Hazel Goes to School

Yesterday Seth, Hazel and I headed to Escola Biblica Crista (that's actually an a with a squiggle over it, but for some reason I cannot get the Portuguese keyboard to work on blogger). ã.  Ha!  I just figured it out.  How random.  As well as a number of other Portuguese symbols - çáéóõ!  Don't have the roof over the letters figured out yet, anyone know:  oh, there's my colon!  Now I just have to find my question mark!

Okay, back to my story.

Seth, Hazel and I headed to Escola Biblica Cristã yesterday.  Here in Brazil, the younger grades have school from 7-11, and the older grades have it in the afternoon.  In the public school system, the highschoolers attend school in the evening.  Also, kids can start going to school this amount at age 2.  The division for ages that go into a certain class are from April to March (so Lyla would be one of the youngest in her class here).  They have what they call Jardim 1, 2, and 3 (Portuguese for Garden) for around ages 3, 4, and 5.  Then they start with grade one at age 6, which is Seth's grade .  We came to the school right around 11, and kids were just getting out of Seth's class when we went to meet his teacher, which was a bit overwhelming.  We said hi to his teacher and talked about which day was best for him to come.  Shaun and I were thinking of sending them once a week to classes like art, gym, etc.  Seth's class has gym on Tuesday, as well as music and math.  I feel like that is perfect, all "international" languages.  (I just accidentally figured out the roof, incidentally: ô.  Shift+"+o.  Fabulous.).  We did recheck out his classroom with just his teacher after, and I think it was more reassuring to him to see the posters on the walls, and see some things that he has been learning in Portuguese, such as numbers, the alphabet, days of the week, parts of the body.  His teacher is super nice, and seems to understand the concept of PSL.  Or is it PLL now question mark.

Hazel's class has gym on Wednesdays.  For her I feel like it's possibly less important what classes she is going to.  It appears it does not bother her to not understand, and she tries to speak it without a hint of self-consciousness.  I think a lot of it is to do with her age.  We were standing in the front entrance of the school when we got there, and the teacher from Jardim 1 stuck her head out of the classroom window that opened to the front entrance.  It was a class of around 9 or 10 students.  She said hi to Hazel and Hazel wanted to get right in there.  She is, however, the age of Jardim 2, so we headed to that classroom.  Well, we opened the door and she started bawling and clinging to me for dear life.  I think she just decided that she wanted to be in the other class, and this class had 24 students.  So we headed back to the other class to talk to that teacher.

We had planned to bring Hazel to class at 7 this morning, however, it seemed like she did not sleep at all last night (along with Lyla who was crying for no apparent reason and Seth who has an ear infection).  She has had itchy feet problems at night, and I am still undecided between it being sand fleas, hookworm again, athlete's foot or just plain old mosquito bites.  I'm doing a very un-nursing type of treatment, which includes treating it with any cream I have.  Well, it's not quite that eclectic of an approach, but in desperation it is getting there.  So we let her (and us) sleep until we woke up.  It was 7:50, and I knew her gym class started at 8 and thought "oh well, we'll try again next week."  I don't even think Hazel had her eyes open (she somehow had weaseled her way in between us in our sleep-starved state) and she asked "What day is it question mark" and "Is it school today question mark."  So I thought I'd seize the moment and made her a quick breakfast and snack for school and we headed off.  Well, gym was done but we got her in the class.  I think I was the mom that stayed that extra minute too long, because all of a sudden she got concerned that I would be leaving.  Our good friend Djane was in the classroom helping and assured me she'd help Hazel get on the bus with her (a lot of the teachers use the school bus for transportation), so I gave our numbers in case anything happened and snuck out of there.  And then I was the mom who opened a window to sneak a picture.  And after arriving home for the next 2 hours I kept saying "I hope she's okay!" and "What if she's crying in a bathroom and can't talk to anyone question mark"  Because truly, I don't think there is any teacher of the elementary level that speaks English.  But I didn't have to worry.  She came home smiling and talked about running around at recess with Sandro and Djane's daughter Sofia, who is a year older than her, and loved every minute.  So cute.

