Tough day for Evan

8^th June 2011.  We were up and dressed early this morning (the being dressed early part is very unusual for us), ready for Dun to fetch us for Evan’s first day at school. Evan was very excited to be going out in the car and full of smiles, singing away in his car seat. He got even happier when we picked up Grace - his nanny, or ayah as she’s called here - at the top of the road to the school, as here in Kenya, kids of his age are accompanied to nursery school by their ayah so that they have a personal carer with them at all times.

Evan & Grace start school

 Then we got to school, and more specifically to his class – the Dudus. He met his new teacher Sara and all of a sudden, he was stuck to my knee like super glue. It took some serious work to distract him with some of the many toys that were around to a point that he disengaged himself from my leg.

Meeting his teacher, Sara

When I said good-bye, he burst into a torrent of tears. Grace quickly picked him up and the teacher said I should leave a.s.a.p. I could hear him crying all the way as I walked back up to the car park. Needless to say, my heart was busy breaking into little pieces and I had to remind myself how badly he needs interaction with kids his age and that this will be good for him in the long run.

I then went to a shopping centre called the Junction in Lavington for the morning. I haven’t had 2.5 hours to cruise a mall by myself in forever. Unfortunately it’s not a very big mall – but I had breakfast, read the paper from cover to cover and browsed a lot. I had to find a pair of trousers as well as I only packed jeans in our luggage (didn’t think I’d have much call for smart clothes) and tomorrow we are being balloted into the Country Club and jeans aren’t allowed. They have Woolworths here, but oh my goodness, the import mark-up is extreme – there is no way I could pay that much for a pair of Woollies pants. In the end I got a pair at Mr. Price, also at a largely inflated price, but at least I got them.

After my morning out, we went back to the school to fetch Evan. I walked down to the Dudu’s class and Evan was sitting with Grace while all the other kids had their lunch. He blanked me completely for the first few minutes (like he was angry that I’d left him behind) then came running to me and once again, glued himself to my knee. He hadn’t had the best morning, the poor boy. He pretty much stayed stuck to Grace all day and although he played with her and the toys, he didn’t play with the other kids at all. He only took part in one of the activities and painted a fish, but other than that, he was Mr. Loner today. 

Evan's orange fish

He fell asleep in the car on the way home and proceeded to have a 3 hour nap. This school stuff is obviously tough on a little boy! He has a day’s respite tomorrow, then back to school on Friday again. With any luck, it’ll get better and better and maybe soon he’ll be crying to stay when I go to fetch him.