Obsi's Middle School Open House

Obsi's school had open house so we all (except Seth) went so Obsi could give us a tour. He still struggles with opening the lock on his locker. Totally foreign concept for an Ethiopian to deal with one of those!

It was fun talking to all Obsi's teachers but it was also very important. Obsi is having a hard time with transition to American school. He still gets lost and confused. It makes him close to being late for his classes. He has almost missed lunch because he missed that it was lunch time and was waiting for his next class to start. The room was dark and the teacher was at lunch!

Obsi's teachers are having to make a few adjustments for him. One teacher has helped him and his fellow Ethiopian friend in making schedules they understand. Schedules that have been simplified. Other teachers have had to lessen his homework or give him alternate assignments. They are all wonderful!

Obsi seems to be a perfectionist. He does his math assignments and then when he is done with all his homework, he goes back to math and does it again. He works at homework from after school until bedtime and then gets up early and does more. School doesn't like that he has to do that. A boy shouldn't be spending all his free time doing homework. The school authorities have seen in their testing that it takes Obsi a long time to do his work. He translates back and forth to figure things out. He also doesn't have a grasp of all our english words and meanings. For instance: if a teacher talks about a city block, Obsi pictures a building block and can't understand what she is trying to say.

Hot lunch has been good. We have had to work through what is included in $2.05 and what is extra. Lunch was costing us $4.50 per day for the first weeks. I think Obsi understands now. The extras cost way more than what we would pay for in a grocery store and we all tried to explain that to Obsi. If he really like these extras that he was buying everyday, I told him I would buy packages of the stuff and send it with him everyday at a much cheaper price. I have explained it to the principal so he could keep an eye on Obsi going through the lunch line.

I got a positive email from a teacher yesterday that showed Obsi making progress. He finally looked her in the eye and said hi to her. He's not getting lost so much. He is following doing oral corrections on homework. That had been a huge struggle.

Overall, school is a huge cultural adjustment and he comes home exhausted.