My second weekend here, my soon-to-be son-in-law and two of his children traveled on the Congo River ferry services from Brazzaville for a visit. Because this involves an international boundary, passports and a lot of slow paperwork are involved on both sides, with fixers at each step in the process (meaning tips).
Serguei (Momo), Naomie (age 8), and Klavna (age 5) arrived on Friday bearing a zillion hugs and kisses to share with me and Maman Stro. As someone who is late to the grandma game, I am just as enthusiastic with the hugs and kisses. Having missed the baby years of these girls, as "Mémé" I now get to help them learn English and buy them cute clothes and books. Is that a great deal or what?
We had a relatively relaxed two nights and two and a half days together. Stro has taught them about breathing (inspire...expire in French) and they are able to use that technique when they need to settle down a little. This included a couple of time-outs for Klavna at the swimming pool of a friend. Both girls are still learning to swim but are fearless in the water--which has both good and bad aspects. Klavna doesn't want to wear her PFD but neither will she stay in the shallow end. Naomie learned to flutter kick and almost has floating down. They had such a busy pool time that they fell asleep over their homework and then slept 12 hours at night. Conked.
I had a good time teaching them equivalent phrases using our hands. Holding out our right hands, we would say "please," and then hold out our left hand and say "s'il te plaît," for example. We followed this up with the old camp song "Head, shoulders, knees and toes."
We went to a family friendly Friday night place called Hal de la Gombe, where we enjoyed a couple of (smallish) roasted chickens, french fries, and fried bananas before a concert. We got rained out of the courtyard for eating but everything was dry by the time the music started. I am pretty surprised at the energy level the girls kept up during the music, dancing and running around. I think I have a lot to learn. Actually I learned from watching Momo on an early exercise walk we all took together. To keep them interested he had them doing squats and then push-ups, raising their knees, walking backwards. Channel all the energy!
The girls will attend The American School of Kinshasa (TASOK) next year, Klavna in first grade and Naomie in third. We have visited the school, which is set on 42 wooded acres, complete with athletic fields and a swimming pool, pottery studio, theater, and science labs. Their big brother Dolys will probably be in 10th grade. All of them will have support as English learners, but it will still be a huge transition from the French system to the American. The school has 330 students from pre-K through 12th grade, from 40 countries. Teachers come from eight different countries and most live in housing on the campus (so it's like a small Vermont town). International Day is understandably one of the BIG days of the year. Their ahtletic teams compete internationally and this weekend they were sponsoring a Model UN weekend with teams from other countries. Our visit made me want to go to school there.
 |
| Naomie and Klavna in new dresses from Cairo |
We had a relatively relaxed two nights and two and a half days together. Stro has taught them about breathing (inspire...expire in French) and they are able to use that technique when they need to settle down a little. This included a couple of time-outs for Klavna at the swimming pool of a friend. Both girls are still learning to swim but are fearless in the water--which has both good and bad aspects. Klavna doesn't want to wear her PFD but neither will she stay in the shallow end. Naomie learned to flutter kick and almost has floating down. They had such a busy pool time that they fell asleep over their homework and then slept 12 hours at night. Conked.
I had a good time teaching them equivalent phrases using our hands. Holding out our right hands, we would say "please," and then hold out our left hand and say "s'il te plaît," for example. We followed this up with the old camp song "Head, shoulders, knees and toes."
We went to a family friendly Friday night place called Hal de la Gombe, where we enjoyed a couple of (smallish) roasted chickens, french fries, and fried bananas before a concert. We got rained out of the courtyard for eating but everything was dry by the time the music started. I am pretty surprised at the energy level the girls kept up during the music, dancing and running around. I think I have a lot to learn. Actually I learned from watching Momo on an early exercise walk we all took together. To keep them interested he had them doing squats and then push-ups, raising their knees, walking backwards. Channel all the energy!
The girls will attend The American School of Kinshasa (TASOK) next year, Klavna in first grade and Naomie in third. We have visited the school, which is set on 42 wooded acres, complete with athletic fields and a swimming pool, pottery studio, theater, and science labs. Their big brother Dolys will probably be in 10th grade. All of them will have support as English learners, but it will still be a huge transition from the French system to the American. The school has 330 students from pre-K through 12th grade, from 40 countries. Teachers come from eight different countries and most live in housing on the campus (so it's like a small Vermont town). International Day is understandably one of the BIG days of the year. Their ahtletic teams compete internationally and this weekend they were sponsoring a Model UN weekend with teams from other countries. Our visit made me want to go to school there.
No comments:
Post a Comment