Identity crises solved

Beatrice's school celebrated the long anticipated United Nations Day on Friday and that helped to solve our identity crises! It is a big annual event with parade, countries displays and concert. 44 different nationalities at school this term! Beatrice was wearing her Estonian national costume for the parade as she bravely marched in front of hundreds of people carrying the sign "Estonia" and the blue-black-white. All alone! (There were a few other countries with only a single representative.) She did very well and we cheered our hearts out. I had taken the boys from school for that day and colour-coded them in the national colours as well. The full-length pleated wool skirt is wonderful in the Estonian winter but really not the most suitable clothing in Singapore's +35 C. So she did a great job. I had chosen "Jaa vabaks Eesti meri" for the parade music and they read out what I had written about Estonia and the Laulupidu.

Then we moved to our little table. I was not going to do a stall at first but after a while patriotism won over shyness so I decided to make one anyway, even though on my own. We shared a classroom with Austria, Spain, Holland and Switzerland. Some countries had very large groups - the English of course, followed by the Koreans and Japanese. They had a classroom for themselves and had put on massive displays and offered whole buffet lunches. (I had just baked a rye bread and Beatrice made a "kirju koer".) But we generated good interest and had great fun. All kids at school had a special passport for the day and got it stamped at every countrie's stand, so Raoul and Karl got themselves their first little proper job as immigration officers. When they had time off from pinching Toblerone pieces from the Swiss stall, of course. We were a bit unlucky though - I had asked the Estonian tourism office to send me some booklets and give-aways and after more than 2 weeks in mail the parcel arrived on Saturday! One day late. At least it is here for next year.

We were very lucky to have done this stall as we found some Estonian-speakers in school! There are 2 more girls (and their mom), who speak fluent Estonian. It turns out they are Italians but have lived in Estonia since 1994, meaning the girls were actually born there. Their mom is working here in Singapore now. They even live nearby. We were all completely enthusiastic about this coincidence. And they would not have found us if I hadn't made the stall.

On Saturday Beatrice had her first Taekwondo grading test for the "Yellow tip". It was very busy but I think she did very well. Had to show the first white belt pattern, a few kicks and break a wooden board. We'll know the results by the end of the week.

Robert's job is really busy now with the rig in dock, so he had to go to work on Sunday as well. I took the kids to the zoo and luckily he could join us there. We went to see the elephant show. Felt really lucky as the first row was completely free. However as the show started we realized why - we were welcomed with a proper elephant shower. Not a few drops. Soaking! The show was amazing though - lots of humour and great stunts. The boys had seen it with their school so they were looking forward to see the elephant throw off the keeper's hat. Then after lunch there was a new show that we watched - The rainforest fights back. That was very nice with small animals, monkeys climbing above our heads, tribal fighters and drummers ets. The story about the rainforest's fight against the loggers actually seemed to have arrived at destination - Karl kept asking for the whole afternoon why the tribesmen threw the bad guy in the water. There is always something new to see and to discover at the zoo. We were lucky to have a really close look at the big orangutan Charlie this time. Or maybe he had a good look at us.