Trip to Nicaragua

The next four days I'll be in Nicaragua for some meetings with MCC (returning Thursday evening). I'm looking forward to the trip but wish it wouldn't have come so soon into our time here. At least the kids are started with school now so life has a bit of a sense of routine (except that school is closed Monday and Wednesday for holidays). I think Laurie has a good network of support here already, but even so, if you think of her the next few days and want to drop her a line I'm sure she'd appreciate it!

Lynn

First day of school

Today was Nathan and Maria’s first day of school at De la Sierra! It was time to get started seeing that there are only six weeks left in the Bolivian school year (Feb-Nov). And after three days of wondering when the schools would reopen, we were more than ready to go. Excited, curious and nervous all at once.

When I opened my eyes this morning, Maria was standing beside my bed with her uniform ready to get dressed. (Whew…that was a relief to a nervous mom!) Nathan was in good spirits too. When we got there we went right in. It was nice to see the teachers we had met before. They remembered us and were so friendly and welcoming. It was a very relaxed atmosphere because in the teachers estimate, half of the children did not come to school today. So in many ways it worked to our advantage because it was a fairly calm environment to enter. We looked around a bit and reconnected with the physical space and confirmed where the bathroom was for each of them. Then they played a bit in the patio play area and then when the teachers called their students into the different rooms, we said good bye and they each held their teachers’ hands and walked into their classrooms. They both looked a bit nervous, but there was no hesitation.

I went back at 12 noon for dismissal. Both teachers said things went very well. Nathan played soccer with new friends at recess. His teacher said that he integrated very well (her words). Maria's teachers said basically the same thing. Maria told me right away that she likes it. When I arrived I saw her holding hands with a row of girls and coming in from recess. Her teacher also told me that she learned a song that she should try and sing in Spanish. She remembered only one little phrase of it. Nathan has English class tomorrow and he is curious to see what that will be like. He had phys ed today and was happy that they got to run laps on the soccer field and then play soccer. He said that he “thinks he made one friend.” Touching.

Tomorrow one of Nathan's classmates has a birthday and the parents are bringing a cake in and so he is pleased about that. The teacher told me that small gifts are typical from the other students when this occurs. So we did the best we could and walked up the street to a tienda to buy a small gift. (only 10Bs... but I'm wondering if we'll have to do this a lot). At bedtime tonight they seemed tired, but Nathan checked to see that his clean uniform tee shirt is ready for the morning. Seems ready to go again, (the promise of birthday cake really helps...) but we’re glad it’s Friday.

So we're relieved, but realize there will still be some challenges ahead to walk through. Thanks for all your interest and support.

Laurie

Postive steps...

Today there have been positive reports of an agreement outlining a process for further negotiations. It seems encouraging that despite some really inflammatory rhetoric in the past week the two sides appear to be stepping back from the brink of violence and making attempts to talk it out. Hopefully that can continue. There have been calls for peace and dialog from numerous organizations within Bolivia (MCC signed onto an open letter of that nature in the newspaper last week), and there is significant international support for this as well.

Again today, we have felt completely safe and life went on as normal except that schools were still closed. Maybe tomorrow!

Two articles if you'd like more details:
BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7619853.stm
CNN - http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/09/17/bolivia.agreement/

Lynn