They are almost at the beginning of their school year (it started early February), so I guess for her she will start at the very beginning.  They do somethings a bit different here.  For example, the kids learn cursive writing from Jardim 1.  Most Brazilians do not learn printing throughout their schooling.  I have heard from a mom here that she thinks it is too early, and I tend to agree.  I can't imagine Lyla in school next year (because she could be!) learning cursive writing at age 2 (almost 3).  However, Hazel is definitely loving tracing and learning to print in her English activity and colouring books, so I was not surprised to see a handout of loopy e's done perfectly.  Probably the right age to start school for her, just maybe not full-time.  In Canada she would be scheduled to start kindergarten part-time this coming September, and she would have been one of the youngest in her class.  However, she came off the bus and was sad that she couldn't stay on, and wants to go to school tomorrow!  And I know that it would be super helpful for her Portuguese: she'll be teaching us before you know it.  Seth has been more hesitant.  After seeing the school yesterday, he said he wanted to learn more Portuguese before he went.  But today, after Hazel came home, he said "sure" somewhat uncertainly when we asked him if he wanted to go to school tomorrow.  He is definitely wanting to get out with kids his own age, so we'll see how he feels tomorrow.  Otherwise we'll wait until next week Tuesday.  I know I can't control this, but in my mind I want to give him the biggest opportunity to have a good first day, and I'm not sure if putting him to school on a day when they are doing Portuguese grammar and spelling will be the best idea.

Okay, after all my ramblings and observations regarding the Brazilian school system and my children, I will leave you with a few pictures.  I know they are more interesting than reading my weekly or biweekly essays on life here.

So excited for her first day of school.  I didn't want to buy a uniform for her until we were sure she would  like it.

Waiting for Hazel's bus to come.  We weren't sure exactly what time she would get there, so we waited half-an-hour in the blistering sun in the middle of the day.

The sign to our gated community.

The entrance to our gated community.

We took a lot of pictures as we waited.

Finally, the bus!

Here she is!  Yay for a great day at school!

We've Got Mail!

Thanks to Aunty Tania (and family) for sending Lyla a birthday present!  It took a little over 4 weeks to get here.  I was very sad that Lyla opened it without my journalistic photography (thanks to Seth's encouragement), so you will have to imagine the excitement of having a package by observing the numerous rips.

This is a PO box we are using.   You may also feel free to make use of it :)

And here is the beautiful dress that Tania made with love!  Please look only at the cute dress, as Lyla's facial expression is not doing justice to it.  I think Tania was planning to put up a post with this dress after we got it, and when she does I will link it on the blog, so you can see more of her amazing work.

Lyla's First Haircut

Out with the Old...

In with the New...

Personally, I love it.  It has enough curl that you think I cut it evenly.  Plus, it gets off her neck and seems to me like it would be more comfortable. 

Okay, I'm sure you get the picture.

Have a great night.

Brenda

Exciting News (if you are Six-ish)

Or a six-year-old's parent I guess.  Probably because Seth is our firstborn.  We hope we act just as excited when this happens to Hazel and Lyla.  Here's the big news:

There is a Brazilian Tooth Fairy!!  We kept saying to Seth that we'd have to see if there was, but he went ahead and asked our neighbour.  Apparently usually the Brazilian Tooth Fairy just answers kids' wishes once you throw the tooth up on a roof, but s/he made an exception for Seth.  He now has 6 moneys.

Interesting Tidbits

I thought after all my extended blog entries I'd run out of things to talk about.  How little I know myself :)

Here's some of the interesting animals we've seen recently.

A molting lizard.  This one was tiny, maybe 7-8 cm long.

A crab...in our house!  We are not quite sure how it got in...maybe it was living here the  whole time?  Either that, or animals just like to follow Seth around.  How does he find it behind the TV?  And can anyone tell me how common it is in Brazil to find a crab among your furniture?

