Emily arrived at RVA

Well, Emily made it to RVA and is getting settled in. Her flight was supposed to leave at 11 am on Friday so we were going to leave at 8ish to get there early (We can see the airport up on the hill from our house – it’s only a 15 minute drive). There is a new “Bourbon Coffee” place at the airport by the main entrance and they sell really good French style Chocolate Croissants so we thought we’d get one for a breakfast treat before she got on her plane. I decided to check my email one last time before getting ready to go and discovered one from RVA saying that the flight was changed to 3 in the afternoon! I was just starting to call one of the other families who would be putting a child on the plane when Mark’s phone rang and another dad was calling to let us know the same information. That dad went to airline office to verify and get the kids’ tickets confirmed for the new flight.

So, we went off to KICS instead to do a bit of work and Mark ran off to the immigration office to drop off stuff for the latest visas. Unfortunately, immigration is being very picky about the photos we are trying to use and they still didn’t accept them. Bother. We ate lunch with the teachers at KICS and then took Emily off to the airport. All 7 of the RVA kids were there and ready to go. They got on with no problem. Emily said that this time the plane had assigned seating – it’s a smaller plane with about 30 seats so up till now it’s been open seating. She ended up not sitting with an RVA kid but next to a gentleman. It’s only an hour flight so it’s not a big deal. She also ended up in the emergency exit row (we thought minors weren’t supposed to placed there). She said it was a little “freaky” when the attendant came and gave instructions on how and when to open the door. She was told she could change seats if she didn’t want the responsibility but since the gentleman was also in the row with her, she stayed put. You always go on faith that you won’t need the emergency door anyway.

Emily said her new dorm mom is nice. She doesn’t know yet how strict she’ll be. Hopefully strict enough without being a tyrant. She is still in the dorm building called “Kedong”. Kedong is divided into 5 sections, each with it’s own dorm mom’s apartment and it’s own entrance. Last year she was in Kedong Upper East. This year she is in Kedong Middle West. She was assigned a roommate – someone either new or returning after a furlough – but she isn’t back yet so Emily has her own room for now. She thinks maybe she’ll be alone the whole semester. She said that’s not a bad thing.

Emily got her class schedule and got into all the classes she wanted. She has American history, PE/Bible (alternating every 6 weeks), English, Pre-Calculus, French 3 and Chemistry. She thinks French and Chemistry will be the hardest and unfortunately, they are the last two periods of the day. She doesn’t like that but there’s not much she can do about it.

Saturday at KICS we had a “Meet and Greet” in the afternoon. It was kind of like an open house only the classrooms weren’t open. The teachers were set up around the courtyard and the parents and families came to them and introduced themselves. There was a food table with sodas, cookies and samosas. There was also a table with samples of the school supplies which the kids are to bring with them. I haven’t counted up the names of who signed in but we guess there were about 150 people there – about ½ of the families represented. We were pleased with the turnout and with the general atmosphere and attitudes of everyone. Some parents noted there was a “different spirit” at this gathering.

Sunday we hosted an informal afternoon gathering of our AIM team. Bonvallats and Rossingtons had been gone for the summer and are now back so we wanted to welcome them. Also, I wanted the Maxwell family (new principal at KICS) to get to meet the AIM folks so I invited them. The Bonvallats had visitors from Congo who we also invited. We were 23 total! I made a birthday cake for Mark (chocolate cake with banana cream filling and fudge frosting!) and others brought fruit, popcorn, carrot sticks and muffins. It was fun. There were 9 kids who thought it was fun to try to catch and hold the kittens. When the kids were distracted with eating, I caught the kittens and hid them in Emily’s room. The kids then had a game of “hide and seek” with the kittens but the kids never did find them! After they left, I found the kittens snuggled up, sound asleep on Emily’s bed, none too worse for the extra excitement!

Well, I guess that’s it for now. It’s time to get ready for school and a new week. The first grade teacher arrives Thursday, (I think) with his wife and 1 year old. I think they will be staying with us for a few days. Should be fun!