Boo-ah is the candidate that I blogged about earlier from Burma. She is always smiling and seems very friendly. She is also younger and more attractive than her counterpart Joy. I mention this not because it matters so much to me (attractive house staff are a dual edge sword), but that it really matters to Nalin, and to a lesser extent Aleena. The girls wanted Boo-ah to help them get ready for bed tonight, which probably cements her status as nanny. Not that it really matters, so long as the work gets done and the kids taken care of, I'm happy.
Aleena was sick on Monday and had to miss school. Five of her classmates missed on Monday. She went back to school today, but her teacher was out sick. I'm working with Aleena teaching her to read. It is an interesting experience. We have a workbook to help her through it, and the carrot we use are skittles.
Aleena seems to be enjoying ISB. She has made some new friends, including Sahanee, who seems to be her best friend. She has still kept up with her friend from Magic Years, McKayla.
Nalin is having her "friends" birthday party this weekend. I was in the U.S. on her actual birthday, so we are doing the friends celebration on Friday. She elected to have a sleepover with four or five friends over a more traditional party with ten or twelve girls. Nalin is also taking glass painting after school and is a Blue Bird, the Thai version of the Girl Scouts. Nalin is an excellent student, and knows exactly how to behave in class.
Jacob is playing basketball, floor hockey and is in the Cub Scouts. He is extremely bright, although he has trouble with disrupting class. Academically, the only challenge is writing. He reads and does math at a very high level, but pretends like he was born with writer's block. We are working on it.
Tim works a lot of hours at her business. Its no uncommon for her to get home after 9 or 10 at night. She is also taking an accounting class on Saturdays. Combine those and occasional Sunday meetings, and she is pretty damn busy.
I'm doing pretty well. I've been helping in Aleena's class a couple of times each week. Last week I was the mystery reader in Nalin's class. It was pretty funny that when I entered the room, the kids all started chanting "Dermit, Dermit". There were only about three kids from her class last year, but they had spread the word about the orange embittered cousin of Kermit the frog who made many a visit to ISB last year. It was a lot of fun.
As I've blogged before, I'm going to Phuket by myself this weekend to take some pictures of people mutilating themselves and to do some scuba diving. Of course I'll have to visit Patong beach, because how can you pass up dozens of women yelling out at you "hey handsome". Remember, one can look without touching.
Tomorrow I'm starting a scuba diving class. Its 4.5 hours in the class room, 4.5 in the pool, and then a two day excursion to Pattaya for some real diving. Should be fun.
Well, I guess you are now updated.
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