After I swept him out of the house, our neighbour showed us how to pick it up so as not to get pinched (or is it pinced?). Hazel was not paying attention to the lesson, and later tried to pick it up by herself.  Fortunately it was a smallish one, but it still hurts apparently!  To me, their claws never looked too harmful, but my neighbour assured me that it would hurt, especially if it was a little bigger.  Seth informed me the large ones can pinch off your fingers!  Hopefully not the species we find around here!

A few days ago, we discovered many of these little monkeys like to play behind our house!  We've been going through a lot of bananas since then.  They are called marmosets, or sagui in Brazil.

Went for a walk on the beach, saw a number of these little jellyfish.  Thought it was more interesting than anything, until....

Hazel got stung by one!  You can't see them at all when they are actually in the water.   I was surprised that she didn't complain about it after the first hour, as someone we were talking to had been stung by a jellyfish in November and had to peel it off his arm, and he still has a scar.  The lighter line here has already faded so we can barely see it, so we are very thankful it was not worse.

Here's some pictures pre-jellyfish sting, of the enjoyable portion of our afternoon walk.  We went to visit the Vanspronsens, who were staying probably a 10 minute walk down the beach, which was another pleasant part of our outing.

I don't think we have other news.  We were planning to head up to Recife tomorrow for a wedding, but unfortunately our children are still not in the best shape to be staying up to midnight.  The wedding we went to a couple of weeks ago was scheduled to start at 7 and started by 8:15, and this one is scheduled to start at 8:00 so it may start by...?  All the people we know in Recife are going to the wedding, so we would be taking our kids.  If they were feeling 100%, it would be possible to do once in a while (like we did 2 weeks ago).  Three of us have bad coughs/colds, and to top it off, this may sound minor, but Lyla poked Seth in the eye today and he spent oh, probably 7 hours of the afternoon crying and staying in a dark room because it hurt so much.  He is okay if he is lying down and not using either eye, because I think the second it is moving under his eyelid even he is screaming.  I'm pretty sure it's a scratched cornea (or corneal abrasion if you want correct terminology), which according to my research usually heals by itself between 1-3 days.  We did an initial exam to make sure there was nothing else in it and that he could actually see out of it.  If it is worse tomorrow we may need to actually finally find a doctor, but I was reading topical analgesics can slow healing, although sometimes antibiotics are prescribed prophylactically.

Okay, so I am learning about all the animals of Northeastern Brazil, as well as a number of first aid/medical issues.  Oh, and throw in a bit of language learning, and becoming a school teacher on the side.  I guess my kids are really encouraging me to grow in knowledge! Such sweet kids I have.  I wish they would lay off teaching about all the medical stuff though.

Alright everyone, have a great night!
Brenda

A Lovely Trip, A Big Birthday: a Good Week

We have enjoyed a wonderful week here in Brasil.  We settled down to schoolwork on Monday and Tuesday, and did a little extra Tuesday night, because we had been invited for lunch in Recife on Wednesday by our friends, Chris and Thécia.  They also extended an invitation to stay the night.  This was good news as we were hoping to get up to Recife and do some extra shopping.  Chris and Thécia are here doing mission aid work to support the missionaries in the work in Brasil.  We drove up Wednesday morning, and enjoyed a picnic feast in a park/pool area they have in the community they live in.  It was beautiful, and we were able to enjoy it with the two missionary families as well.  It felt like a church picnic almost, with a treed park, a lake and pools around, paths, picnic tables, people playing bocce, bike-riding, great food and company.  I do have pictures, but they are with other people and their children which I don't like to do, so I will leave the good time to your imagination except for these pictures of my own children :)

