I spent my Sunday for Ju. Early in the morning we got a call from our friend Isis who also has a two year old boy with whom Ju has already spent some time playing. She invited us over to hang out and then have lunch. Ju had a great time running all over, jumping on beds with Vito, and was in such a state when it was time to go home that we ended up staying all day and going to a theater done by local street kids (says the paintings on the wall outside) late in the afternoon - Ju's first real theater experience. The subject of the play was fear and the story was pretty interesting and rather psychological as far as I could follow it. Vito cried and had to be taken out, mostly due to tiredness (neither he nor Ju slept at all since they got up at about 6 AM), but Ju enjoyed it and wasn't frightened at all by the lights and sounds and costumes. I have only gotten Ju into bed now - I'm surprised he made it this long!

Ju is eating canned sardines and pumpkin and rice for dinner. Mmmmmm, healthy.


Ew, and he just called me in there to show me a maleka he picked out of his nose! Are all boys this gross? Makes you wonder how they grow up and marry....

Story for today -

Last year, in about... I dunno, maybe March, our sick sick printer that used to jam 4 or 5 times a day (probably more, since surely I cannot be the only person who was unjamming it), suddenly was so broken that no one could fix it and disappeared. They told us in April we would get a new one, when there was money, then it was in May, then they told us a new one would be bought before the next school year, as there was not more money in the budget. At the beginning of this year, we heard that rather than buy a new printer for the 40+ teachers in the Elementary, a new one would only be bought for the administration office, and we got our old broken one back in the middle of August. It would print one document and quit, then it disappeared again for a week, then it was back. As of today it's still not spitting anything out, yet it remains there like a plastic tormentor every time I go to the bathroom or to check my mailbox.

I think I only managed to print 3 or 4 things on it so far this year, since it seems to receive a print command and then say it was printing, yet nothing would ever come out. Every time I need to print something, first I open the print jobs folder and see how many are in the line. More often than not, there are print jobs in que from at least 24 hours before, if not days. I finally quit relying on printing anything and tried to find time to either run over and ask the principal to print for me on his private printer, or go down to the high school and try to use the library printer when there was a computer free. When ever I sent an email to our tech guys, there was never a sign if the problem was dealt with, fixed, or even acknowledged.

Today was the last straw, as I often have sent "please go have a look at the printer because it's not working, again" messages, and yesterday I sent one saying "someone please go put the printer out of it's misery because it has been dieing for a long time" - I had to print a small note to send home with the kids tomorrow. The document was a whole 4 pages long. Wow, 4 pages, what a strain huh? I sent it to the computer lab, where I was promptly chewed out for printing there as it isn't for common use. The broken teacher's printer isn't the computer lab guy's problem and we teachers need to go to the source of the problem and get them to get us a new one. Yes, I have been CCing the emails I send to the tech guys to our director every time, what more can I do? Rather fed up with this whole conversation (been under so much stress the last two weeks, I actually was close to tears), I returned to my room and wrote a lengthy email to both the tech guys, our principal, and our director, saying in short that the whole situation with the printer was ridiculous and totally unacceptable that 40+ teachers have no where to print anything and that some kind of response would be nice so we know that actually someone out there cares and is doing something about it. The director actually did come in, told me he whole heartedly agreed with me, and that something was being done. But when?

Instead of lamenting that the blogs I read are not updated as frequently as I'd like, I suppose I should update my own. I have been so busy and had so many things to write about, I end up not writing at all. Also, Ju is a distraction. And I have other excuses, but I can't remember what they were...

Ju is actually forming full sentences, even if they aren't grammatical. I haven't really heard him doing it in Portuguese because he doesn't talk to me in Portuguese anymore, but yesterday he said this: "kitten papaya no want it" which translates into "the kitten doesn't want papaya." This sentences is probably the result of all the times he has thrown food at the cat, trying to see if she will eat it, and my telling him that she doesn't want it or doesn't like it. The interesting thing about this sentence is that he isn't recalling an utterance exactly from memory, because then it would probably be grammatically correct. It doesn't seem to be translated from Portuguese either, because the order would be different. I have no idea how normal it is, having never interacted much with native speakers of English who were less than 5 years old really (not counting baby sitting years - who can remember what happened before high school?), but it's really cool to see him take these sudden spurts of development in his language. He has also started saying "I sorry" when he does something wrong, and comes over and kisses me and says "I love you" if I am angry with him (how do kids know this makes us forget the broken DVD player, just for a moment?) . Which reminds me - today he broke the DVD player, no one is sure how, so getting him over his Thomas and Sesame street addiction should be easier now.

