American Technology

One of the most fun things about bringing home older children is getting to introduce them to new things. However, since daily life here is so incredibly different from what they are used to we want to add new things gradually. Andy was here over a week before he even knew that our house has a playroom. He had enough new things in his bedroom and the rest of the house to keep him entertained. Rosie and Dominic have still not been to the Theater, the Factory, or Dairy Queen - or Chickfilet, or the Fire Dept. or Wesley's Park. They have met alot of people, a surprising number of whom are brothers or sisters.
Yesterday, they were introduced to the wii. Jerry is out of town reffing soccer games so I needed a new entertainment factor (we also went to Sonic for the first time). As I expected, Dominic is a pro. Rosie will watch for awhile, but in general, nothing on the TV interests her, possibly because her eyesight is so bad. Our local eye doctor refered us to a specialist in Asheville but he doesn't think she will ever be able to see out of one of her eyes although the other is correctable.
Home schooling now begins with the question "what is the name of our country?" Since Nellie, who has been in public school in the USA for 5 years did not know the answer to that question, I thought it would be a good place to begin. We do puzzles of the states and label maps and sing 'Fifty, Nifty, United States' and the words aren't much more foreign to Dominic and Rosie than they are to Nellie and Andy.
We have also had some lessons in the wonders of modern American technology. Today I taught Dominic how to use a vacuum cleaner. Unfortunately, when I meant to communicate where to put it away, he thought I was asking him to vacuum the back porch which undoubtedly filled it with things I wouldn't have wanted sucked up. sigh..During the bathroom cleaning lesson earlier in the week, we had a little mishap when Rosie threw all the paper towels in the toilet. :( It was perfectly reasonable from her perspective, as after all, in America, we put toilet tissue in there! It is possible they never used toilet tissue before, although we did visit a home where it was put on the table for the Americans to use as napkins. The water system in most places is not good enough to flush it- it goes in a can. I also doubt if they ever had a bath or a shower. I still am not sure if either of them is using soap or shampoo, although I have demonstrated it several times. Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say. They have each had a laundry lesson -I am certain neither one has seen a dryer. When Dominic gets his load out of the dryer tomorrow (I let him put them all in at once, sorting will be for another day) we will probably have a talk about how many pairs of underwear should have been in there. (sorry, if thats TMI, but some of my audience is probably considering older child adoption and they might be interested in the details). Nellie has been the main one to teach them about kitchen cleaning but it has just occured to me that perhaps I should explain the limits of what can go down the garbage disposal and mention that we only have one!
In general , things continue to go very well. I think this is called the honeymoon phase - hope it lasts ! Thank you for your prayers. C