Wednesday, Feb. 19

 1st day of school with Miss Shana. The girls wore the dresses I’d sewed them for this last Christmas Party. Starting time 8:00.

  And 1st day of Language class for Lonnie + I. 

Jared bro’t Panini over(I’ll have to ask about the spelling of her name yet, but that’s what it sounds like). And he took Annslie home with him.

We are learning the language phonetically these 1st two months. So, no Chinese looking letters to deal with yet!

We started out by learning the vowel sounds. Only 7 sounds. I feel like with Spanish study in our history it helps here.

i = ē

e = ā

E = short e sound

a = ä

O = short o sound 

o = ō

u =  ū

Then went thru the consonant sounds,

Their consonant name sounds end in the O sound

English consonant names, for comparison, end with the ē sound as in bē, cē, dē, eē,…..tē, vē,zē.

So, they say, bO, dO, gO, jO, kO, lO, mO, nO, pO, rO, sO, tO

The CAPITAL consonant sounds you pronounce by putting your tongue on the roof of your mouth🤪

TO,DO,RO(rolled),SO(pronounced ShO)

Some basic conversation,

directions,

Numbers 1-5,

Units of money notes and coins,

Nominative singular and plural personal pronouns,

Some useful instructions,

And Days of The Week.

A lot to take in, but here we go!🤯 

Next class is Saturday. She recommends 2 hrs of study morning and evening! 

Class was over by 9:30. Lonnie and I walked over to Jared’s to check on Annslie. She was doing well by appearance and report. Back at the house we proceeded to try to commit some of the words/sentences to memory.

  At 12:30 the girls’ school day was over and we all walked back to Jared’s to go with them to lunch at the clinic. On the way, we stopped at Care Box (a little “hole in the wall” pharmacy) for some household items. Then Brianna and I walked down and bought fresh fruits and vegetables from the street vendors-Oranges, apples, bananas, grapes. Brianna told the men they could go on, we’d be coming. We walked on and bought hot peppers, cilantro, few cucumbers, broccoli, and cauliflower. Then we caught a rickshaw the rest of the way to the clinic. Brianna knew the driver personally, which was kind of amazing to me, considering the hundreds of rickshaws we see!!

 Sisters Josna and Sumita had the table laden. It was 1st Bangla curry meal here, absolutely delicious! Rice, curried drumsticks, 2 different cooked vegetable medleys, cucumber slices, limes, fries, + dal (a soupy lentil dish to eat with rice)! Needless to say, we left full!

I worked on soaking and rinsing all the veggies and fruits. And then we all went for an evening stroll.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/XwCLY59w5jq8irZVA?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy

It’s quite tropical with all the trees around the houses. Took note of a large blooming bougainvillea in the median. There’s always people out on the streets walking, children riding bike, etc.

At bedtime Lonnie did a room spray for mosquitoes. The girls have been getting quite bit up at night. Jaira’s the worst, looks like she’s got chicken pox😕 Brianna recommended the room spray, keep fan running, and a mosquito defense cream. Maddie has been quite miserable with itchy nose and ears and an itchy rash showed up also back of her knees, neck, inside of elbows, … when I asked Brianna about it, she assured me it was not strange to have itchiness and suggested allergy medicine and itch cream.