads of laughing, joking and storytelling interspersed.  Finally, it was announced that there was going to be a committee or group of parents to help do things and raise money for things the class needs and for activities.  When nobody eagerly volunteered, some arms were twisted, including mine.  My position is “vocal 1”.  I asked exactly what I’d be doing and was assured that we’d all be working together.  No better way to get involved in the community for us right now.  We’ll jump right in.  

Roof work a la Escuela Arenal

It was quickly decided that our first fundraiser will start tomorrow.  We’ll (term used quite loosely) be preparing food and drink to sell to the college student volunteers from Florida who yesterday started working on cleaning and painting the roof of the school!  Everyone was volunteering to bring food and they asked me if I could bring something.  About 30 seconds after sausage was innocently suggested, there was a joke whose exact interpretation I did not get.  But, the immediate burst of laughter and blushing cheeks confirmed my suspicion that a surprise double entendre had just been dropped.  Matalina, Sully’s teacher, half-heartedly apologized for the “mujeres peligrosas” or dangerous women.  We are beginning to settle in.  

I walked the 4 km home and reveled in the large and fast-moving lightning bugs all over the place.  The crew had eaten dinner and was feasting on our first family papaya, which went over quite well.  More of this in the future for us.

Fresh papaya is a good thing