I have been meaning to share this funny story while on the subject of the girls' schooling.
The day before school was scheduled to begin, we visited the office in order to ask some last-minute questions. One of mine had to do with the delantal (what I call the white lab coat) that the girls were supposed to bring/wear. On the list, it said the delantal had to be "clearly marked" and I wasn't sure exactly what they meant by that.
The secretary informed me each girl should have her name and class labeled on the front of the delantal. Clueless Mommy then asked, "You mean, like write it on there with a permanent marker?" The secretary looked a bit puzzled and slowly replied, "Yes ... or, you could embroider it on there." I just laughed and said I didn't know anything about sewing!
Thankfully, at our next stop I ran into the mother of one of the girl's classmates. She told me that she had taken her daughter's delantal to the feria downtown and had the name embroidered for 800 pesos (about $1.30 US.) I had never heard of this before but when I took the girls' delantales down the next day I discovered a whole new world! There are multiple sewing stalls at the feria advertising everything from embroidery to while-you-wait hemming. (What a dream for a hapless sewer such as myself!)
It wasn't until the first day of school when I saw all the children arriving with their embroidered delantales that I realized what what a faux pas I had almost made. Labeling with a permanent marker would have been totally culturally incorrect! I'm so glad the Lord sent someone along to point me in the right direction. It may not have saved me from embarrassment (I'm sure the secretary was wondering, What is this woman thinking??) but it certainly saved my girls from embarrassment. And it has provided Pedro and I with some good laughs to boot ... :)
The day before school was scheduled to begin, we visited the office in order to ask some last-minute questions. One of mine had to do with the delantal (what I call the white lab coat) that the girls were supposed to bring/wear. On the list, it said the delantal had to be "clearly marked" and I wasn't sure exactly what they meant by that.
The secretary informed me each girl should have her name and class labeled on the front of the delantal. Clueless Mommy then asked, "You mean, like write it on there with a permanent marker?" The secretary looked a bit puzzled and slowly replied, "Yes ... or, you could embroider it on there." I just laughed and said I didn't know anything about sewing!
Thankfully, at our next stop I ran into the mother of one of the girl's classmates. She told me that she had taken her daughter's delantal to the feria downtown and had the name embroidered for 800 pesos (about $1.30 US.) I had never heard of this before but when I took the girls' delantales down the next day I discovered a whole new world! There are multiple sewing stalls at the feria advertising everything from embroidery to while-you-wait hemming. (What a dream for a hapless sewer such as myself!)
It wasn't until the first day of school when I saw all the children arriving with their embroidered delantales that I realized what what a faux pas I had almost made. Labeling with a permanent marker would have been totally culturally incorrect! I'm so glad the Lord sent someone along to point me in the right direction. It may not have saved me from embarrassment (I'm sure the secretary was wondering, What is this woman thinking??) but it certainly saved my girls from embarrassment. And it has provided Pedro and I with some good laughs to boot ... :)
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