Dan didn't have class until 10:30, so I went in first, then he brought the baby and we switched.
When I told the principal our predicament and what we were doing, he rolled his eyes.
(This from a man who last week, when he found Dan at work at 6:30 a.m., moving furniture to prepare for a school event, his shirt unbuttoned two buttons, greeted him by saying, button your shirt. That's unprofessional. Yeah, but rolling your eyes at your employees when they need a sick day, that's real professional.)
Anyway. I took R. and Ju, and we went to the mall to kill time in the air conditioning.
There's a bookstore there with a small children's area. It's both the only bookstore I've seen in Salvador, and one of the few attempts at a kid-friendly public space.
Here's R. reading a book in a cushioned tube.
Ju was pretty psyched to find a kid-sized table and chair.
The excitement lasted about three minutes, though, until he found he could engage in one of his favorite pastimes from home:
pulling things off the shelves! Not the best design for a children's corner--rows of low shelves full of cds.
Then again, design flaws here are not uncommon.
See our school's handicapped ramp below--not only is it an an incline that would send any wheelchair careening--it ends in a steep step.
Oops.
4 comments:
And lets not forget to mention the steep inclined street on the other side of town that suddenly turns into stairs that go down to a sidewalk below.
Oh my! I bet you are so happy to be almost out of that place. It seems like it has lost it's charm.
I feel bad for the kid who has to use that ramp. Yikes!
Sending you tons of hugs and healing thoughts that your whole family gets to feeling better soon, especially the caregiver. It is such a pain having to juggle child care like that.
Summer
There are lanes on main roads that suddenly disappear into sidewalks. Oh yes, there are also newly built miles-long train tracks across the city with no trains in the world that will fit them. It's like something between a middle school architecture class and a Dr Seuss book.
Sometimes I wonder, who is running the world? Every day I watch my children in our 'advanced western culture,' struggle to reach a sink to wash their hands. How hard is it to hang just one sink in a row of ten to be within the reach of a child? As an architect, I can tell you: it's not. I hope one day it'll be my claim to fame. "She spec'ed low sinks."
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