Global Awareness

Last weekend the kids had a Global Awareness Fair at their school. The third graders represented the country of Columbia.  The girls were supposed to teach the crowds a traditional Columbian dance, which Grace practiced day and night. Olivia, not so much. In fact, she woke up three times the night before with tummy troubles and was dry heaving in the car on the way to school. Fortunately, she has a wonderful teacher who is very understanding about Grace getting 100% of the public performance gene in the womb and she was excused. Grace put on a great show for the parents.

Meanwhile, a brilliant group set up a room full of puppies and kittens. They were accepting donations of one or two reais as a benefit for an animal welfare agency here. I gave Olivia a few coins and she gleefully disappeared into the building. A few minutes later, she came out, crying.

"Th-th-th-ey kicked me out because I was in there for t-t-t-t-oooo looooooong!" She was not to be consoled, because, dammit, those puppies needed her. I walked her back to the building, gave the lady at the door a very sizable donation, and arranged for Olivia to be a "room monitor" for the rest of the day, visiting as often as she wished. I checked on her after 20 minutes or so:

A little while later:

And after an hour:

And after two hours:

Meanwhile, while Grace did visit the puppies briefly, she spent most of her time getting an Indian makeover from the teenagers at the India booth:

And eating some delectable international cuisine:

Yep, that's a hotdog.

Henry's class gave powerpoint presentations on a global topic of their choice. Henry chose global warming:

But mostly he just enjoyed all the international food:

I bought handcrafts and stuff at the international booths while my kids were dancing, playing with puppies, and eating.  Mitch was at the school too, but he was playing in the embassy vs. kids softball game. And Jack celebrated Global Awareness by spending most of the day sleeping. The day was a win, with every member of our family doing something they enjoyed.