Life: Idiotropic

Graduations aren't something that kindergartens do exactly. There are not caps and gowns here, but, the vorschule kinder are treated very special here and this is a time of much celebration as they move out of Kindergarten, and into school.

Being somewhat outside the culture, I am really never sure what I'm in for. Today was another one of those days when I was truly clueless.

I was told to meet at our local church at 4 and I knew we'd be taking the kids to the Heuhotel after the short service. A friend said she expected to be home by 5. I got home at 6:30.

The church service was nice. We sung a lot of children's songs, in German, of course. There was a script that they followed, so we could follow along and reading it helped me understand the language. Most of it was talking about moving on into Grundschule. And, they talked about kids from other countries and how God loves all the children. We passed a large globe ball all around the church from pew to pew, then some of the children were dressed up as children from other nations and they all had a short line in a song to speak. At the end, all the children joined their teachers and pastor on stage for a few songs, then they each took a turn getting a cross necklace to wear then we sung the closing song (to the tune of "Glory Hallelujah")...



So, we went. All the families packed up their cars and drove - the LONG way - all in a line of probably 20 plus autos to the "Hay Hotel" in Beeck.

The Hay Hotel is just that - a hotel full of hay. It also has cows and a nice cow milking room, but run a hotel where the lodgers can sleep quite literally in the hay. So, I thought I was just going to drop off Arianna and leave... but no. We all stood around while the kinder ran wild and the teachers got organized. The director told me that they were going to do a little bit of magic.

Soon, they were ready. The children gathered around. Tina put on a black witch hat, took out her "magic wand," and got her spell book. She said a spell that would turn these ordinary kindergarten students into school children. Each child in turn stood upon a chair near Tina. Another teacher held a red balloon over the child's head while Tina waved her wand and said the magic words, then she struck the balloon with her wand, it popped with a bang, and confetti spilled out over the child's head. Then another teacher would hand the child their cone and a large book of work that they'd done over the year. It was very nice. By the time they got to Arianna, she knew the drill well enough to keep her hands over her ears until the balloon popped.

After this time, gifts for the teachers, and a little more waiting around, the children all got on the big covered trailer and waved good-bye as the tractor pulled it away. Arianna was happy and perfectly fine riding away with a wagon of German friends. Tonight she'll be sleeping on the hay - should be interesting to hear about.


When all the children were out of sight, some of us took a quick tour before we left. Upstairs in the barn loft there was a large play room filled only with hay and ropes hanging from the ceiling. The smaller rooms forked off from it for further exploring. Two other rooms had 3 foot tall pieces of wood blocking off entire sections, then the "box" was filled with hay. Those were the beds. The children just needed to put down their sleeping bags and pillows and get cozy. Downstairs was a nice clean dining room where all the kids will have dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow. The photo through the window is from the loft where the beds are looking down into the courtyard where we spent all that time waiting while the kids got their goodies.

So, this afternoon was not what I expected. I was not there and home in an hour. It took time, but it was a very special afternoon and Arianna was glowing with happiness. I had no qualms about leaving her - just wish I could be a fly on that wall tonight and see what's going on.