Day at the water park

Here in La Manzanilla Mexico, the kids get lots of days off school. This week they are out Monday-Wednesday in celebration of Labor Day. Yesterday I took Lyle to the water park in Barra de Navidad. It’s the first time we’d been to the park and we had a great time sliding down the big water slides, swimming in the big pools and playing pirates.

That is WE had fun, until a group of boys aged 8-16 showed up. Then mom was out and big boys were in.

I’m always amazed how Mexican kids love other kids. I’m guessing it’s because of the family structure; big kids are expected take care of the little kids without a second thought or complaint. That group of boys played the entire afternoon with Lyle and his friend Elior. Keep away, water tag, took them down the big slides and it went on and on. They never tired of our little boys screaming for more rides on the slide, asking to be put on their shoulders in the water, yelling the “throw the ball to me!”

The day was a highlight that Lyle won’t soon forget.

Lyle makes some music

Lyle has a few toy musical instruments and on occasion he likes to "make music", he also likes to dance to rock star music when he thinks I'm not watching. La Manzanilla and not having a TV, is great for letting kids be creative when it comes to making up fun.

What is Patriotism?

Today, Lyle’s elementary in school in La Manzanilla, Mexico offered a flag presentation. Once everyone was lined up and in place the 6th graders marched out replicas of the various flags Mexico has had over the years. Then director approached the microphone and announced he would recite the Pledge of allegiance.

All the children and parents dutifully raised their hands to their chests (including Rick and I) and recited the pledge. Lyle raised his hand and half-heartily mouthed the words (afterwards he told me he didn’t really know what the words were). But as I watched him, it occurred to me Rick and I had never talked to him about pledging allegiance or patriotism.

After the ceremony, as the children raced back to their classrooms, I started thinking about patriotism, countries and flags. Do we really need to pledge an allegiance without understanding the meaning? How do we balance Lyle’s US heritage with a worldview? How do we convey allegiance to principles of liberty and justice, humanity and generosity, to all regardless of birth nation?

If I teach him to pledge, just to be dutiful and polite then I’m sending the wrong message. Duty and politeness over principles is never the correct choice.

Lyle makes his first phone call and it’s all in Spanish

He has a friend who lives a couple of blocks away and because Lyle’s been a little sick I didn’t want him walking down there. So, Lyle went next door to the boy’s grandma (on his own accord) and asked for the phone number.

He then picks up the phone and makes his call.

The mother answers the phone and they proceed to have a detailed conversation, in Spanish, about why Yeir can’t come over to play, his homework isn’t done. Lyle explains that he has finished his homework and urges her to get Yeir going so he can finish his and come over to play.

A quiet moment….and chips

Usually when the kids are playing here in La Manzanilla it’s a herd of them out in the street playing soccer, hide and seek, or war games. The common denominator of any of these games is that they are loud, raucous and wild. Lots of screaming, “da me lo!” translation- “give it to me!” “el me pegó” -translation “he hit me!” Followed shortly by a parent yelling “no, peleando!” translation-“no fighting!”

Imagine my surprise when I looked out the window and witnessed Lyle and Gael sharing a conversation, a quiet moment…and a bag of chips.

A new beach vendor in town!

We’ve been beading and making jewelry as a family for a few months. We made bracelets for grandmas, I received a lovely glass bead bracelet, “just because” and Lyle made some cute little rings that he handed out to his many girl friends.

He’s been talking about wanting to sell his creations at the beach, and today was his first day. He packed up 5 necklaces and 4 bracelets and announced that he was going to sell them at the beach. So, we headed to the beach for lunch and after an hour of playing in the water and enjoying some shrimp quesadilla’s at Quinta Valentine Lyle decided to try his hand at beach vending.

We left the beach with 3 necklaces, 3 bracelets and Lyle had 50 more pesos then when he started! Who knew, Lyle was such a good salesman!

School’s out…3 days early

We arrived to pick-up Lyle after school today and were informed that there will be a posada tomorrow from 8-10 and then school will be out until the 7^th of January.

I have the official school calendar and the last day of school is supposed to be Dec 21^st.

Not sure why we have this extended vacation but I am sure that Lyle’s class is supposed to have testing on the 2^nd block of work in Jalisco educational system issued school books and that they are only 2/3 of the way through the 2^nd block. I'm also sure that in the last 4 weeks we have not had one full week of school, either ending early of days completely off because the teachers have meetings they need to attend. I guess meetings after the 1:00 hour (when school gets out) is out of the question.

I’m completely baffled by the school system here in La Manzanilla. We will be working with Lyle over the holiday break to finish the block. I’m thinking this time next year we will be homeschooling.

Revolution!

So, it's been a month (how did that happen) since my last post. We've been so busy, work, school, homework, sickness, bad renters..it all takes time.

One highlight I have to share, a week ago Friday was a national holiday- Revolution Day!

All the kids dressed in period clothing and paraded though town. Lyle loved his costume so much that he has been wearing it for the last week, I finally had to wash it and it shrunk 2 sizes! He's heart broken, as he thinks it's the appropriate attire for any dinner invitation or restaurant outing. I guess we'll have to buy him another one.

On the Saturday after the parade the mom's hosted a fundraiser in the jardin. The mama's love it when I work these events, I'm an endless source of amusement for them- they speak no English and I speak ok Spanish so I just do what they say. My duty was selling juice and taking orders from gringos!

Play time…

It’s been nearly 3 weeks and still no school in La Manzanilla, Jalisco!

Thank goodness we live across the street from a family that has lots of kids coming and going. Lyle spends a good part of his school-free day playing with the neighbor kids.

I spend a good part of my day refereeing fighting- “No pelando!” (no fighting) is something I yell out more than a few times a day.

I’ve also discovered that it’s important to always have jicama and cucumbers on hand and a bag of corn for popcorn. You have no idea how much Mexican kids love jicama and cumbers with lime and chili and/or popcorn. Around 3 pm everyday they start asking for “comida?” “do you have anything to eat?” I take out a pitcher of water, glasses and some slices of cucumber and jicama or a big bowl of popcorn and all is good.

Yesterday they were playing “shoveling” and they played for nearly an hour. That's a big pile of sand they are rearranging. Ah, to be a kid again.

La Manzanilla kids don't like carrots

Every 24 days we are responsible for bring "Refugerio" or lunch for the 24 kids in Lyle's kinder class.

We've done Spaghetti- big hit.

Chicken and rice- not such a big hit-we didn't cook the rice correctly and is was mushy.

This time my husband and I thought we'd do PB&J sandwiches on whole wheat, apple slices and carrot sticks. Yes, before you gasp about the peanuts, I talked with the teacher peanut allergies, she'd never heard of such a thing as an allergy to peanuts.

We show up with our lunch and served it up. Only 2 of the 24 kids opted for the carrot sticks and one was our kid!

Conclusion- Kinder kids in La Manzanilla don't like carrots and you are not going to make any friends by serving them.

When I shared this story with a client, her advice, "Twinkies, baby!"

That gringo kid speaks Spanish

Yes, it's true. My little gringo speaks Spanish. We had a babysitter last night and I overheard him telling her all about his adventures as new bike rider.

The other day we were walking through town and we stopped to chat with some friends. I was explaining that we had all been sick and how Lyle had a bad cough and we hadn't been to the beach in a few days. She said something to me and I didn't quiet get it so I responded, "como?" Lyle turned to me and said, "Mom, she said it's ok if I go to the beach but I should not get in the water."

Rick and I are coming along nicely, but Lyle is rocketing along.