Before getting to Mexico Kris and I looked at all of the schools available for the kids to attend. We decided on Westhill Institute which is both a grade school as well as a University. Sent in the application and other paperwork needed. Westhill didn't start classes until Aug 25th. On Aug 11th, Kris and I took the boys to Westhill to check it out. Willie Fernandez, one of the agents who works for Kris, was kind enough to show us around the campus since his kids had attended the school. Walking through the campus I did not have a good feeling about the place. It was a gorgeous campus, I mean out of control gorgeous...marble floors, the whole building made out of marble or granite...some stone, I don't know. Amazing landscape, well better to just show some pictures
but I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong or why I was feeling such dread about the place. At some point I turned to Kris and said "please don't think I'm crazy but I don't feel good about sending the boys here". He told me he was feeling the exact same thing. We decided to check out ASF instead. ASF just so happened to be having their new student orientation the next morning. The second we stepped onto the campus we were overwhelmed with the feeling that this was the right place for the kids. It's far from the perfect school, it's old, it has its conflicts between the administration and faculty as well as not having the best reputation for dealing with rich bullies who have tormented embassy kids for years (the majority of students at ASF are from the wealthy elite of Mexican society). Overall for the grades the boys are in we felt it was a much better match and we'd deal with any problems as they arise.
We were in a mad dash to get them enrolled, tested and supplies bought since classes started on August 18th. Kris and I have spent a lot of the week getting them situated and picking up supplies, food for lunches, etc which is a huge ordeal when you are living in a hotel.
So, what was the deal with Westhill? Come to find out as we start talking to people, Westhill has a side we weren't aware of. Besides possible money laundering activities which one of the agents in Kris's office mentioned (who deals with money laundering by the way) we also found out that there are no substitute teachers. If a teacher is absent the students are on their own. I spoke with Willie's wife who showed me some of what her sons had done during the 2007-08 school year. I was disturbed that there really wasn't a focus on math or science...in 1st and 3rd grade they focused more on other areas as if there were alternating years so in 2nd and 4th grade they'd have a math/science focus and be lax on language/social studies/etc. This is fine if you are spending many years there at Westhill but not for us since the boys will miss so much when we move if they don't have a balanced load each year. None of the grade requirements or curriculum outlines were available online which should have been a warning signal for Kris and I but now we know.
We found out that Willie and his wife (can't remember her name for the life of me but it starts with an 'L") actually pulled their kids out of Westhill and they are now attending ASF because of the strange curriculum and lack of supervision. I told them it would have been nice had they told us about everything before giving us a tour of the school and Willie said "well you needed to make your own decision without our experience muddying it". After hearing about their experience at Westhill we are REALLY glad we went with our gut feelings because we had doubts for a very good reason!
The boys love their new school at ASF. Braedon had a rough start though. The kids are divided up into native Spanish speakers and Spanish as a second language classes. (ASF is a bilingual education school) In Braedon's grade, they do this first thing in the morning. The teacher had heard Kris speaking Spanish and I guess assumed Braedon was a native speaker. Kris had left the classroom after dropping him off and had to run back to the car to get lunch money. When he returned there was Braedon in near tears sitting at a desk while the class going on around him was 100% in Spanish. Kris asked the teacher "what's going on? Braedon doesn't speak Spanish!" The teacher felt so bad and assured Braedon that he would be going into the beginning Spanish class! Poor guy!
Speaking of Spanish...the staff here at the hotel try to make the guests feel comfortable and really try to speak English if we need it. I keep telling them that I need to practice Spanish so they can speak to me in English if they want as long as they don't mind me butchering their language as I try to get better at it. This seems to work well. I called guest services for a crib mattress for Jamison, just a crib mattress, no crib. He's at that age where he likes to be in a big boy bed and he hasn't slept in a crib since April. So on the phone I can't think of how to say mattress (Kris was elsewhere so I couldn't ask him) so I apologize and tell the guy I'm sorry but I don't know the word in Spanish so he says "No problem Miss, I speak English, what can I do for you?" I tell him "Could we please have a crib mattress, no crib, just a mattress for the baby so he can sleep on the floor and not roll off a larger roll away bed". The guy says "OK, I will bring you mattress, no problem". Not even 5 minutes later there is a knock at the door and the guy hands me an ashtray...with matches. We both had a good laugh after I explained: mattress not matches. Kris told me how to say mattress in Spanish (colchón) and he happily left to bring one up. I did tip him well because of all the trouble.
9 comments:
Good read Garity...and I am thinking back to Kris being in 1st and 2nd grade. Where did the time go? I'm proud of the insight both of you have for your children - very proud.
Love, Mom
P.S. - For example of Kris and 2nd grade...just ask him about his poem..."Spring is dumb...dumb as can be"! It is still my favorite kid story of all - still makes me grin even today:}}}}
Awesome story!!! I especially liked the matches part!!!
