We got here in the late afernoon on Sunday, and got to the place we're staying just in time to eat dinner and head out to a wake. This particular wake wasn't from a violent death. (He was an 18 year old kid named Alexander - a very common name here- who had a degenerative disease.) The wake last night (which Hannah and I didn't go to) was from a violent death, but I guess he was a guy who was involved in some pretty shady stuff, so no one was too surprised. Going to wakes and burials seems to be a big part of what the team here does. I think the apprentices who've been here a year and a half have been to about 10.
Monday Birgit Shorack (the wife of the couple who are the team leaders) took Hannah and me around to see a couple of school options for Alexina and John David in the morning. That was an interesting experience. School would definitely be a huge adjustement, starting with the fact that almost all schools start at 7 am and end at noon. The school I actually liked best is from 6:45-11:30! The kids would certainly have good penmanship after a couple of years here and would be able to write down dictations flawlessly, not to mention the Spanish and Venezuelan culture they would be learning. Luckily they're already very creative and imaginative, but if I wanted them to keep up those skills it would be something I would have to do with them at home, (but we'd have all afternoon to do it!) Here's a quote from a profile of what a first grader needs to be learning in order to pass to second grade (translated, of course) "I am creative and will practice until I can color with out going out of the lines and in one direction." The 15 year old daughter of the Shoracks, who's lived her for 7 years, says that she's never written an essay out of her head, she only copies things. Anyway, it's a very different system and I think it has some good aspects to it which could complement what's lacking in the US system, but mostly it's given me lots of ideas for trying to do art classes and creative writing classes with kids here. (Neither of which are my forte, but I'm sure Zoe could give me some ideas in creative writing!)
After doing the school tours we spent two hours travelling by public transportation to the cemetary for Alexander's burial. Luckily we were able to catch a ride back with neighbors, because as it was, we were all completely exhausted by the time we made it back. (Even though we got a ride, it took 1 1/2 hours to get back because of traffic and we had 8 of us crammed in to a vehicle designed for 5!) Transportation would be another thing that would take a lot of getting used to. Without traffic it's a 10-15 minute jeep ride to get down the hillside to where the market and metro station, and the school I liked best are, but that's once you're on a jeep. Sometimes jeeps can take a while to come and sometimes they're full. To catch the jeep to come up you have to wait in line to get into a jeep, and they stop running by 9pm. They also could stop running for any other reason, like if the the jeep driver wants to take a nap or eat lunch. We walked up the hillside one time and it was an exhausting, sweaty, 45 minute walk. (and that was without kids! Actually I wouldn't do it with kids because there's no sidewalks, so it's prett dangerous.) If you want to go to a park or the zoo, or a movie theatre or the beach or anyplace like that it's a 45 minute - 2 hour expedition each way (depending where you're going) and you have to plan very carefully to avoid rush hour or you can double the travel time.
It's time for me to go join a team meeting, so I'll try to finish this another time.
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