parents gone and parent-teacher conferences

My parents left on Wednesday morning. Their last few days here, they finished up some sight seeing, and also Mom picked up a reminder of her visit - a virulent case of food poisoning. Not a pleasant souvenir. On Saturday night, before she got sick, we went downtown to see Puebla Nights, a free dance show that includes folklorico and less traditional dances. We were given free tickets to the Sunday afternoon show as well, but since I'm always at church until after 2, and the show starts at 1:30, I'll see who I can give them away to.

Tuesday evening my dad and I went out to Abraham and family's house. We enjoyed rice, soup, and lots of laughter. Abraham and I acted as translators for my dad and his mom and brother since my dad doesn't speak Spanish, and they don't speak English.

Last night Abraham and I watched Happy Feet together. He had observed in my classroom one time and had also heard my many stories about the young Elvis music lover in my room, and he commented that this child acted and sounded a lot like Mumble the Penguin in Happy Feet. I hadn't seen the movie, so we arranged a time when we could, and guess what? My student is uncannily like Mumble. Who knows? He may end up saving mankind through organized tap dancing.

On Friday morning, this child asked for prayer for his dad. "He's hyper," said the boy, "And it makes him sick." From earlier conversations of other teachers, I had some idea what the child actually meant: his dad has been diagnosed with hypoglycemia. A bit different from being hyper, but the word exchange is an easy mistake to make when you're only 6.

Before watching Happy Feet, I (and all the other PCS teachers) had parent-teacher conferences in the afternoon. I didn't have particularly difficult conferences, although one parent wasn't exactly thrilled with what I had to say about their child's prospects for moving on the second grade next year. It is early days yet, so it's not certainly that this child won't move up, but if he continues as he is, he won't move on.

This morning three other PCS teachers, Abraham, and I played soccer at the PE field. We had forgotten to contact the high school students to see if they were interested, so we had an adults-only game. Actually, it was quite fun. We played World Cup and then girls vs. guys short field.

At present, I'm tied to the apartment because there are two men here removing the rotting bathroom window frame and repairing two years' worth of water damage in the surrounding walls. They'll be back Monday afternoon to put in a new window. My landlady left the money to pay them and told me to give it to them "only if you see everything looks good." How am I supposed to know? Too much responsibility! But she's not living here now, so I have to try to judge their repair work. In the meantime, I can't go anywhere which means I can't be lesson planning. Oh fooey.