First day at Ba Futuru

Today was a wonderful day. I got to read/sing a story to half a dozen five year olds. Five little ducks went out one day over the hills and far away… Only I started with six, since there were six little ducks in the room.

One of the children is named Pippi. I asked as in Pippi Longstocking?  Yes, and she has the books. I told her that I have a friend in Canada named Annika. Her eyes went wide and she was delighted. Then Mariam, at the other table piped up that she has a sister named Annika.  Excitement all around.

Before I noticed that Ella was wearing a shirt with a zebra on it, I chose Zeta the Zebra as my second book.  It's an alphabet book, and I didn't notice until we were ay the letter V (as in Victor the Viper). I can be a bit dense when reading stories.

The kids are in the Early Childhood Education program, and I was with the morning class -- children of Ex Pats whose first language is English. I get to spend time with small groups and work on phonics.  I'm really excited because I didn't think I'd get time with kids.

Today I also wrote half a dozen thank you cards for a recent gala; tomorrow I'll finish the task with more generic ones.

Now for the drama of the day. Landlady had told me that Ba Futuru is about three kilometres away, so I had no worries about refusing Janu's kind offer of a ride.  Well, turns out I wasn't blessed with good sense.  I was tired by the time I got to Timor Plaza.  It seemed exceptionally hot.  By the time I'd gone another kilometre, walking was definitely a bad idea, but I was too close to justify a microlet. About this point, I realized my wallet was in the bag of groceries that I picked up the day before.

First thing I do when I met Sierra, my primary contact, is ask for bus fare home. Way to make a good impression.

The morning went well. Mostly orientation and reading to the kids.

At lunch, I thought I'd go to the bakery run by the nuns. Confirm where it is. I have money from Sierra. Everything is fine.

Only I can't find the bakery. I'm pretty sure it was closed because of the recent holiday.

So I do what any sensible Westerner would do: I walk back to the mall. Along the path that was too long hours earlier. I'll be fine, I say to myself at the outset. Midway along, I said it more assertively, but not convincingly.

To defend myself, the stalls at the food fair all feature local food. And the food fair is air conditioned. And, most importantly, there is a gelato stand. Turns out, it has three flavours of sorbet. I picked mango. Of course that meant I had to walk back.

I spent the afternoon reading project reports, trying to both absorb the information and figure out how to weave details into the annual report. I left at four, because the clouds were beginning to look ominous and I wanted to outrun any rain. Spoiler alert: none came.

I stopped at the mall on the way home to enjoy the air conditioning, and pulled up Google Maps. Turns out the distance is a little more than four kilometres, with the mall slightly on the home side of the half way point. That certainly explains my tiredness this morning.

Laundry is now done; yesterday’s dinner is cooked, consumed and tidied. And my wallet is in my purse for tomorrow.

Homestay update: in the early afternoon, I got a text from Meg, saying she needed to know immediately whether I'd be staying beyond December 2, and if so, I'd need to prepay at the daily rate, not the pro-rated monthly rate, immediately. She was asking because she needed to be able to post her listing with bookings.com.

I thought for a millisecond, then took five minutes to calm down, and replied that I appreciate that she's trying to run a business, and in recognition of her externally imposed deadlines, I am informing her through this text that I will leave the morning of December 2, and my last night will be December 1.

It was as clear as I could make it. I will definitely keep the text, because I'm pretty sure I'll need to show it to her again, along with her acknowledgement of receipt.

Yesterday, she brought up again how silly it was that I couldn't wire her a deposit. She’s gotten them before from America.  But I'm Canadian, and we have a more stable banking system. She looked like it was the first time that anyone has ever told her that Canada is different from the United States.

Meg said she wouldn't be home tonight. I'm not sure what arrangements she made for feeding her dogs or making sure they have water. I only know she didn't tell me.