How many more days til Easter?

This is a question I am getting several times per day now. I try not to be irritated, but honestly, Viv knows the answer. I think it is a case of when you are little, you just like to be told things over and over, like stories.

We were watching American Idol today and there was some guy on there named Casey somebody performing. He might have been an ex-contestant. He had his hair in a bun (!) and a scraggly looking beard. Vivian said, "Mom, I do not expect that man has a wife!"

She read me two stories tonight from her Classic Fairy Tales book. She loves to read and is even doing voices and reading with expression. It tickles me to no end.

Sophie is spending the night at Inbar's house. Inbar spent the night with us last night. Since it was Good Friday Eve, traffic was horrific and Inbar's mom told me it took her an hour to move 1km. She asked if Inbar could spend the night at the last minute because the traffic was so horrible.

What is the big deal about Good Friday Eve, you ask? Most children in Uganda, if they go to school at all, go to boarding school. The reason for this is that it cuts down on the parent responsibility of having to arrange transportation and food each day for a child. Children are sent off to BS at age 6-8. They come home only for 3 breaks per year. Christmas, Easter and a month before fall term. But mostly they go all year.

Thursday night all  the locals are getting their kids from boarding school for the 4 day weekend that will last thru Easter Monday. They will send the kids back to school on Tuesday after Easter Monday. Whenever boarding school is beginning or ending, traffic is a hot mess here.

Since we are all alone, Vivi is in my bed. So long as she keeps to her own side, I really don't mind.  The woman who waxes me said her first born daughter wanted to sleep with her up til the age of 15!  Especially when she would come home from boarding school. That does not give me much hope.

By the way, we leave for our first trip to Turkey in a few more days. The girls are super excited. You would think they are going to Disneyland!  They are about to jump out of their skin. I got the SpaceBag down from the top of the closet and had them try on pants and shirts to see if any warm clothes still fit.

Vivi does not want to wear any dresses or any bright colors. She basically wants to wear anything that looks like boy clothes. That reminds me. The other day, she told me she was going to marry a girl, because then she wouldn't have to have a baby.

I am scared to ask where this logic comes from, because to the best of my knowledge, she wouldn't know the technicalities of where a baby comes from anyway.

The good news is that they have plenty of warmish clothes to wear in Turkey. It is supposed to be beautiful spring weather - 45-61 degrees. Just perfect.

Their friend Inbar is Israeli and it was really cute hearing them tell her what she was going to miss about Easter. They really wanted to share Easter with her. We did an egg hunt with her for fun yesterday. But they said, "It is so fun when the Easter bunny leaves a jelly bean trail!"  "And you won't get any chocolate or Easter basket?"  They were devastated to know this won't happen to their friend.

Another topic that came up in the car ride today was, "Why do so many people in the world not like Israeli's?"  If only I had an answer for that. It was also very cute to hear Inbar recite for us the story of Passover. The girls were captivated by it.

Vivian was troubled by why the whole world is only celebrating Christian holidays and not Jewish  ones.  But I assured her it depends on where you live, and reminded  her that in Zanzibar, we were there over Ramadan, and people were definitely celebrating there.

Holiday Schedule

The girls and I came up with a schedule for our days since they are on a two week break and there may be no travel in sight!  We made the schedule just like what they have in school. Every hour is a new activity. The schedule goes like this:
8am - Breakfast
9am - Exercise and Meditation
10am - Workbooks
11am - Piano practice / Art
12noon - Lunch
1pm - Outside play
2pm - Movie / Games
3pm - Pool
4pm - Chores

So far, so good.

Also, Viv has been fighting a viral infection of some sort. It started with fever on Saturday. The fever cycles up and down. She has periods of being tired and just laying on the couch, complaining of headache and dizziness, interspersed with periods of being her normal crazy self- laughing, joking, making annoying sounds.
Yesterday, she begged for ice cream so I told her that if she wanted ice cream, we would have to walk to get it. It's about 1/2 mile each way. She said her back felt hot and cold. I'm not sure what that means, but she has complained of this before.
Last night was the worst. She felt like a hot coal laying in the bed. I took her temp between her legs and just on skin it registered 101.8!  This morning, she was a normal temperature.
I know that if I take her to the doctor, they are not going to be able to diagnose anything. There is no symptom that shows a bacterial infection and without bacterial infection, they will not give her any medicine.
She also complained of pokey feelings in her stomach. This makes me think she could have a parasite or amoeba. Amoebas are common ailments here in Africa. However, without a stool sample, they will not diagnose her with amoeba.
Children are commonly getting these fevers without any accompanying symptoms. It has been 3 full days. We are on Day 4. I hope the worst is over.
I will go to the pharmacy today and get her Gabbroral, which is a medicine for the gut and cures any kind of stomach/amoeba issues. I gave her my last Gabbroral yesterday.
Daddy is on another trip. He came back last Thursday night, and left again on Saturday night.
They are doing their workbooks now. :D

