Cinquain Sunday

It was a prolific Sunday!  Isabelle wrote (well, I wrote, she spoke), six cinquain poems - three in the car on our way to see "Forever Dusty," the musical about Brit pop sensation Dusty Springfield of "Son of a Preacher Man" fame.  (Besides me, Isabelle was the youngest in the audience by about 60 years.)  Another three poems were written at Wicked over a dinner that was primarily punctuated by Jackson updates ("He hasn't been on the bus in two days now.  I'm starting to get concerned.")

There are lots of cinquain structures - most defined by the varying number of syllables in each of the five lines.   Ours is a bit like the lanterne quintain - though instead of a 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 syllabic pattern, we went for a 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 word pattern.  Here they are!

Pig
sloppy, edible
oinking in mud
like a pink gumball
bacon

Tinkle
white, yellow
dribbling down fast
drink water, it's clear
wee-wee

Burps
loud, soft
say excuse me
an expression without words
gassy

Fruit
good, delicious
standing perfectly still
it makes me happy
eat

Parents
annoying, fun
they run fast
and tuck me in
teachers

Fire
burns wood
don't touch it
scary - in a way
camping

Shark Tournament

During what very well might be the last shark fishing tournament in Oak Bluffs, there are parties raging in the harbor until well past 4am.  (We were the ones scrambling for the white noise apps on our phones, and wishing all the partiers would stop swimming and go to bed themselves!)  The next morning Isabelle overhears one guy on a boat tell another guy on a boat, "Hey! Give that squirrel back her underpants!"  Maybe it isn't a "catch and release" system the islanders want after all... 

Parks & Presents

This is post is many days old (I think 4!) but I have had no luck uploading until now!

School Vist

Afghan Barbie!

Wahida Jan, the Zabuli School Kindergarten teacher, has a friend who hand makes these beautiful Barbie dresses, and this is the one she had made special for you!  Last night we went to a restaurant for dinner, it was a delicious Lebanese place where they give you free chocolate cake for dinner.  This chocolate cake reminded me of a cake Grami used to make when I was a little girl.  We called it Wacky Cake! And this is the first time I've tasted any cake that tastes like Grami's Wacky Cake!  It was so good! I already wrote to Grami, and told her that we need the recipe so that you and I can make it together. We'll have a Wacky Cake Party!  After we finished eating the cake last night, the owner of the restaurant gave us an entire cake to take home. Today, I brought it to school and shared it with the Kindergarten class.  They loved it!  If you want, we can make a Wacky Cake to share with your class!

Super super super love you!

The Principal's Office

When I'm filming at the Zabuli School, I spend a lot of time in the principal's office.  The principal's name is Razia Jan, and she's a lot like Mrs. Carson at North Falmouth Elementary - she is very nice, she knows all the kids' names, and loves her job.  She's also a grandmother - like Grami and Nana.

The reason I spend a lot of time in the principal's office is that there is a lot that happens there!  When the teachers have a break, this is where they gather and eat a snack together - they often have many spoons dipping into the same bowl when someone brings a yummy leftover from home.  Today, one teacher brought in a tupperware filled with rice topped with chicken and french fries, and everyone devoured it!  I even tasted a few fries.

Remember when your music teacher hurt her leg and you had a substitute teacher while she was out?  Well, here, they don't really have any substitute teachers.  It's the principal who fills in when someone is absent.  And the teachers tell me they only take a day off if it's really an emergency.   They all work very hard here.

All the kids and teachers come to school six days a week.  The week starts on Saturday - so they have school on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Friday is the only day off.  That's the day for prayer, and it's also the day that families take picnics!  That's a big tradition here - to go on a picnic on Fridays.  Fun!

I love you!

Happy Birthday, Anika!

You've heard about the Happy Birthday ice cream carts here in Kabul! Now, meet the ice cream man! This video was a Take 2... somehow I hit the wrong button and didn't save the first recording which is a shame because  not only did the first one feature women in burqas walking down the street, but it also included me including everyone on the big hello.  Briana, Brita:  Hello!

Nana and Grami continue to put the Mar and Jan into Marjan!... completing another successful meet-up at the East Providence Whole Foods for the Isabelle swap.   After dinner in Niantic - with AGD Julie nestled in her own booster seat - the ride to Fairfield was filled with laughter and singing - and promises of a Farmer In The Dell performance.  I cannot wait for that!

As Hillary Clinton so famously said, "It takes a village."  We couldn't do it without all of you, and I hope you have a wonderful celebration today.  These back-to-back birthdays are making April feel a bit Augustesque!   

Kabul Morning

Salam! (That means - Hello!)  Salam, Isabelle!