On Thursday, we went shopping in Recife.  Brazil is quite expensive, I think pretty much for most items, except for labour.  We constantly ponder how it is possible people afford anything here.  We were in particular looking for some household items, for example, a wardrobe (most homes don't seem to have closets). We discovered most of them are pricey and made of plywood and veneer.  We decided we'd look around closer to home and possibly buy a small one to "make-do" until we bring furniture from home hopefully.  We did buy a small plastic shelving unit for our towels and a shower curtain and rod, which I was really excited about.  The last place we went was Sam's Club, and I was excited to find it was like Costco (it's owned by walmart, but has the same concept of paying for membership and getting things cheaper).  I didn't buy a membership because Shaun was not with me (filling up for gas), the store is in Recife, we currently are only here for two more months, and we had already done most of our shopping.  I am kind of excited we did all our other shopping first, so we could see what a "good deal" it was.  Also Brazilians have not bought into the idea of bulk purchasing and membership fees, so it was incredibly empty!  Their typical store has many many small items, from their baby wipes to their margarine containers, and that is the preferred way to shop.  I am so pumped to go back, which we may this week as we're supposed to go up to another wedding in Recife on Thursday.

Lyla also turned TWO this past Friday.  Shaun went to a meeting in Maceio that morning, so he didn't even see her before he left, and didn't see her until she woke up from her nap at 4:00.  That morning, all the kids enjoyed the singing of Aaron and Tania's kidlets on an emailed video, including Aaron sneaking in behind them and popping his head out to sing like a goof.  We watched it many, many, many times.  Then we had Aunty Tessa's singing on Skype, and Lyla opened her gift when Shaun returned while James and Aunty Lee watched on Skype.  Yes, technology is a beautiful thing.

The next day, we spent the afternoon at Sandro and Djane's terreno.  Sandro and Moizes and a few others had gone fishing in the morning so we ate fried fish all afternoon, with rice and potatoes and chicken sausage.  Then we sang Happy Birthday in Portuguese and English to Lyla and she got to blow out a #2 candle.  I just don't know how a kid can have a birthday without having a picture of them blowing out a candle.  I think it was more for me than her.  I found out the cake mix here works great, and they have this cream in a box you whip and it is delicious for icing.   The Vanspronsen family was down as well, with Rev. Vanspronsen Sr. and his wife too, as they are on the coast for a few days to relax after Rev. Vanspronsen had spent two weeks teaching at the theological seminary.  Rev. Vansponsen was the first Reformed missionary here in Brazil, so it must be so incredible to see how the work has spread.  It was a wonderful relaxing day, complete with slushy caipiroscas.  Delicioso!  (Caipiroscas are generally limes, vodka, sugar and ice.  The actual official drink of Brasil is a Caipirinha, which is made with the sugar cane rum instead).  At the end of the day it was only us and Sandro and Djane left, and Sandro reiterated how we were his family now, and we can call him for anything, etc. etc.  It is special to hear that, especially being so far from our families here.

That night our neighbours also gave Lyla a gift of perfume!  It is very popular to have children's perfume for after they shower, especially since Brazilians love to smell children.  And to tell you the truth, it's kind of contagious.  That baby/child smell is so...delicioso!  Probably because they don't smell like us sweaty adults in the heat!  I am excited to be able to spray my children down with perfume now.  Lyla and Hazel both are in love with it as well.

So that brings us to today...  It was a cool day.  I just looked at the temperature for the day and it says it did get up to 30, but it was cloudy with bouts of rain, so I even wore pants this afternoon!  I wonder what the temperature has actually been if I thought today was cool!  Rev. Vanspronsen preached this morning in our church.  I have to admit, he speaks much slower and clearer than the native Brazilian preachers, so we could follow a little better.  Maybe we understand his Dutch accent!  Then Moizes and Bete invited us for lunch, where the Vanspronsens were again.  We had a feast of octopus (see picture above of man holding many little octopi).  I enjoyed it slightly more than the first time we had it a couple years ago.

So another enjoyable day comes to an end.   We did take a couple pictures today of the tiny lizard that Seth found that was molting, but it's still on my camera.  It's tail did actually fall off as well when Lyla went to pick it up one too many times.  I'll have to include that on another "animal post."  Oh, speaking of animals, we also saw a marmoset outside our house this morning, which was pretty neat.

We thank God for a day of rest, for blessings of fellowship with brothers and sisters throughout the world, for health, for birthdays, for traveling mercies.  May you all experience these blessings as well.

Love Brenda
PS I'm too tired to spellcheck, etc., so don't judge :)  Good Night to All!

