Week one: School preparations, the Big Slide

Our primary activity this week consisted of daily trips to the school to navigate the registration process.
The school, Colegio Montessori.

The director was expecting us, but even so, as special-status students we caused some confusion among the administration and still had to jump through all the regular registration hoops. The kids all had to be "evaluated", lots of forms filled out, and at last, on Friday, tuition was paid and it is all official. Turns out the Montessori School is one of the pricier schools--regular tuition comes out to about $170 per month per child--but all told after paying insurance, registration fees & tuition, we will spend about the same amount we do at home sending Susana and Foster to preschool and Elliott to JC schools as a tuition student.

An unexpected expense was the required uniforms for PE. At first I balked at the price tag (about $55 each), but then the kids all seemed to be excited about their special school clothes--see the photos below. Susana didn't take off the outfit for two days! The whole ensemble is sweatshirt, sweatpants, tshirt and shorts, to be worn on gym days.

The other (welcome!) expense is the gondola (school bus) service which will take the kids from the house to the school and back for $30 per child per month. Its probably about 5 miles to the school, but if I took them in a taxi and picked them up, it would cost twice that...or if we took a much cheaper microbus, it would take us a LONG time. In any case, I would gladly pay $90 a month for someone to do my commuting from Jonesborough to Johnson City twice a day!

Elliott will be starting school with a new class of 3rd graders--the first day of the 2010 school year is tomorrow (Feb 1). The preschool and kindergarten classes start in gradually, introducing the kids in small groups. We know Susana will start Weds and we'll find out tomorrow about Foster.

Aside from the time spent at the school, the next biggest pastime was afternoon trips to Laykakota, a large city park with lots of playground equipment but most importantly: a huge concrete slide. Its a great place to go because there's a spectacular view of the city. And it never fails that one or more people ask to have a picture taken with Foster and his blonde hair. Here are some park photos:

View from the park
At the top of the big slide (its probably about 25-30 ft high?)






The big crocodile, second favorite slide: down its gullet and, yep, right out the other end.


You can see our house from the park. I tried to draw in a blue arrow pointing to the orange-colored house, but I'm not sure if it's visible at all. Basically, we live in a 2-story house in the middle of a big city!

Susana, Foster & Marcelito (Housekeeper Petrona's 4 year old son)

A sample of one of Foster's many photos with admirers. As long as he's in the picture somewhere, they seem to be happy.

Up next: the first day of school report....

We're here!

Here´s the travel report:

This was my first time flying to Bolivia by myself with the kids, and I wasn´t sure how I would fare 1-on-3 during the 17 hour journey. All went very well--shockingly smoothly, really. I got lots of sympathetic looks--no doubt because everyone thought I was traveling alone with three kids all the way from Australia. (As a ease-of-spotting-in-a-crowd device, I had dressed them in the matching Austrailia t-shirts the McCalmans had brought us last year...it works!)

In Charlotte, we enjoyed the super-spacious new Concourse D which has a huge dome-shaped terminal, a great view of the city skyline, and lots of room to run around. We struck up a conversation/playtime with a German family with two small children travling to Yemen which quickly put my journey into perspective!

But hands-down, the special hall of moving walkways in Miami remained the favorite place to run off energy and kill time. Thanks to all the running in circles (and staying up til midnight), the kids slept very well on the overnight flight.

Upon arrival, we sailed through immigration, grateful to the kind officer who let families with children move to the front of the line. Since our visas were dealt with last year that saved a lot of time. Customs didn´t ask any questions about our gigantic pile of luggage or the 5 pounds of frozen bacon I brought for Bobbi Sue, and we passed through the sliding doors quickly. The kids ran into Abu Sue´s arms, we loaded all 6 of us and the 6 bags into Javier´s trusty red Jeep, and we soon arrived at the house!

The kids have been playing non-stop with the cousins who are all living in the downstairs apartment while Rosi and Sergio remodel their house. They picked right up where they left off in July and it is great to have so many playmates at our fingertips!

Yesterday we were all a little woozy from the altitude, but I think we´re all in good shape today.

More soon...we visit the school tomorrow!

Karen

And now a word from Elliott...

Shhhh…. don’t let my parents hear this. My plan to not go to South America is I will tie bricks to myself and stay in bed the day we go. If they hear what I just said I’m in deep trouble. I will not go because we have to go to school and speak Spanish. I’m mostly worried that I’m going to make f’s on tests. Mom said it would not count against me. But I don’t believe her. So I’m pretty much just complaining about it to make her not take me.