Talent Show

One more thing to report that happened while I was gone:

Sophie found a tick on her stomach and pulled it off. This was her first tick here in Africa. There are lots of ticks especially because there are cows and we have dogs that get ticks a lot.

Also, the school has a talent show every year. They open auditions by grade. Last year they chose 2 acts from each grade. This year, they are only choosing one act per grade. Auditions for 1st gr happened while I was gone. Vivian entered a watercolor painting and won the audition for first grade! The principal has asked that Vivian bring in a small collection of her artwork and we display it for the talent show. I was shocked and thrilled. She is a brilliant artist, but I had no hand in this at all. Also, she was chosen by a group of her peers.No adults were involved in the decision.

Sophie and her best friend Inbar also prepared a song for their 3rd grade auditions. They sang Jordin Sparks One Step at a Time. They came in 2nd place to an African boy who can dance just like Michael Jackson.  The French teacher, in charge of Student Council, said that their act was very good, and they will have a chance to perform it sometime, if not at the Talent Show. The only thing I did was to download the backtrack. My husband printed off the lyrics for them and they memorized them on their own. I coached them just a small bit.

I am pleased and proud at both girls' self-motivation and am glad the school encourages these types of events, outside the normal curriculum of reading, writing and arithmetic.

Vivian Love and Another Tooth Lost

I recently went on a trip to the US. I was gone for 12 days. I had to leave for the airport 10pm, well after the girls' bedtime. However, they would not go to sleep. Especially Vivian. She was insane with depression.  I kissed her goodnight and goodbye, but she was hyperventilating and could not stop crying.

"Buh-hut (gasp) Mah (gasp) meeee (gasp), I (gasp) don't (gasp) want (gasp) you  (gasp) to (gasp) gooooo!" she wailed.

"I'll be gone just a few days and besides, you are going to have so much fun with Daddy. He'll cook yummy food for you, he'll play lacrosse with you, you can do archery with him. . . " I tried to console her.

"Buh-hut (gasp) I (gasp) only (gasp) like (gasp) YOU (gasp) taking (gasp) care (gasp) of (gasp) uuusss!" she wailed on.

" You are very very tired and when you get tired, you get upset. Now I want you to lay here and calm down, take some deep breaths and close your eyes. You need your sleep because you have school tomorrow," I explained.

She asked me to lay with her. So I relented. For about 5 minutes. But the minute I tried to leave, the hyperventilating started all over again. I realized that me staying in the bed with her or not was not going to make any difference. I had to go.

She begged for one last kiss and hug. I left the room to the sound of her sobbing.

My husband said he was not looking forward to the morning. When she was a baby, and we had similar instances of her not going to sleep, we would let her cry it out. However, when she woke up, she would begin crying all over again, as if she picked up where she left off!

However, when the morning came, she got up and was cheerful as usual.

I have now been  back for almost one week. Her right eye tooth came out
at school this week when she bit a Lemon Drop candy her dad asked me to bring back from the US. She got to keep her tooth in a small  treasure box they give out at the school nurse. At 6 years old, she has now lost 7 teeth and is one tooth ahead of her sister who is getting ready to turn 9. They have both lost the bottom 4 and top front teeth, but now Vivian has lost an eye tooth.

The tooth fairy brought her pastels, a Magic School Bus book about Fall Leaves and a golden dollar coin.

Every day that I have been back, Vivian tells me how much she loves me and how happy she is that I am back. She tells me she loves having me for a mommy. She is so expressive of her love for me.

Tonight, we were doing water colors and she asked if she could listen to her CD of Bible stories.