Well, we didn't go to the island for the vacation weekend because of the rain. Just as well I guess, since I had to spend most of yesterday recovering from going to an all night party and having a bit too much cachaça. I don't understand what happens after you have kids - it's like your whole biology changes. I used to be able to go to the bar, drink till 2, get up and have 5:20 practice for crew, go to an 8 am class.... Now I have one beer and feel hung over for hours afterwards.

Brrr, why is it so cold? I don't remember it being this cold in the last 3 years since I have lived here - I am drinking hot coco and wearing socks!

Funny story - There is a group of guys who walk around our neighborhood as security who blow a whistle to let us know all is well. It's part of the background noise to me, like the barking dogs and traffic sounds. About a month ago, Ju suddenly became aware of them and kept saying it was a bird ("passarinho"), and I kept telling him it was the "segurança." Finally last night when he heard the whistle, he said "bird no. Seguarança." A little while later we were looking at a book with a parrot in it, and I told him something like "it's a parrot, a bird that is a parrot" to which he replied "parrot no. Segurança." I love how kids' brains work.

Did you know? Every year your child will have a new teacher, and there is an adjustment period that goes along with that. Did you know? Every child will have a bond with their old teacher until they make a bond with their new one. Did you know? Every child needs consistency and structure to feel safe and part of that is coming to school. Did you know? When a child comes late, they miss a big adjustment period of socializing with their peers which makes it more difficult to bond with their new group and feel safe. Did you know? When a child is the presence of a parent or other caretaker, they will isolate them selves more and want attention primarily from that parent or caretaker and will not socialize as much, or at all with their peers. Did you know? Children are affected by their parents' feelings, so if a parent is tense and mistrusting of a new teacher, the child will pick up on this an act accordingly, even if it is not verbalized directly to the child. Did you know? Every child needs a teacher's attention and the more a teacher must play favorite to one student or another to appease a concerned parent, the farther the other new students get. Did you know? We are teachers for the whole class and we cannot jump up and go have a chat with a concerned parent who decides to come in in the middle of a class day and talk about their concerns. Did you know?

While in Jersey, my husband picked up some DVDs for Ju, choosing them based on the fact that they were $1 each. A couple are not really appropriate for him (read: Japanese Animation) but one of Hermie and Friends has really grown on me. I have never been heavily into things that remind you that God is there - I think that is something we should remind ourselves of, rather than have it presented from an outside source. BUT, the message in the DVD is very light and presented nicely and I have to say I regret that because it talks about God directly because I can't take it to school to share with my kids. I hope I can find some more of them here somewhere, there are a lot of nice stories on the list.

On the way to the States, we go to the airport at 2:30 for our 4:45 flight. There was a lovely line about .8 km long stretching from the ONE open TAM desk all the way to the food court. We waited in it for a while, and then decided to jump the line because Ju was crabby. During this time, we over heard various people talking about how they were missing connections etc and didn't know what to do.

We got to our gate just in time to see that our flight was moved from confirmed to late, and then was announced over the loudspeaker that they had no "previsto" as to when it would arrive at the airport. We ate some pao de quiejo, we sat, and sat some more. We watched teenagers going on large Disney group tours sit on the floor and do bonding activities. Ju made a few friends. Eventually they came over the PA and told us something that no one could hear because the teenagers were too busy bonding to notice that everyone was trying to be quiet to listen to it. At 7:30 we were told our flight would begin boarding. At 8:30 we actually got on the plane. By the time we got to Rio, we had missed the last TAM flight to Miami by about 40 minutes.

So, after a 2 hour fiasco of getting vouchers and finding our luggage that had connection tags on it, we got to spend the night in Rio, in a 4 star hotel, bill footed by TAM. It was a lovely hotel and they checked us into their most expensive room at 1 AM in the morning. We slept most of the day, and then ate some random food from a kilo place and walked on the beach. Then it was time to pack it all in and go back to the airport to catch the 8:50 flight. We finally got checked in, got the the gate, and got the heck out of there.

