Jens and Natalie arrive!

As we crept along in the rush-hour traffic to the airport last evening, Jens and Natalie roared by overhead in an American Airlines jet. How do you know that’s their plane, Caleb asked? At the airport, I showed him how it was the only plane expected to land within a two-hour period. Yes, Quito is a big city, a capital city, with much activity, but its airport is not that big – bigger than Albany’s, though.

Here they are on the plane:

Caleb and I went upstairs and waved to Jens and Natalie from a glassed-in balcony and then, after waiting patiently downstairs by the exit doors from customs, had a happy reunion. Upon arriving home, we fed the travelers dinner and then celebrated with a yummy cake Helen had brought. Both Jens and Natalie are tired from late nights before coming to Ecuador and from the altitude, but they’re in great spirits. Natalie immediately nested in her room, creatively hanging her large colorful scarves over the curtain rods to create a pretty decent curtain.

Caleb survived the first week of school and was upbeat about it. Some of the things he reported were:

- There are about 21 kids in his class, with more boys than girls.

- There are two other new students besides him.

- From his classroom there's a gorgeous view to the west of the entirety of huge Pichincha Mountain. On a clear day, he can also see snow-capped peaks Cotopaxi and Antisana.

- He has many classes: English grammar, English literature, Spanish language arts, World History, Computer, Art/Music, Math, Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Phy Ed. Some classes meet only once or twice a week, of course.

- He knows what is going on at a general level, but misses a lot of the details. The English teacher, Paulina, was out both Days 2 and 3, so hasn’t been there to provide extra help.

- He enjoys having for lunch a big empanada (with a little cheese in it), bought at the school snack bar for 50 cents.

Each day he has come home exhausted and has needed time to space out and let his brain recuperate from the huge effort.

You should have seen us in the school supplies store yesterday afternoon. We were having such a challenge figuring out from his notes what supplies he’s supposed to buy for each class. Helen and Gene were able to help us out, but only a bit. Even when Caleb had copied one of the lists from a fellow student’s notebook, it didn’t make much sense. For one thing, he’s still trying to get used to the Ecuadorian cursive handwriting. In the store itself, I did solicit the help of another mom in figuring out what the math teacher might possibly have been asking the kids to buy. Caleb says that today the art teacher gave him another list, including special paper and paint brushes. Since he copied this one from the blackboard, maybe it will be less of a challenge to decipher.

You’d think that math would be easy because the language barrier doesn’t come into play so much. Yet Caleb did part of his first math assignment wrong because it turns out they set up division problems in a totally different way and he mixed up the divisor and dividend. He’s learning quickly not to be hard on himself.

Today, Jens and Natalie had lunch with Helen and Gene, who are delighted to have them here. Afterwards, they went to get cellphones for Natalie and Caleb. That way, we feel a little more relaxed as our kids enter Ecuadorian social life and travel in a new city.

I’ve been working long distance for Save the Children and CORE Group and as I wrap up those assignments, will probably take on two new Columbia University consultancies. Skype is a big help, especially at 2 cents a minute for me to call colleagues’ phones in the U.S. For me, having Jens and Natalie arrive yesterday was a big treat and the icing on the cake was the big container of raspberries from home that Jens brought me.

-Spee