Unfortunately, we aren’t the ones doing the greetings from Rimini. We got a call last night from the huge family reunion taking place at our cabin, and enjoyed hearing how much fun the rest of the family was having at our house!
(A quick recap of the summer’s trials and tribulations: we got back from India, spent a week with family in DC, and then came out to Minnesota. Our plan was to hang out here for 2 weeks, and then spend most of July at our cabin in Rimini, Montana. Family from all over the US - brother and family from DC, mother from WV, sister and family from WY, sister and family from Missoula, MT, and, for the first time ever, father from Billings, MT - all made plans to converge on the little town outside Helena for a grand reunion. But two days before I was to drive out and get things ready, I blew out my knee playing beach volleyball. The grim diagnosis was a ripped ACL and torn meniscus, requiring immediate surgery and (at least) 6 week recovery time before any travel was possible. There went our plans)
But everyone else decided to carry on with the plan, so we got a fun phone call from them last night - great cell phone coverage! Sounds like everyone is having a good time: dad is acting goofy, Rob brought Obama pins for all the kids (except Tyrel, who still wants Mitt Romney!), Karla has a pink Obama shirt, Yiayia is unfortunately not feeling well, and Shari’s got her hands full with two feisty girls.
We wish we were there, and we hope everyone has a super time with lots of swimming, hiking, and campfiring. There have been many promises of pictures, so we are certainly excited about seeing them.
Meanwhile, our kids got to go to the MN zoo today, while I got to go to physical therapy. Hardly seems fair…
Well, we made it to DC, and are having a great visit with Uncle Rob, Aunt Blanche, Boyd, and Sam. They have been so gracious in letting us use their apartment, which is conveniently located right near a Metro stop, so we’ve been able to zip downtown on a couple of occasions to see a few of the sights. They are in the process of moving to the new-to-them house they just bought, so everything worked out perfectly.
Through our first year here, we’ve posted a number of pages centered around things that we see in our daily life. As the school year is almost over, and we will be in the US for most of the break, this is the 
India is a vegetarian’s heaven. Besides all the fresh fruits and veggies that are available in the markets, at roadside stands, and in neighborhood carts, the idea of vegetarianism permeates the culture. Religiously, it makes sense. Since India welcomes all sorts of different faiths, including those that won’t eat beef (Hinduism), those that won’t eat pork (Islam and Judaism), those that don’t believe in killing any creatures at all (Jainism), and those that don’t prohibit meat but still kinda sorta recommend against eating dead animals (Buddhism), the easiest way to avoid any misunderstandings is to stick to a vegetarian path.
This week was the fifth graders’ PYP exhibition, a culminating project incorporating all sorts of learning that took place over their elementary school years. The class focuses on a student selected topic for the last 8 weeks of the school year and then presents what they learned to parents, teachers, and peers. This year’s theme was “With Every Child’s Rights Come Responsibilities.” Because child rights are such a pertinent topic to everyone living in India, the students found that they had a unique opportunity to explore many different facets of the subject.
The main part of the presentation was a ‘newscast’ with Alea and another group member reading the latest news on child labor from several regions in India, followed by an “interview” with 2 ex-child laborers (also group members playing a role), and finishing with a puppet show detailing life as a child slave. After the movie, we were invited to explore the information that the kids had collected and detailed in poster form hanging around the room. There was also a labor simulation of work at a brick making factory, where Breck, and others, saw how hard it was to load and haul a wheelbarrow across the room.
One of my new favoritest foods here is lollipop chicken (or chicken lollipops, depending on which particular menu you are using). They’re just like a chicken wing, except that they have the bone with just a big blob of meat at the end. None of that pesky double boned wing stuff to get in the way of the goods! They are usually made without too much spice in them - you get that from dipping them in a sauce - so they are pretty safe for anyone.
Finally got the 
The sun has been coming up earlier and earlier these days, as we move out of winter (or what passed as winter here) into summer. This morning, however, it actually seemed darker than it had in days past. Looking out the window, we figured out what it was - there were CLOUDS in the sky!!
I had a fascinating afternoon with some girls from school yesterday. We are hosting a middle school volleyball tournament this weekend, and part of the activity schedule was to go to a mall and go bowling. When the big bus showed up to take everyone, there wasn’t enough room for all the players, so I took a small jeep-like private vehicle. Five girls came with me, 4 from a visiting school and 1 from our school.
As the year winds down, nothing around the school seems to slow down. The weeks and weekends are full of sports, student awards, socials, speeches, and all sorts of other “S” worded events.
One of the toughest things for the kids to get used to is the poverty. Mumbai is an enormous city, and India is still a very poor country, and people from all over head to the big metropolis in the hopes of building a better life. Unfortunately for them, most end up in the sort of filth and squalor pictured here, where children with their heads shaved for lice squat in the street, surrounded by garbage, to relieve themselves. This was taken out our bus window one (typical) day heading home from school.
Not a great way to greet the weekend.