The worst part is I’m having my birthday there! So for an early birthday present they could just not take me! The only good thing is I get my birthday present there. But wait what’s the big deal about me getting my birthday present there? I’m not saying I don’t want a present…just what’s the big deal? I mean, if we stayed here I’d get a present, too, right???

Then who knows what I will have to learn. We might have to start the first day of school there doing division. I’ve just started to learn it here. Or we might have to tell the teacher two multiplication problems…well now I don’t now anything else to complain about… so I guess that’s all for this entry! Wait! Wait! I remembered something. You have to sleep over night on a plane. I really hate that part because you can never sleep. So when you get there in the morning your super sleepy and grumpy. So now you have read my entry.

Elliott

WHY would you want to do this?

In my first entry I wrote about all the little practical, timing and logistical concerns that make sense for us to go learn more Spanish right now but I didn’t really mention my underlying motivation. It was not until this question was put to me this way last week (by an adult this time, not by Elliott!) that I really thought about the “big why”: because speaking Spanish has opened so many doors for me.

My first trip overseas? To Spain as a 15 year old with the High School Spanish Club. Second trip: to Bolivia for a semester in college. That trip to Bolivia impacted so much: my ability to actually speak Spanish (one thing to know it, another to talk), my major in college, my direction for grad school, a year travelling after college, an internship in Costa Rica, Larry and I spending a year in Latin America. All of which led to my outreach work at the Downtown Clinic and most importantly to Susana’s adoption.

So naturally I want my kids to be a part of something so central to my life. Not to mention that I made a promise to Susana’s birthmother that I would make sure Susana learned Spanish so that they could communicate with each other.

It’s all that, plus knowing how much easier it is to learn language as children…and how fascinating it is to get to watch that happen.

So that’s why!

Back to packing--Karen

I can't believe you're doing this to me!

OK, here's the background for those who haven't gotten my reasoning already:

Coming home from our last trip to Bolivia in July, I had this realization: now (before Susana goes to Kindergarten) is the perfect time to put my kids in school for a few months in Bolivia. Why?First, my kids always start speaking Spanish after about 3 weeks into our trips (and then we come home and backslide), so what would happen with a longer visit? Second, Susana and Foster are old enough now to get something out of it, we're paying tuition for them to go to preschool now anyway...why not pay tuition there? And Elliott is not so old that taking a few months out from school will be too terrible. Third, in La Paz, Susan hasn't moved yet (although she & Javier plan to move a smaller home) so right now they have room to keep us.

So then I ran this all by Larry, who agreed with all my logic short of how he could take a leave of absence from his job for three months. We worked out a plan that we think we can all get by if he visits for the middle month of our trip. Then I talked to Elliott's principal and teacher, both gave their blessing, and promised Elliott would be promoted to 4th grade no matter what. I contacted the Montessori School in La Paz and they agreed to take on all three as special students for the start of the 2010 school year which begins Feb 1st. And I contacted Bobbi Sue and Javier who agreed to take us in... Lastly, I renewed the passports and bought plane tickets-- and now we are set to depart on Jan 25th.

The hardest part of this all so far was breaking the news to Elliott, whose response was "I can't believe this is happening to me! I'm not going to go." and quite a few tears. I knew he was not going to be thrilled about leaving his friends and going to school all in Spanish, but I was not prepared for how bad I would feel to see him feel so bad about my family study-abroad adventure. To his great credit, after a day or two of moping, he was willing to come to terms with my plan and ready to review the alphabet, work on spelling in Spanish, and get somewhat prepared. Foster and Susana are not the least bit concerned with anything...although they do seem to fully understand that they will be going to a new school. I of course know that they don't have any conception of how long we will be gone, and that the ugly days for all of them are still ahead when they start new schools in a few weeks.

So is it worth it? I'm obviously banking on it, yes. I would love to know for certain that we will all come back speaking Spanish at a level that we will be inspired (and capable of) maintaining at home. I would also love to know that many years from now the kids will be thanking me for disrupting their lives with this little adventure, appreciating how much they learned, how much it broadened their horizons, how it built their confidence, taught them take risks and try something new. Time will tell. For now I just have to hope for the best.

I have never written from a blog site before, but I'm guessing this is a good way to post news, pictures, and let family and friends get easy updates. Let me know what you think!

Stay tuned for postings from Bolivia--wish us luck!
Karen