Mr. Clean and Mother Earth

Maya and Jonah completed their first week of school this past week. I use the term "school" loosely. The place isn't nearly as inspiring as Pachamama, the school they would have attended if we moved to Tumbaco. In fact, I don't think I can say anymore that my kids never attended day care. As far as I can tell, the school day goes as follows. Get there and sing a few songs in Spanish. Go outside and play. Come inside to eat a snack - which often includes ice cream and cake. Go back outside and play. Maybe do a craft. Go home. How ironic that this has happened while I am the primary care giver.

But, we feel somewhat justified in this day care arrangement in that the idea in sending them anywhere is for them to learn some Spanish. As Rebecca mentioned in her blog the other night, after just a few days around kids her age, Maya is already starting to use some Spanish words and phrases and ask "Que se llama" (what is this called). And Jonah isn't shy about saying "Hola" and "Gracias" when prompted. His pronunciation is terrible, but he's young, he has time to work on it.

At almost six years old, Maya is a veteran of attending school. So we weren't worried about how she would adapt to being sent away from home every morning. As expected, she seems to like it. She got a little teary on Tuesday as I was leaving her at the school, but I think it was mostly because the one English speaking teacher hadn't arrived yet. Once Miss Barbara got there, it was like, "Okay, see you Poppy." Right now, Miss Barbara is her bridge to understanding the other kids.

I think it was that same day, as I was walking Maya to school, that she spent a lot of the walk skipping. Indicative, of her mindset at the time - free of stress about being left at school.

Jonah, on the other hand, has never been left anywhere where he wasn't with Mommy, Poppy, Opa, PoPo, Grandma, Grandpa, or some other family member that he knew well. Actually, now that I think about it, Rebecca has had to leave him with friends of ours at certain times, but the results weren't pretty. So, we didn't know what to expect in this case. But, he's been fine about it. Probably because Maya is there with him. I get the impression that on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, when both Maya and Jonah are there, they don't play much with the other kids. And I'm okay with that. At least they are out of the little hair that I have left.

With Maya and Jonah both being at school three days I week, I figured I had to do something more than sit around the house watching Spanish soaps to make this trip more than just an extended vacation. So, I signed up for Spanish language lessons. My teacher, Eduardo, came recommended by one of the girls that Rebecca works with.

After seeing the guy, and hearing that he has given Robin (Rebecca's colleague) a ride on his motorcycle, I was worried that it wasn't his Spanish language skills that were recommended. But, after two lessons, I'm pretty comfortable that he can help me improve my Spanish. Incidentally, he' s charging me $9 an hour. That is the negotiated price after he asked for $10 an hour. Nine bucks is a bit high, I think, (my in-laws are paying $6.25 an hour) but because I don't have to go anywhere (he's a Spanish teacher that makes house calls) I felt it was worth it to pay a couple bucks more. Plus, his schedule was flexible enough where he can meet when I wanted too. The two language schools that I considered could not.

So today, kind of just to remind ourselves of what we left behind, we attended the Pachamama end of school year festival. Rebecca hadn't seen the place, and Paul and Sylvia, our would-be Tumbaco neighbors, suggested we come and check out the festivities. The school kids (Pachmama has grades K-12) all put on performances of varying degrees of accomplishment, there was food to be eaten (as it turns out, real good local dishes for real cheap), and the grounds of the school are fantastic.

Actually, I picture the school buildings and grounds as similar to the compound that a successful Columbian cartel boss would have. Think Pablo Escobar. The buildings are all wood and thatch and have the Mediterranean style red-tile roofs that we all get nostalgic for. There are bricked walkways through the gardens, a small bamboo forest bordering a small creek, two goldfish ponds, all sorts of wood play things, a zip line for the kids (Big hit with Maya. Will try to post video), a great big lawn, chickens running around, a slight smell of sewage. The only thing I didn't see where the armed guards. And the piles of cocaine.

Despite the lack of drugs, it was a pretty good time. Jonah spent about 45 minutes running up and down a hill while I threw a confetti of flower petals left behind from one of the performances over him. Maya spent most of her time on the zip line. In case you don't know what a zip line is, picture a wire stretched from Point A (slight uphill side) to Point B (downhill side) with a circular swing seat attached. You sit on the seat at Point A and end up at Point B. When the wheel on the wire meets the rubber bumper at Point B, the force of the impact propels the seat forward on an arc for extra fun. Maya said the extra fun was the most fun.

We took the bus back and forth and got back to Quito around 4.30. The house cleaner that we had left here at 10 was still here cleaning! Our place is only 600 square feet! I checked around the base of the toilet after she left and it was clean. So, I guess she spent at least some of the time cleaning.

Her six plus hours of work cost us $22, including cleaning supplies and her lunch. Apparently, in Ecuador, the custom is that you buy your cleaning lady lunch. Remember that if you ever hire a cleaning lady in Ecuador.

Rebecca and I were bitching about the cost because it wasn't really our idea to have the place cleaned. Carmen was here the other day and mentioned something about how messy something was. Okay, it was the toilet. The toilet was messy. Our kids crap, like, five times each a day. I can't check the facilities after every time. I wouldn't have any time to do anything else.

Anyway, the day after she was here, Carmen called and asked if we wanted her to send her cleaner around. Rebecca can't say no to Carmen (and I don't know how to) so here comes the house cleaner and there goes our twenty-two bucks.

Really, we should just get a grip. Before we left Alexandria we had our house cleaned. It cost us a lot more than $22, didn't include lunch, and we didn't even get to live in the shining splendor. At least here, we'll get to enjoy the cleanliness for the day or two that it lasts.