Time for the daily update! The kids are working on their Spanish, I already did some quizzing of Daniel and now I get to chill out on the couch. I’m not actually sure why I brought my laptop. All I have used since we’ve been here is the chromebook. Glad we threw it in at the last minute.
Today was good! We were supposed to have a guy come and fix the door (it has expanded in the humidity and would not close easily) at 8 but he didn’t arrive. A guy came with a broom around 10 because we wake up each morning to a bunch (like, 100) dead bugs on the floor. He wasn’t sure what they were but he took a few in a baggie as a sample. Later we determined that they are congregating in the areas where we leave the lights on at night. So tonight we’ll be sleeping in the dark. And I mean DARK. There are no street lights here so when you turn out your light you can’t tell if your eyes are open or closed. And it’s extremely quiet other than the sound of the water or the rain. Or the dryer drying the towels for the morning showers.
The door guys showed up at noon but we had to leave shortly for school. Dan decided to stay behind so they could work because we really needed it fixed and they weren’t sure they could come back tomorrow. And he was going to miss some school anyway to go to David to get his cell phone exchanged.
School was very good today and I’m so happy to be learning Spanish again. I felt like both my Spanish speaking experiences were too short and I never achieved the fluency I wanted. Now is my chance! We play some games in class, including “guess that verb” and I am really good at the game from many years of “guess that animal” with the girls. Everyone is impressed with my very specific questions. I have stood in many a Disneyland line playing that game.
Daniel went to David with Daniel Hal our new friend the English speaking cab driver to exchange his non functioning phone. It was touch and go but between Daniel Hal working hard on the situation and Dan keeping his cool but trying to be insistent at the same time, Dan got a new phone. Wow! Who knew!? We won’t expect the same every time but at least this time it worked out and Dan is a happy man with a working phone once again.
We picked up a few groceries after Spanish school. We shop as a family now – it’s very unusual for us. But I give every member an item to find and they wander around and bring it back. Makes it go faster but I do have to check their work and sometimes a lot more comes back than I asked for. Dan has discovered that the Panamanian version of Chips Ahoy are quite acceptable. We even got back to the apartment before the rain started. Yay!
Today’s food went well too. I made Dan his favorite tuna sammich for lunch (no carrots!) but the girls report that the peanut butter isn’t too good (it’s not as sweet) and the ketchup is bad too (how can ketchup be bad???). They are both complaining about tomorrow being the day we’ll buy fish from the guy in the red pickup truck and I’ll attempt to cook it. They are already asking for a Plan B.
No science interruptions during home school today but we did find a slug crawling across the living room floor after dinner. I’m glad I did not step on him. I’ve seen bigger in Oregon but not in the middle of my living room.
We are all a little shocked that we’ve only been here a week. Seems like it’s been a month. But we are settling into a nice routine, things are becoming a little easier and now that I have a measuring cup I really should be able to cook rice. We’ll find out tomorrow.