Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Just a typical Tuesday

Today’s accomplishments:

-Reading a chapter of “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” by C. S. Lewis in Portuguese while simultaneously impeding the pinching attacks the 4 and 8 year old were launching on each other. We ended up with all five of them lying their heads on my legs (Jenna the human octopus) while I acted out the puking scenes and high-pitched rat voices and the bashing of the waves…

-After listening to a tirade about how so-and-so was doing terribly in school and needed to study more because he wasn’t even copying the homework at school, I did a very rudimentary eye exam on the poor kid. He sits much, much too close to the television, so that should have been a dead giveaway for everyone. That’s how MY extreme nearsightedness was discovered. (One of my sisters was less fortunate. When she finally received glasses, she wanted to know what all those little things in the trees were. Poor thing had never seen leaves.) So his dad took him to the hospital today, to rule out dengue as he was all feverish*, and to get a referral for an eye doctor. I'm betting a batch of brownies that he needs glasses...and that his academics will improve.

*Side note: Both adult women at the home were positive that his fever was induced by post-Easter chocolate eating. One informed me that he had a liver infection from eating too much. I maintain this is bunk, yet another absurdity like “eating ice-cream at the beach will put your body into shock” or “avocados and milk are okay for a shake, but if you mix mangos and milk you will DIE.” Anyone care to venture a comment on the topic? Chocolate causes liver infections? Please, restore my faith in my rudimentary medical knowledge!

-I let the 6 year old do my hair and rub lipgloss into my eyelids. There should be some kind of sainthood for sitting through this, or at least a really fat paycheck. On a high note, this girl has both the ego and the skill to work high fashion…

-Worked on reading, syllables and general 2nd grade Portuguese with one of the boys. He's not too bad, actually, but he's L.A.Z.Y. Then again, he's a boy. He wants to play with his fighter dolls and have them act out vicious WWF moves, not read pastel purple** words like butterfly and onion while determining if they have one, two or poly-syllabic shape.

(**What came before xerox? That's the copy method of choice at elementary schools here. It uses alcohol somehow...)

And there were stops at:
-the bank
-the post office
-bread store
-fruit store
-various stores to buy hair creme, a 2008 Rio streets guide as my old one is missing several important pages and is about 3 years out of date, a pair of badly-needed-not-fraying-at-the-seams jeans and a winter shirt (I seem to have left them all in Indiana.)
-the doctor with my anemic lab reports. Yes, I'll eat more beans and red meat. Anyone want to make donations for an Outback night???
-the physical therapist (separate post)

Also, a nap on the bus.

Like I said. Average Tuesday.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Jenna - They still use mimeographs down there? It's what they had back in my school days - a type of stencil over an ink drum. Also, do you want your Dad to bring an IRON skillet down with him? That way you would at least get some elemental iron in your diet, OR you could just take the pills. Glad to hear the accupuncture works - the judge's wife says it works for her too. So much for us sceptics... Love you, Mom