We arrived so early in Miami that there was no one in the gate to operate or open it, so we sat on the plane for a while. After that, despite airport security, everything was pretty smooth, except for Ju not wanting to get on another airplane ("Ju airpane, no!") and trying to get us to leave him in Miami.


On the way back everything was okay until we got to Rio. After getting in and waiting for 25 minutes behind ONE family to recheck our luggage, we rushed to our gate to find that the flight was not there. Over the course of the next 4 hours, we got the whole complicated story in pieces: it went something like this - The plane that we were to take to Salvador left from Campinas to go to Rio, but it wasn't allowed to land because of the crash, so it was sent back to Campinas (where I suspect it had to unload and do something with a lot of angry passangers), and then wait for clearance to fly back again to Rio. Towards the end of this wait for it to arrive, we recieved news that Salvador's airport was closed because of a bird problem. We finally got on the plane at 4:30, but then had to until 5:30 for the flight plan to be ferried over because it had to be manually entered in Sampa (whatever that means).



Between all the problems with accidents, delays, and the publicity given during the PAN games, I see this whole flight thing really killing the tourist trade here if something isn't done soon. I can't help it, I live here, but if I had a choice about flying through a place that will surely make me miss a connection or three, I might go another way...

Ju has some kind of stomach thing, possibley rotavirus, and is pukey, feverish, and generally cranky and whiney. We travel tomorow; 18 + hours on planes, 4 airports, to go visit my parents for a month. I hope we can deal with the issues. It's too bad, because he is usually wonderful on flights, one of those kids who everyone sees and dreads having on their flight, and then compliment his behaviour afterwards. He doesn't want to eat much, and won't really sleep very well either, and generally cries a lot. He has been drinking pedialyte out of a medicine dropper because most things won't stay down, but we won't be able to take it with us on the plane, so I am not sure what we will do for him.

At the moment he is laying passively on the couch, watching Looney Toons. I am not an advocate to plugging your kid in, but when he's this whiney, it's a life saver to have him loose his focus on the uncomforable feelings he's having and just veg for a bit so I can type or pack suitcases. I'm not sure how much of his whining is due to genuine pain and discomfort and how much is due to the fact that he has percieved he is getting a lot more attention since he's been sick. Yesterday he got to be in my lap the whole day and slept in our bed with me and has been carried around all day. He's getting spoiled.

I decided to dig out and photograph some old photos today (scary, huh?). This one is sophomore year of college, when my hair was pink and blue and I had gained a bit of weight because of allergies. I know there are more I should do, but it takes so long to get a decent shot, it's kind of discouraging. Besides, I should be finishing the giant wire mermaid I started a month ago, or doing the other lembrançinhas for the wedding. Should should should....

The saga of Ona-key has been quite long. I got her at the Capital Area Humane Society the day after I moved into the first apartment I could find that would allow me to have cats. I showed up in search of a cat and there she was.

The process of getting her down here with me is well catalogued here on this blog, as is her immediate sudden disappearance behind the fridge. About 2 years ago she started to go down hill. It began as a sudden fur loss on her back end that the vet attributed to stress because of the new baby (Ju was just born at that time). A few months later we found a lump under her front leg. The lump continued to grow and we had all her mammory glands removed, thinking it might be breast cancer. She recovered fine and seemd to be doing better, and then started to limp. It began as a slight hop on the back leg and we began giving her a small dose of pain killer to help her walk - the vet thought it might be a weak muscle which would correct itself if she was able to use it without pain. She didn't improve and we eventually stopped giving her the medication.

The limp became worse and worse until it was apparent both back legs were giving her trouble, becomming boney and sticking out at odd angles on the joints. She started laying on only one side, causing her wiskers to grow crooked on that side, and seemingly making the crookedness of her back end worse. For a while she stopped walking at all, hardly moving, and we discovered that her claws had begun to grow into the pads of her feet because she was not sharpening them. I trimmed them and she improved. He decline seemed halted and she hobbled around the house like an old woman, hopping up and down the stairs with difficulty, but full of life, and trying to hide from Ju most of the time.

