Mr. Balaji, my exchange partner's husband, and his son very kindly drove to and from the airport, and helped with all the luggage. Karen passed out just as soon as we got home, but the kids were racing around the house until 3am. I finallly got them to sleep with stories.... ahhhhhh..... blessed sweet slumber..... until they all awoke again at 6am! Egads!
Today was their first day, and I wanted to hopefully "reset their clocks." We pushed them pretty hard, keeping them awake and moving and stimulated all day, so they would be ready to conk out at a more normal hour. We walked around the neighborhood, ate masala dosas, explored a few temples, then returned home.
The kids continued to 'unpack' and spread their chunks on every flat surface of our home. Karen took a looong hard nap, and I took the kids by rickshaw downtown to the Government
Aquarium. It's a pretty basic place, but the kids loved it. They aslo giggled and squealed each time our rickshaw bumped over a pothole or swerved to avoid a bus. Sylvie was especially thrilled by the sudden downpour after the aquarium, and didn't want anything to do with my silly umbrella! "Dad, I LOVE to get wet!!!"Back home, they played with stuffed animals, and created intricate designs on the front porch with scores of white jasmine blooms that continually rain down from the tree above. They LOVE the palm tree
that grows through the eaves of the roof. They all seem to like dosas, just not with all the chilli.... Then, during the early dinner at a nearby restaurant (about 5pm), they all simultaneously began to run out of gas. Lupin first, completely unconcious on the bench. Sylvie, eyes closed, swaying back and forth about to pass out into her chutney, mumbled, "No daddy, I won't fall asleep. I won't close my eyes. I promise." Eliza went from chitter chatterbox about many topics to nearly comatose at the table. We barely managed to drag them downstairs & out into a rickshaw, got their teeth brushed and carried them to their beds around 6pm. Hopefully they will snooze well and all through the night!Tomorrow they'll visit the school for an hour or 2, and probably begin attending on Weds. (Tuesday is a holiday for the Birth of Krishna). Eliza is pretty anxious and filled with "new gigantic school" worries. She and I had several nice long talks about that today... She gets herself so worked up way in advance of big events. We can't wait to just get her through the first hour, and are confident that she will feel so relieved and welcomed by her new classmates ad teachers! Sylvie and Lupin? They are so busy collecting flowers off the ground, looking for dogs and cows in the street, and chasing each other around the room, they aren't thinking past the next stimulating moment!
1 comment:
Dear Eliza, Sylvie and Lupin,
I can see that you are hugging your new Indian tree friends. That makes me feel wonderful! Love, Barkey
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