Animals!

Sam's favorites this time were probably: rhinos (for their pooping), flamingos, lemurs, and elephants. Last time we did mostly inside animals. This time it was a nice day, so we did a lot of the big, outside animals.

Belated Zoo Pictures

A week ago we went to the zoo and I never put pictures up. A fun day!

Our Kids are (Still) Driving us Crazy

As I write this seemingly both Eva and Eli are teething. Neither one wants to sleep and the intermittent crying is driving us a bit nuts. Eva played until around 8 tonight. Sam managed to "accidentally" knock her over earlier and kept giving her slightly aggressive hugs. He balked at going to the cafeteria tonight and kept saying "no people." He eventually came around and even has a new auntie friend from it, but, wow, it has been a long day. On the other hand, everyone seems to be disease-free and thriving, so maybe I should not complain.

Other things are better. We got a book case for all of Sam's books. It's nice to have them in one place and Sam really loves being read to. Tonight I read "Knuffle Bunny." Other favorites are a book about baby owls waiting for their mom, anything zoo or animal related, and "ten monkeys." Ten Monkeys has a refrain that goes "Ten little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and bumped his [or her] head. Momma called the doctor and the doctor said, 'No more monkeys jumping on the bed!'" Fun stuff.

Today was a full day for me. Three hours of teaching, teachers' meeting, lunch, language classes, talked to another teacher, went to dinner. I am feeling like I'm getting more into the flow of things. I no longer have the "what will I do with three hours?" feeling. Today I lectured for about half of the class, used an activity where students did some research, and then did small groups discussions. I am feeling like teaching is manageable. Some day I will get to preaching, seminar-ing, responding, and other forms of public speaking. This is also my first time with a class of thirty, which requires a different type of interaction than ten or fifteen. It's nice to make progress. Emily's also planning to talk to a group on campus soon, so that will be her first foray into public speaking.

That's the news from here. I've been posting less recently and will probably be slowing down here for a while.

Saturday in the park continued

This is how we travel...
Eli, don't eat that!
At the park, with beloved moped
Eli's shirt says "Little Brothers are Awesome"

Saturday, Saturday....

Sam feeds fish, turtles, and pigeons with a boy and his mom
Eva and Eli at the park
"So big!"
Eli (with bottle of water to the right)
Smiling Eva

Today was a pretty interesting day. It was day two of at least three for spraying. Tomorrow they're coming back. Luckily, thankfully, these are only outside spraying days. However, we bought a lot of plastic bags in case we have to cover everything again. We maybe should have invested in some tarps. Last night at part of the campus retreat we learned that they'd found mosquito larvae in grates behind the men's dormitory, so that's what they are doing tomorrow. Presumably there will be more blood tests this week, and if we get the chance to do them we will, since apparently about 80% of people are asymptomatic. I think it's fairly unlikely, but several weeks ago Eli's strange episode included a high fever (not dangerously high, just normal high) and then a rash, and these are the two main symptoms for the fever.

Today we went to one of the parks we love to go to while they sprayed the campus. Sam arrived as a mom and her son were feeding the fish and turtles, so he really enjoyed being a part of that. People are really kind to him. The boy had some sort of fish food and the mom had also brought diced bala to feed to the fish. It was fun. Sam also spent a lot of time chasing pigeons. The babies alternated napping and watching everything. It's a nice park because there's a covered walkway, bathrooms, and a really beautiful lake.

Sam also had gotten a new, small plastic moped. I don't know why, but toy companies are nearly incapable of producing a sturdy motorcycle. I think it's the challenge of wheels and handlebars. One or the other is sure to break, so we knew it was only a matter of time. The moped made it through the park but then the motorized piece (where you pull it back and it goes forward) broke this afternoon. Sam was nearly inconsolable for most of the afternoon, but in the evening we gave the moped a "time out" and by night time he was philosophical about it. We reviewed the different toys he's had that have broken ("the red motorcycle, the green motorcycle..."), the bowls or cups Emily and I have broken, the lights or doors that aren't quite right, and on and on. It could almost have been a sermon on the impermeability of the world in which we live. I think after a while he had the hang of it. He still has a very funny way of saying "broken." He says it like "broke-en-ying" and it's almost tonal. I always feel bad for Emily because she tends to go to bed around the time Sam is breaking down, but then he usually gets a second wind at night, when I'm up with him. Tonight he had fun watching some tv, playing with blocks, and then took a really long bath. I'm so curious what he'll be like in the years ahead. It's a fun age.

We're into the full onslaught of classes now, so I may be writing less. I always enjoys this space for thinking through all of the things going on around us.

Spraying Campus

Eva and Eli play together
Out during the fumigating
Eva and Eli enjoy tasty rice with fish bits
Yesterday I learned they were spraying campus for an infectious virus spread by mosquito. Things went fairly well, but it was another case where I always feel like I get the information about a day after I would like to have it. So yesterday I had thought they were coming because of a student who had the virus two months ago and got it somewhere else in SE Asia. Then I heard that a neighboring business (a flower place) had a person who had tested for it. Then I heard it was three people. Then I heard that two people on campus tested it for it but were asymptomatic. Then I heard it was three people...