The suddenly last night, she freaked out. At first we thought Lela was bothering her - she suddenly woke us up at 1am, yoweling on the veranda. We chased Lela away and brought her inside. She started again and I became worried that she was in pain, but she would immediately stop when I went to talk to her and pet her, so I thought it must be something else. She repeated the yowel again at 2am, then 3am (waking up Ju and scaring the heck out of him), and then at 4am, and again at 5am. Through all this, it seemed that she was yoweling at imaginary things, hallucinations, and that there wasn't much I could do to help her. At 6:30, I was making coffee and she began again, waking up Ju, who then came down stairs, telling me that "Ona-kay tah chorando" - Ona-key is crying.

She spent all day hiding in various places, and the nanny dutifully checked on her to make sure she was okay. She started doing frequent yoweling again when she went to go eat, but it's hard to judge why. I petted her for a while and brought her in here with me on my lap. She hopped up on the shelf next to the computer and now is sleeping where the cooling fan blows hot air on her face. She seems quite contented at the moment. The vet said we might start giving her anti-psycotic drugs tomorow, but I think she should be examined first. I keep remembering when my mom's cat died, how he came and told her he was in pain, and I wonder if Ona-key is trying to do the same.

I think I have figured it out - it's not the kids that stress me out. It's the parents. Is it at every school that teachers are constantly questioned in our abilities to teach? Parents want their kids to go to our school, yet they come in with stories about how "the children don't learn anything" or that "there were a lot of complaints about the teachers this year." What I keep wondering is if they don't trust any of the teachers, why enroll your child with our school? If we can't teach, why are you here bugging us to make an exception just this once to let your child pass when they have not shown that they know the material? Why not just save us all the head ache and take your child to another school? Is it just because these are rich people's kids? People who are used to getting their way all the time? Is that what they think they are paying for? I am starting to get the impression that we are just supposed to do whatever they say, no matter what our professional opinions as educators are. The school sporatically backs us up there.... No wonder the kids show a HUGE lack of respect for us and their fellow classmates and the school grounds. I bet they are told at home that the teacher is wrong, that the problem is the teacher, and that the child should not worry about their behaviour or lack of learning, the teacher should be FORCING you to learn. Because we can just wave our magic wands and make the info appear in their heads. Poof! No wonder we have an almost complete staff turn over every 4 years - no one would want to sit here and deal with this when they could be working elsewhere for more money, in a country where they speak the language...

What am I hungry for? I just keep eating and nothing is satisfying. What is it?!

So they caught the SPAM king, or one of them anyway. And, in fact, my spam level is much much lower than it ever has been since college. I used to get at least 25 a day in my account I have had since 1998. I even went so far as to open another account because the spam was so bad that my inbox would fill up if I didn't check it 20 times a day. And now it has dropped off to about 2 or 3 a day. That's a pretty good track I think.

Great quote for the day - "my sperm are like the borg...a collective intelligence.
200 million minds. Plotting...learning the reproductive tract's weaknesses.....and waiting to strike.
Sounds like I have a terrorist in my pants" - Brian

Another interesting tidbit from school I forgot to mention - after all our hard work fund raising, begging, and cutting supply orders, our new music room was finally completed, with it's fancy sound proofing to prevent the echo-chamber effect, complete with a fancy double door to keep all sound inside and outside separated. We were all so excited, and then off went the piano (so lovingly stored in the computer room for so long) on it's cart, trailed and pushed by several maintenence men to make it's debute for the first class with piano music played by the music teacher since 2 years ago when this whole construction thing began. And oops, well, the engineers forgot that a music room needs to have a door way that instruments can fit through, and well, so the piano can't get into the music room. I guess we should have known to build the room around it, since doors are never a sure thing in this country, especially not in our school...

Today I made goop for Ju. It was a great sucess. He is a fan of play dough, silly putty, and clay. We always recommend that the children who have a poor pencil grip play with some thing along these lines outside of school to strenthen their hands and small motor skills. Ju already has very good capabilities with crayons and is extremely into finger paints. With any luck, I'll be able to give him enough stimulation that he won't be behind when he starts school in a year.

I had something to write earlier when I opened this page, but then Ju was throwing peas and I went to go feed him a banana, and now I am sleeping with my eyes open.