Routine (or Anything But)

Life has settled down a bit over here.  I started doing schoolwork with Seth this past Monday, after he had had a two week break.  I think it is going quite well, and so far I've been focusing on his journal work and a reading and writing lesson, and we are done before I have to make lunch.  On Wednesday my plan was to do some math, as I haven't gotten that into the routine yet.  However, he woke up with a high fever, and slept or spent waking moments in the bathroom.  He has improved since then, thankfully, so we carried on with the schoolwork in spite of adversity.  He does not know quite what to think of his mom as teacher, but I've already discovered he likes to be challenged (as in, "give me a harder word to try spell mom").  We are, of course, doing a lot of "free study" which involves looking up multiple animals we have discovered here.  The exciting news since I wrote last is that we have now added Praying Mantis and Rhinoceros Beetle to the animals we have seen.  Oh, and bats!  We have only seen them the last three evenings, kind of at twilight (sixish).  And we cheer when we see them, as guess what bats eat?  MOSQUITOES!!!  We love bats at the moment.  And this evening I think is the first evening I can say the mosquitoes are not too bad (they typically start getting bad around 4 in the evening).  I think they were extremely bad the week after we got here because of the crazy rainfall.  Now it probably has not rained in a week, so maybe that is why they seem to be improving.  We can hope, right?  And our children definitely would rather be warm than bitten, so although it seems crazy, we do put leggings on after their baths in the afternoon.  Oh, that brings me back to our "routine."  After I make our big meal for lunch, some of us end up napping (usually just Lyla, sometimes Hazel, once Seth), and we end up tidying up, shopping, taking the awake kids to the beach, etc.  Then somehow, before we know it, it is 4 in the afternoon, and everyone takes a shower or bath and dresses in evening clothes.  By evening clothes I mean clothes that will keep mosquitoes from biting as much as possible.  Then it's gourmet sandwiches for supper and off to bed for the kiddies.  Then Shaun and I take out our drinks.  A bottle for him and a bottle for me.  Ha ha, just kidding (he usually drinks his beer at lunch!).  Then I try see if I can convince anyone to talk to me on skype, and practice some Rosetta Stone.  Or type a blog.  Or see what I'm supposed to teach Seth tomorrow.  You know, relaxing stuff! And I have to admit, we turn on the one air conditioner that cools our room and the kids room when they go to bed, so many of these evenings I relax on our bed in the delightful cold.

So things are slowly falling into place.  We hope to go to Recife next week and buy a few items we need that should be a lot cheaper there.  In a few weeks, when our kids are healthier and feeling a bit more comfortable here, I'm going to see about sending Seth and maybe even Hazel to school here once a week, for subjects such as gym and art.

Also, someone mentioned to me that there had been a few people asking if I would be interested in teaching them English.  This typically looks like 2 one-hour classes a week to a small group of adults.  The reason this interests me so much is that it could pay for a maid!  Right now it would seem odd to pay for a maid when Shaun and I both aren't working, but believe me, that would definitely ease our (my) transition.  And hopefully soon Shaun will be out of the house more (not as in I don't want him around, but he wants to get working), and then I won't have his help as much doing everything around here.  And I know I rely on him a lot.

So, like I said.  Settling in and getting our bearings.  Healthwise we are all improving, we are praying daily that the trend continues.  Our Portuguese is.... better than even a few weeks ago.  And we feel really blessed with the friends we have here already, who are all trying to ease our transition and include us in their family life even.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of this past week.  We went to a wedding last night that was scheduled to begin at 7.  We thought we were late at 7:05, however, people started trickling in at 7:30, and the ceremony started at around 8:15.  It was probably 35 degrees in the church, and we didn't get home until 11.

Seth's wormhole.  In case anyone wants to know what to look for after  a kid plays in a sandbox.

Lyla's eye was almost closed for over a week.  This is when it was already on the mend.

Still happy :)

Our good friends, Sandro and Djane, at their terrano on a relaxing Saturday.

The church around 15 minutes after the ceremony was supposed to start.