Have you ever met a kid who was destined to go to school from the day she was born? If not, please let me introduce you to our youngest, Bekah. Maybe it's because she has three older siblings. Maybe it's because we are in South Africa. Maybe it's because she is a brilliant child. Maybe it's because, well, just because. For whatever reason, Bekah has jumped into the education world at full throttle and loves every single day. She packs her backpack with her important items and carries her own pencil box lunch. We discovered that the kids here eat lunch from a plastic pencil box. No Spiderman or Barney lunch boxes. Just plane ol' plastic pencil boxes. You can't fit much into a pencil box, but that's okay because they really don't have much time to eat. Everyone gets a couple of 10-15 minute breaks throughout the day, like at 10:30 and, say oh maybe around 13:30 (everything is what we would call "military time" here). No time to sit and gorge on a couple of pizzas and a donut or two. So, Bekah carries her own little plastic pencil box complete with a sandwich, a piece of fruit, and a drink, which is usually litchi juice. Bekah's teacher, Miss Brenda, is an absolutely wonderful teacher at Beachwood Pre-Primary School. On the second day of school, Bekah insisted we start dropping her off roadside and she would walk herself into the school. We told her we need to walk her to her class and she said "Why? You don't walk Kara to her class?" Yeah. Now that's what I call self-efficacy.

Jack and Katilee are still having great experiences with their school. Katilee has made a number of friends and seems to be really enjoying the fact that she fits right in with everyone else. In her uniform, blond hair, and tan skin, she looks just like one of the Afrikaaner children. I find myself taking double looks to make sure who is getting in the car actually is Katilee. Jack is also really enjoying school. The other day he told Kathy he feels good because everyone likes him. Kind of fun being the celebrity from the U.S. Today he told Kathy he was feeling like a white African because his skin was starting to get tan like the Afrikaaners here. Jack and Katilee have a "tuck" shop at their school. A tuck shop is like a candy shop. Their tuck shop is right in their school and they can purchase anything from fruit juices to candy to pop to crisps (what we would call potato chips). Jack, the money tycoon he is, strategically brings a few Rand everyday. "I'm just going to buy 20 pieces of candy." "No, but they're not all for me!" "I'm going to give everyone in class a piece and then a piece for everyone in my family. That will give me one piece left over for myself." God bless this wizard.

Kara is adjusting well to school, also. She has already made numerous friends and, just as important, has been able to successfully scope out the cute guys. Seems the Girl Scout uniform is not that big of a deal after all, as everyone is wearing the same attire. She has a busy teenager life of friends, beach, movies, and parent misuse. Ah, but one of the great beauties of this South African culture is that life does not revolve around the instant needs of a teenager. Rather, it appears that the parents are in control and teenagers' lives are dependent on their parents' schedules. What? Huh? Teenagers not being in control? Wait a minute? Isn't the primary role of the parent to drive around town, dish out cash, and accept whatever pleasant or not-so-pleasant adjectives, verbs, and nouns are thrown at them? That's not American! Bingo.

We continue to fork out money to buy the "necessities" for school. Okay, so the plethora of uniforms set us back a tad, but hey, it's a once in a lifetime experience. "Dad, I need money to get a new swimming suit." 'Why?" "Because mine is not royal blue, and the school colors are royal blue." "Okay."..."Dad, we also need to buy royal blue swim caps and goggles." "Okay."..."Dad, I need new tackies (tennis shoes) because mine are blue and they're supposed to be white!" "Why didn't they tell us that at the beginning?" "I don't know, but I need them today!"..."Dad, I need a tennis racket so I can play tennis." "I suppose that needs to be royal blue also?" "No, any color will do." "Okay."..."Dad, you know that tennis racket they said didn't need to be royal blue? Well..." Okay, so it's not exactly like that, but I think you get the picture. Hey, but it's a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Overall, we are doing quite fine. I put together an informal "family moving to South Africa for 6 months well-being survey" and we discussed it over our weekly braai (pronounced "bry"--don't ask me why there are two "a"s in there) last night. On a scale of 1 (not liking it) to 3 (this is a great experience), we scored on the seven items in this scale a solid 2.0 (as a family). Seeing that we have only been here 3 weeks, we felt that was a solid positive sign.