Reminded me of when Brandon told a mission story of when his companion told an investigator Joseph Smith was milked.
Oh Dang! I can't remember the religious word that is similar to milked and Brandon is asleep!!!
It's nice to hear stories where the Spirit prompts and people act.
Somebody made a "milking" comment related to being "lost in translation". I have a similar story. I was on Aerolinias Argentinas heading for my mission with my MTC district. Almost everyone on the plane was native Spanish, including the flight crew. We were trained with our 10 weeks of Spanish and ready to start using it.
When the attractive flight attendant came around asking if we wanted something to drink, one of my pals Elder Anderson with his big goofy gringo Kayesville UT smile said, "Tienes leche?" = "Do you have milk?" The flight attendant got upset with him and retorted "you can not say it like that, you just asked me if I was LACTATING!" She said, the proper way is to say, "hay leche?" I don't think Elder Anderson's thoughts were on leche any more...
It was hilarious, he turned bright red, avoided making eye contact with the woman for the rest of the flight. I told him that when we landed I was going to tell the mission president that he was flirting with a large-breasted flight attendant on the plane, LOL.
Oh, I loved your missionary story!! I needed a good laugh. Janet (Kris'mom).
Well I have one more and I have to share it because it is a similar "lost in translation" story. In my first place in the mission, I was asked to give a talk (common for wards to ask the new missionaries to do that). Of course it's really hard when you're straight from the MTC and not just transferring from another city. So I was nervous to say the least.
Sister Robinson was part of the sister missionary pair serving in our ward, she told me a story that was to make me feel worlds better. She had only been in the mission field about 4 months longer than me so she was able to empathize with my plight. Now either this happened to her or she just told me of it happening, I can't remember exactly, but let's just assume it was her. She was of course asked to speak in Sacrament meeting upon arrival so the first thing that came out of her mouth was that she was so "embarasada" and it was all the Bishop's fault. This doesn't seem all that comical until you realize that "embarasada" means "pregnant".
Now that wasn't as good as my story because I didn't hear it first hand, but it is still a knee slapper...
Knee slapper, indeed.
ALL I CAN SAY, THAT IF I WERE EVER IN THE SAME SITUATION I WOULD THROW AN ENTIRE COUNTRY INTO BEDLAM FROM MY ATTEMPTS TO SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE. AT THE AGE OF 67...MY CHILDREN ARE ALREADY EXPECTING THEIR MOM TO BE QUITE ENTERTAINING AS I AGE AND CONTINUE TO MIX THINGS UP....EVEN MORE THAN I ALWAYS DID BEFORE.
Ha Ha Ha! BTW, Greg this is my Mother-in-Law Janet, and Mom this is Greg Baker from our ward in Fredericksburg...he helped keep Kris and I active because had it not been for him and a few other normal members in our ward we would have probably gone nuts.
Greg- You have the best stories! Keep them coming!
Hi Janet. You sound exactly like my mom who is of late (last few years) always saying how she's getting forgetful and mixing things up... She is also 67.
I like how Garity carefully made me feel included yet was able to still truthfully exclude me from the "few normal members" in the ward. I certainly don't consider myself "normal", that's for sure, but I'm sure that's pretty obvious without saying.
In all honesty, there's usually only a small subset of any ward that I truly feel comfortable with. There is inevitably always a small subset that I avoid like the plague. The rest, well they're just the rest.
Kris was our home teacher for a while, he was good. He was an excellent Gospel Doctrine teacher too (based solely on substituting a few times). He teaches from the heart, that's good. He was my daughter's primary teacher too for a while, she said he was mean... I took that with a grain of salt, she has attention issues and I've noticed that in primary she usually has her head turned backwards more than facing forward. What can I say, another abby-normal Baker...
Oops, sorry Greg. Kris and I DO count you and your family as part of the normal crowd as defined by Kris and I. That means you are normal if you are:
-Down to earth
-Not a Utahrd
-Not holier than thou
-Do not 'keep up with the Jones's'
-Do not bombard Kris and I with "are you guys going inactive?" if we decide to skip church one Sunday to sleep in
-aware of what it means to struggle and work hard for what you have.
-Don't tell us that we are inviting Satan into our home if we allow TV (not mentioning who that was but I think you can figure it out).
-Don't tell Kris that his hometeaching isn't good enough and that he's failing in his priesthood duties when he does what he can after getting home from work at 8pm and spends all of his weekends trying to fix major home problems (don't think I need to mention who that was either).
-And lastly, we consider you normal if you actually keep in touch with us even though we've moved out of the ward!
Everything else makes you unique and that's why Kris and I like the Bakers...a lot.
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