In this video, you'll meet Arzu, the black and white dog who lives here in Kabul and likes to eat grass.  You know what else she likes to do?  Actually LOVES to do?  She loves to sleep all day and stay up all night!  There are other dogs in the neighborhood who like to stay up all night, too, and when the moon comes out and the stars begin twinkling, Arzu's furry, noisy friends come to visit her.

The other dogs don't have a home like Arzu does.  They are wild dogs that roam the streets, dodging bicycles, motorcycles, cars, donkey carts, buses and horses - all the while trying to find something to eat and a comfortable place to rest.  I don't know where they sleep or what they eat, but I do know where they come to play!  There's a pack of them - probably 5 or 6 - who come to visit Arzu every night just as I am trying to go to sleep.  That's when their party - and the barking - begins!  The dogs on the street stick their wet noses under our big, red gate, trying to get closer to Arzu; and Arzu sticks her wet nose right back under the gate at them.  They play like this for hours... sticking their noses under the gate, jumping up on the gate with their front paws, and - of course - barking.  This canine symphony makes it very hard for me to sleep!

Arzu stays outside in the yard so that she can help protect the house.  She has her own dog house, and isn't allowed in the house where we are staying.  But she has a trick!  She learned how to open the front door, and last night while we were eating dinner she pranced right in and started chasing her tail in the middle of the dining room.  This inside adventure was very exciting for her, and she was fascinated by everything she saw...and smelled.  She ran around the room sniffing everything - the tray of ripe oranges, my laptop, the napkins, a tupperware filled with almonds...even the garbage can got a whiff!  It took a while to get her back outside, and no sooner did we sit back down at the table to finish dinner, then she opened the front door again and reappeared in the dining room ready to play!  This time when we put her back outside, we locked the door.

As I mentioned in the little video, Arzu means "Hope" in Dari which makes it a very beautiful and meaningful name.  And it's an especially fitting name for her.  Arzu didn't always have a home. Once upon a time, she was a stray dog living on the streets of Kabul with no one to feed her and no safe place to go to sleep at night.  But there was hope for her, and one day she was rescued and given a new life with a home and a yard and a family.  She's a lucky doggie! Now, if I could just find a way to keep her awake during the day and asleep at night, I'd be a lucky doggie, too!

Kindergarten Hello!

Isabelle Watching...

I sent Isabelle my first video message from Afghanistan, and her reaction to watching it brought me to tears...

Doset daram!

Soub baKhayr!  Good Morning, Sweetie!

Today, Uncle Kevin and I traveled from Kabul, the capitol of Afghanistan to Deh Subz, a little village outside of Kabul.  Deh means village, and Subz means green.  So, this is Green Village!  Just like we live in North Falmouth, the families here live in Deh Subz.

Since we drove to Deh Subz, I should tell you about the crazy roads here!  They are very, very bumpy!  You know when you sit on Daddy's knee and he bounces you up and down?  That's what it feels like when you're in a car here.  We call it moonscape driving since we imagine this is what it would feel like to drive on the moon and in and out of all the craters.

We went to Deh Subz today to do some filming at the school... the name of the school is The Zabuli School.  It's a very special place where only girls come to learn. There are no boys here; the boys go to a different school.  In Afghanistan boys and girls don't go to school together.  In the Zabuli School there are kindergarteners, first graders, second graders, third graders, fourth graders, fifth graders, sixth graders, seventh graders, eighth graders and ninth graders.

The other day I met a kindergartener who was only 3 years old!  She was too little to be in school.  She even wet her pants in class!  Poor thing! Her Mom had to come and get her and take her home.  The principal told her mother, "Your daughter is too young to come to Kindergarten.  Please wait until next year to bring her back.  Then she will be ready."   The mother tried to argue with the principal, "No," she said.  "My daughter is ready now!"  But the principal put her foot down, and said that she needs to learn how to go potty before she can come to kindergarten.

Right now there are so many girls who want to come to school here that there isn't enough room for all the classrooms.  In fact, the 8th grade class is in the hallway!  That's why they're making the school bigger.  Today is Wednesday, and normally the girls would be in school today - just like you - but because all the workers are here doing the construction, the girls had the day off.  Even though it snows a lot here during the winter, they never have snow days.  So, today is like a construction/snow day!

When the girls talk to their Moms and Dads, Gramis and Grampis, aunts and uncles, and cousins and friends, they speak a language called Dari.  It's a very beautiful language.  In school, they are also learning to speak two more languages:  Pashto and... can you guess?...English!  If they learn some English words, and you learn some Dari words, you can talk to them!

Let's start with:  I love you!
Doset daram!  (It sounds like dhostet durum - with a very soft rolling "r")

XOXO