The Last Week of School

Fairly quickly, life abroad becomes simply life, and it becomes difficult to discern what we do that may not be normal.  Today is the last day of school, which means that this has been the last week of school.  ECA filled the week with performances and awards ceremonies, such that little Annika and I have been at school nearly every afternoon this week.

On Tuesday afternoon, the 2nd grade teachers presented an awards ceremony.  With only about 45 students in 2nd grade, spread through 3 teachers, these awards were meaningful and personal.  Every parent I spoke with felt proud of their child for what they achieved.  Lilly received the Excellence in Writing award, giving her great encouragement to continue toward her dream of being an author.  Although, as a sidenote, frequent questions about how things work have led us to explain what an engineer does.  She may have a new dream.

On Wednesday, Lilly's Spanish class put on a play.  The second graders go to different classes for Spanish.  Over half of the students are native speakers, and so go to a very different Spanish class than Lilly's.  She is in a class of non-native speakers, still very challenging for her, because many in the class understand and speak Spanish quite well.  She is learning and received very favorable marks in Spanish on her report card, but memorizing her lines for the play was an achievement for her.  She played a beautiful cucaracha whom everyone wanted to marry, and was more worried about the embarrassment from Guillermo kissing her hand as Raton Perez than about forgetting any of her lines.

Thursday brought the kindergarten graduation.  They gave a lovely presentation with some very sweet songs by some very sweet kindergarteners, and an adorable slideshow with photos that I hope her teacher is willing to share.  Such big kids in our family!

Today is a half day, with classroom parties beginning in about half an hour.  The entire week has  been filled with welcomes and farewells.  Lilly's best friend, Marcella, has been a true blessing this year.  She welcomed her warmly back in January, and they became fast friends and well matched companions.  When she learned Marcella would move back to Guatemala this summer, Lilly fell into a funk for quite some time.  But last night, she had the opportunity to welcome a new 8 year old to post.  More goodbyes have been spread throughout this week, and more will come next week, but taking on the roll of welcomer helps to provide balance.

After reading an article on the importance of family and strong relationships in children's lives, I've been thinking a lot about how harmful it could be to raise children this way.  I'm still not convinced that the constant upheaval of moving or losing your friends regularly is a great way to grow up - it is certainly not stable.  But recent reflections remind me that very few of us can offer the perfect childhood to our kids.  I would love to raise my kids in Arlington, with a backyard, the same friends and a fabulous church.  But were we to live in Arlington, I would need to work full-time to afford the monthly rent.

Our kids meet incredible people and benefit from fabulous teachers and small class sizes.  They experience the world and current events in the first person. They are resilient, welcoming and confident.  And although many things around them will change over the next ten years, their family will stay the same.

Its been a good week, and we are blessed here in Caracas.