Anyway, the fumigation itself was okay, but most of Wednesday night and yesterday were spent packing things away and then today will be spent wiping everything down again. Linda helped a lot with this, and even came back in the evening to open windows and wipe everything of before we came back with the babies.

I asked the CDC person what chemical they were using yesterday, and she didn't know, but she did arrange to have the information given to us after the fact. It's really not a bad pesticide, so I think probably the benefit outweighs the harm, but all a bit frustrating.

Re-retreating, mid-autumn festival

Sam talks to a new friend after church (he's looking at car pictures on her phone)
Sunday school!
Ready to go! (Sam with robot)
Pomelo mouse (from nursery school)

Yesterday I went to half of the teachers' retreat for our school. When I realized that we only had three hours planned this morning, but that it would cause a good eighteen hours of grief for Emily (from last night to this afternoon) I decided to come back with another teacher last night. A good decision! As I write this Emily is sleeping and Sam is looking to head towards and early bedtime.

It's mid-autumn festival here. We've been feasting on moon cakes (cakes filled with different types of paste: red bean, sesame, peanuts, egg, even chocolate), Sam decorated a pomelo at school, and the weather is just beginning to change.

Church was fun today. Sam went to his regular Sunday School class and then enjoyed playing with other kids and talking to some adults after church. He still sometimes resists talking to new people, but warms up quickly once he gets to know the person. He's just reaching an age where he's beginning to really be able to play with other kids. Yesterday he played in a wading pool with some neighbors he likes a lot and today he enjoyed talking to some of the other boys.

He also went to the potty by himself today, although he went into the women's bathroom and then got upset when he didn't know how to get his pants and shoes back on! He's also basically now pacifier free. Emily thinks maybe it was too early. He's sucking on his shirt some now. On the other hand, I remember reading that this is really the age where you can explain why they should stop and I don't want to still be dealing with this a year from now.

Start of New School Year

The semester starts a week from Thursday. There are two retreats over the next two weekends. I'm fairly excited about this year, because I can be in with both feet. In the past I had to balance participation against language study and family transitions (arrival, pregnancy, new babies). I'm going to try to get to most of both retreats. Weekends are harder for us, but Emily's planning to rely on some other spouses to help with bedtime, which is a big relief.

I'm feeling a bit more confident about teaching, although I know I'll have up and down days. This semester I'm going to use google groups and create a group for each class. Most of my challenges in teaching in another language relate to getting feedback and figuring out how much the class understands. With these groups I can create discussion boards to which they can post. I can also post information on topics. So if I am worried about plagiarism I can post resources. If I do a lecture on different organizations I can put up the weblinks. If I do group reports I can have them share some of their basic materials. I can also send lecture notes to the whole class via email. I think it will up communication. I'll have three classes. The two main ones have 30 and 18 students and then I'm co-teaching a course with 12. I think it will be manageable. However, since I have so many students I probably won't be able to grade the final papers myself (which I tried this semester, and worked, but took a really long time).

The school should have more equilibrium this year than in the past. There are about a dozen core teachers. One is on sabbatical and we have one new teacher, so it's relatively little turnover compared to the past. I'm hopeful that things will be a little calmer.

We're starting to think about plans for the next year. We want to be settled in P-town for the bulk of next fall, but we're going to try to spend a fair amount of time with family also. The hope is that we can get a month during the summer with each family unit and then also have them come during the fall, and also do Christmas with the two families. Logistics will be a little hard to figure out.

Incentives and Disincetives

With Sam we're continuing to tinker with incentives and disincentives. He has a star board (we draw stars on a small white board Emily has) and after he gets six stars he gets a special reward, usually a Kinder Egg. These are German eggs where there's a small toy inside and the egg has a kind of chocolate coating. He doesn't get totally sugared out and they aren't expensive, but he really likes them. This works pretty well. The two things we're working on now are hand-washing and tooth-brushing.

We're also doing time-outs, which work fairly well. Usually it's just for a few minutes, and we now are as likely to give the offending toy a time out as we are to give Sam a time out. So if he throws a stuffed animal too close to a sibling, the animal gets a time out. Typically, Sam gets them in the morning or evening when he's tired and needs a little alone time.

We're also working on some of the bigger life lessons. Sam left a beloved new motorcycle at church on Sunday and it just disappeared at some point. The rest of the day, about every hour or two he would cry and say "motorcycle," and then would be back to normal in a few minutes. Not a fun lesson, but a basic problem in life: things don't last.

The harder areas are where an infraction is suspected but not seen. Usually this comes when we hear a "thump" and then a baby cry and come out to see Sam sitting by the baby. Did he push the baby? Did the baby fall? Unfortunately, none of our children are great expert witnesses at this point. Today I gave Sam a time out because all signs pointed to play that was too rough. Then, his teacher told Emily that today whenever he fell down at school he would say "s/he pushed me!" in local language even if no one pushed him. It's hard to be a social being. Sam's really coming along, but it takes a while.

On a related note, he's especially snuggly lately. He tells us he loves us about a hundred times a day. I know it's something I say to him a lot, but I think he also gets it at school and it's started to stick. It's very endearing. He's a fun kid.