Turn Around

Yesterday I was greatly relieved when William, at the last minute, stayed home for the day. Instead of going to school we went to visit a little British/American three-year-old called Rowan and his father Simon. Rowan’s big sister goes to the French school William has been trialling. Rowan and William had a ball together playing cricket (not generally known here), climbing in his two-story tree house and playing with cars, Lego and play dough. All very Western really. William enjoyed it most of all because he could converse with his play mate.

Last night Will and I made a big batch of play dough for him to give as a present to his class. They seem to have very few resources: tables and chairs, a sleeping mat, a sitting mat, a few books (although there is a good little library for taking home, in French and English) and some drawing materials. William really enjoyed making it, staying up a little late with me in the kitchen, and as he slept I used Google Translator (which I seem to use daily at the moment!) to write a note to the teacher in French.

This morning Tim took William to school. His second day. Will cried for less than a minute! (Tim waited around the corner to check.) By 11am I was sure he would have had enough, and walked into town to catch a motorbike. On my way a text arrived from Simon; ‘I’ve just driven past school and saw William playing happily outside’. I almost skipped home, and ran down the ramp to the guesthouse with joy. I would wait for the end of the school day after all.

When I picked Will up he was tired, but fairly happy. His teacher said his day had been on and off, but that his favourite time seemed to be eating his snack (I had packed a chocolate, banana and this time his yoghurt was in tact inside a flask). When we came home I asked Will if he liked being home. “No,” he said, “I like being at school”.

After a moment’s pause, I felt joyful.