Jun 22

Written by: reh
6/22/2008

June 22, 2008, Sunday

8:15AM Jessica took a bus to Teguci last evening as she has a family reunion. Fernando arrived with a young lady (just graduated from high school this year) to interpret for us. Drove to El Amatillo to check on each of the 7th graders (I will keep today through noon Wednesday short as Kristi will critique these days). It seems that Fernando missed 3 days of bus ride and 2 days of lunch money during one of the months. When he came to set up for the next week the mother of Elsa Waldina Lazo Lemus (Waldina) asked for the back money. Fernando said the girls had gotten to school on their own and he wasn’t compelled to “make up payments’; and besides we expect the families to help (maybe the best approach, maybe not; but it was Fernando’s and I’m ok with it). About two days later, an older sister of Waldina’s called demanding the money “that was theirs” and accused Fernando of pocketing the money. We walked along the open sewer that is the path down the bank to her shack. At the shack, we were told the mother was at the river washing clothes (she is a wash lady and does wash whenever available) and Walina was with her. We walked down to the river where Waldina, her mother, an older sister, and a bunch of kids from toddlers to 10 or 12 years were washing clothes. After some talk about how Waldina is doing, I stated that Fernando received a call from a daughter who was disrespectful. I explained that I expect calls with questions for clarification as this assistance goes on but I expect the callers to be respectful. There was a little pushback (school supplies are so expensive, etc.). I held firm that anyone working with the kids will be shown proper respect. The mother relented, apologized, and explained that the daughter who called is pregnant and it was hormones that caused the outburst. Later, Jessica would explain that if a child is enrolled in regular day school and drop out, they cannot attend weekend (alternative system that permits continuing education after 6th grade on a part time-Sat/Sun- schedule). The mother is very worried that, if the assistance is stopped or is erratic, Waldina will have to drop out of regular school and not be able to attend weekend school. We arranged for Waldina to join us for lunch at 11:30 and went over to see Helda Pedia . We talked for a few minutes, arranged for her to join us for lunch and left.
Both girls said report cards were due next week and they would keep a copy for me.

9:00AM Plenty of time so we drove to the high school just to show it to Kristi. Since weekend school was in session, the principal and guidance councilor were on campus. The principal gave us ten penny tour.

10:30AM Back in El Amatillo. Too late to go to motel but time to kill so Kristi and I took a short ride in a three wheel hack. We got hit by a truck, but I’ll let Kristi tell that story.

11:30AM At the house of Anabel’s sister, where we were all to meet. Anabel was there to greet us and obviously happy to see us. Met the sister who took Anabel in and the other 3 sisters (two stucco bungalow with concrete floors (but no water) in the “compound”. Sisters in their late 30ies, all very pleasant; I thanked them for taking Anabel in and they thanked me for my assistance; we all agreed that there was a precarious 2 years but all’s well that ends well (they never asked for a thing). We all drove to motel for lunch and to let the girls go swimming. Again, I’ll let Kristi provide details and observations. Roxana and her daughters should up about 12:15PM. Service was slow but the girls didn’t notice as they were in the pool within 15 minutes of arrival. Waldina, who is a little thing, ordered a hamburger. It was huge and she is tiny but none of that food was going to stay on the plate! Even with her best effort there were two or three bights left. I suppose it is more sad than funny, but she was very uncomfortable about leaving a plate with food on it. A good time was had by all.

3:30PM Took girls home.

4:30PM End of day.

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