Another meeting at Santana

On Monday we had another meeting at Nick's school to see if they can challenge him. The were very nice and polite and really insistant on Nick staying at Santana. The are always nice. They feel we aren't giving it enough time but we aren't asking for him to be fluent in spanish we are asking for them to challenge him, to give him hoomework, and to give him school work.


We've given them the rest of December to see if they can try to treat Nick as a normal student and not just ignore him. They are to fill out his agenda according to our meeting. I really want this to work. I don't want to homeschool him. I want Nick to be around other children his age. I guess we will see what Nick will be doing in the new year.


On another note...


Nick's birthday is in 8 days and Christmas in 24 days. I've asked Nick if he wants a party or have friends over but he said "no". I feel bad that the package his uncle sent him was returned to the states for having food in it and no letter from the food ministry (or something like that). Allen sent Nick his favorite chocolate (Reese's Cups)which cannot be bought here in Cuenca and some video games. Well, I must figure out what to do for him.

Where has time gone?

Wow, time has gone by so fast...

Moca Cafe Bar

WORKING AT MOCA CAFE BAR
These last few weeks have been busy. Starting November 1st we opened Moca Cafe Bar in the mornings and have been running it Mon-Fri ever since. We're enjoying are mornings there together and our siestas in the afternoon. I guess I can't say I am bored anymore. I, more than Steve have been having a difficult time getting motivated in the morning. Steve's been so great, he lets me stay home some mornings to try to sleep in which I am not able to do. I usually get up and surf the world wide web hoping to see one of my children online. I still miss them very much and I don't think it will get easier, but I know their safe and that even if I were living in the states I may not be seeing them either. Life is busy.

Steve and I have made some new friends through Moca. Bob and Stefani they are brand new to Cuenca. We talked with them and decided to show them how to ride the bus and take a trip to Feria Libre Mercado on a Saturday, one of the busiests days at the mercado. It was an adventure for them. Stefani isn't too fond of the busses and I am not sure she will ride it again, but she knows how if needed. We all went to Puerto Grill on Gran Colombia for her birthday, and enjoyed some great margaritas :). We met George and Monica and their beautiful daughter. They have plans to open a Thai restaurant. Also, we met Matt and Diana from Wu Wei We Go blog who have 2 children that go to Santana where our son Nick goes. Matt comes by Moca and takes advantage of the FREE wifi and gets some work done, if we aren't picking his brain. They will be leaving to head back to the USA soon. Last week we met Jeff,  he was here visiting Cuenca to see if this is where he and his wife would like to retire. He heard that we had a mall so we showed him how to get there via bus. It has been so exciting meeting all these great people in Cuenca. Almost everyday we meet someone new at Moca. I hope we continue to meet such great people.


NICK'S SCHOOL (SANTANA)

We recently received Nick's report card and saw that he is passing everything. How can that be? He isn't that great with the language yet and when we talk to Nick he says he doesn't do anything but sit in the class all day. We were really hoping that Santana would be the place for Nick and we know that it is going to take time because of the language barrier, but we don't feel as if he is even being challenged. He has had homework twice since he started yet our friend Trish's son in a lower grade then Nick has two hours of homework a day. How can this be? Nick says he doens't know when he has homework and he tries to ask his friends but they don't give him a straight answer and the teachers never have time so he says.
We had a meeting with some of the staff to see what we can do to help Nick. The staff were all so very nice and helpful and tried to reassure us that all will fall into place as he learns more spanish. We came up with a plan that Nick was to write the homework in his agenda and the teachers would initial it to show that he wrote the right stuff. This has not been done...
Steve and I worry that we are just paying for an expensive daycare. We are considering taking him out the rest of the year and doing some online classes and working on his spanish then try a new school next year. We have spoken to a few Cuencanos that say that Santana is more of a place for kids in the upperclass to go to socialize and network. When I went there last week with Josh, Nick's spanish tutor for a meeting I saw kids walking around campus with there Blackberries out and headphones on texting and listening to music and it was during a class period NOT break time.
We have started researching more schools to find a more challenging one for Nick. I worry about him not socializing with kids his age so I really worry about taking him out of school but I am paying a little too much for him to socialize. We will put him back into a futbol league to have some interaction with kids his age and hopefully Nick will stay in contact with the friends he has made at Santana.
Well that's enough for now. Hopefully it won't be so long before the next post.

Mandatory event

Saturday, Nick had a mandatory meeting for Santana called a "Maratón". It was at la Pista Atlética Jefferson Pérez at 8 am, yes at 8 in the morning on a Saturday. Nick caught the bus around 7:15 and our friend Trish came by with her driver Manny to pick us up. It was a great day for this event but none of us knew what to expect.

They had all the children walk out to the field in their respective grades with matching shirts and signs representing their grade. They even had a torch that they used to light a simulated Olympic torch.I was a little shocked at what some of the girls were allowed to wear. This is a sporting event and they were wearing shirts made to come of the shoulder and no they weren't wearing sports bras, at least not all of them. Am I a prude?

I believe this event was to raise money for another school, Escuela Fiscal Ulises Chacón which was also in attendance. In the states we would have never seen an event like this on a saturday. I was so happy to see Nick with kids from his class and they were smiling. It was surprising to see almost all the kids smiling even though it was early on a Saturday morning. There were kids selling cookies, cakes, drinks and hot dogs.

It seemed that most of the kids participated in the event. You should have seen the little 5 year olds running on the track it was adorable. They grouped a lot of the grades together and ran certain distances per group. Nicks grade level ran two laps on a 1/4 mile track. He started strong and then ended slow but he still beat a bunch of the boys. He said it was hard to breath that his throat was dry. The next group had to run on the track and then they went outside of the track and ran around the stadium.

After the event was over, we all crammed into Manuel's car, with me sitting on Steve's lap like we were in high school, but we all made it home safely. Overall, it was a good experience, and it was nice to see so many smiling faces on an early Saturday morning.

Spanish classes and more

I just finished my second week of spanish school at Amauta. At first I enjoyed the classes and it gave me something to do. Lately, the classes have been getting harder for me. I have never been very good at memorizing and without being able to use everything I learn on a daily basis it just doesn't stick. So, now it is starting to feel more like a task to go to class. I need to find a better way to look at it because I really want to learn spanish. It depresses me not being able to talk to the locals. I feel bad when someone says something to me and I haven't a clue what they said.
Nick just finished his third week at Amauta and he has one full week left before he starts school at Santana an all spanish high school. I hope he is catching on. I know it will be better for him when he starts high school because he will get to use what he learned at Amauta.
My teacher is Lorena and his is Gaby. Lorena is from Cuenca and has visited the states as a foreign exchange student so she speaks english also. Gaby doesn't speak english at all.

Talking about school starting, Nick starts school on 7 Sept. There is so much to do before then. We have to buy school supplies, my friend Trish spent around $125. for her 6th graders supplies and we have to buy uniforms I believe she spent around $265 for her son. I am not looking forward to these costs, but it's for a good reason our son. Nick still has to take the placement test which they are supposed to call tomorrow to set them up and we have to talk individually to the school psyschologist still.

Well tomorrow starts a new week with lots to get done. Our landlady Martha wants to come by every morning at 8 to help us with our spanish and work on her English. Must buy school supplies, uniforms and get set up for Nicks testing. I hope everyone has a great week and we will try to write sooner than later. ~Susan