March brought the start of school for Emma and Hannah and lots of bad craziness (and shopping) for Aileen and Jeff. Here is some commentary.
Emma
Starting 4th grade was scary because in Peru you don’t know what teacher you are going to have until the 1st day. I have a teacher named Giuliana Pinto Villegas, she is very nice and is a good teacher. I am glad that school started again because I was getting a little tired of Hannah. I am also happy that my best friend, Mafer Sanchez is in my class. I am not happy about homework. Over all I have had a good first week of school.
Hannah
My school started and it’s really fun and we get to do lots of fun stuff. We get to play fun stuff at recess. We played a game called “Find the Treasures” and it’s really fun. I like my teacher and she’s really nice but she kind of screams a lot. I still like her. Also, we have to write cursive a LOT, like four pages almost every day. It’s definitely harder than first grade. I am happy to be at school with my friends again.
Jeff
School got off to a rough start this year. The first week was really crazy as nobody knew what was going on – including the administration, teachers, students and parents. After a week of everyone figuring out what books are needed on what days and which uniforms to wear when, things seemed to be shaping up. We celebrated the first week of school by going out for a special lunch. We took some friends out for “pachamaca,” an indigenous meal of meat and potatoes cooked in a hole filled with hot rocks. On the way home from the restaurant we hit a major thunderstorm and our friend told us school would be cancelled on Monday due to flooding. We figured that was just histrionics and looked pretty stupid Monday morning as we stood on the street waiting for our ride to school. Someone finally told us that all school in the city had been cancelled.
We were very relieved when school was back in session the next day but that rug was pulled out from under us when the phone rang around noon. Hannah had thrown up at school and was sent home early; Emma came home sick later that afternoon. The girls spent the next two days at home with amebic dysentery (perhaps related to the food cooked in a hole??). They want back to school that Friday and we had a fun day Saturday. However, everyone is a bit under the weather again so who knows what will happen next. To add insult to injury, the San Francisco school district just informed us that Emma and Hannah got placed in different elementary schools and we are not very happy with their assignments. Aileen is supposed to visit the USA next week to register the girls in school and now we are not sure what we are going to do.
March always seems to be a down month for me. I recall writing a pretty negative post from Nicaragua last March after having been attached by fleas. This post seems pretty negative too so I’ll add a silver lining to my cloud. Hannah started violin lessons a few weeks ago and is showing a real talent for it and is already doing guitar-violin duets with Emma. I was also tickled to find out that some of the girls’ teachers did not realize Spanish was their second language. Hannah’s second grade teacher is new to the school and for some reason was not giving Hannah the same level of help she got in first grade. When Aileen went to talk to the teacher she was shocked to learn that Hannah was not Peruvian. A few days later Emma’s new English teacher wanted to know why she could speak English so well. While it is a bit weird that the teachers were so clueless, we are thrilled that Emma and Hannah are so well integrated in their school.
It feels like we have really settled into life in Arequipa. I guess part of settling in means that the vacation in over and you have to take the good with bad. While I did enjoy the vacation phase, it is nice to be living a more “normal” life again.
Aileen
I am the anti-blogger and have nothing to say about any of this. Here is a cute photo of our daughters
