Although we thought we had things pretty well figured out, we discovered today that we did not quite have the school schedule right. We knew that Sullivan would be switching to afternoons for this week, but we did not realize that both Madeleine and Henry’s schedules also switch every week. Nik delivered Henry to school at 7am, and Henry noticed that these were different kids waiting to go into his class. There are two 4th grade classes with the same teacher, and they take turns going morning and afternoon. Since Henry was there and ready to go, he joined the morning class for today and met even more friends. Once again he was very happy when we picked him up at 11:30. He’d even like to try going to both morning and afternoon classes one day, to have two chances to learn the material, and to have more opportunity to learn Spanish. Henry is definitely motivated, and he has adopted his Grandpa Mike’s strategy of translating and learning phrases and sentences that he’d like to be able to say to his friends.
While we were picking up Henry, some of Madeleine’s classmates came over to our car and explained to us that her class meets in the mornings this week. There is only one sixth grade class, so there was no option for Madeleine to stay for the afternoon. Tomorrow we will get it right!
Sullivan had a good second day of school, and especially enjoyed the wooden house being built in his classroom. He tells us that there is real wood, nails and a saw, and today he added on a chimney. He still has not seen a turtle in his classroom, but today he asked one of his classmates, “Donde esta la tortuga?” Go Sully!
We noticed today some young gringo women on the roof of the school cleaning the roof, and later there were some folks painting the roof green. Nik learned in the hardware store today that there is a group of volunteers from the US working on the school. So nice of them! It made us feel like we should be up there helping, as our own kids will get to enjoy the fresh looking school roof. Hopefully tomorrow we will get a chance to talk with the volunteers.
We met the father of the two boys from Montana, who told us that he grew up in Costa Rica, but laments the fact that he is still treated as a foreigner, even though his Spanish is perfect. He said that it was hard for his sons when they first started at the school last year, as other kids were not so nice to them at first. This left us scratching our heads, as our kids’ experience is so different. Did the Montana boys pave the way for our kids? We may never know, but we are grateful nonetheless.
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| All three in uniform. |
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| Sully is proud of his new notebook. |
This afternoon we restocked on groceries and produce. These people must get tired of seeing us so often. At the Super Compro grocery, we met one of our Costa Rican Las Flores neighbors who works at the store and has two kids in school. Nik proposed getting our families together for dinner sometime, and he thought it was a great idea.
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| Sullivan likes his coconuts. We bought a papaya instead this time. |
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| Nik's new drain cleaner: note the "escud" scud missile. |
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| Costa Rican coffee = $2 for a half pound. Mmmm, a cup sounds good right about now, no? |
The adventure continues! I missed your photos tonight; who knows why! Maybe they will magically appear manana. My money is still on Sullivan in the Spanish department! Love, La Abuelita
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