7:40. I wait for my 3 pre-k passengers to come out from their temporary dorm housing at SIT. It’s the second week of school and I am the designated chauffeur. Each of my passengers appears from a different dorm.
A shows up first with her mom. Grinning and chatting between bites of a banana. B next with his mom. Not chatting and certainly not looking enthusiastic. In fact he scampers over to the bike rack, grabs a bike and takes off. Very competent biker at age 4 by the way. B and A are Eritrean. We wait. And wait. B rides. A chats. Finally S and his dad appear. S is Afghan.
I have tried to explain that car seats are required, but no one speaks English so even with my best pantomiming there are blank looks.
Of course, I think. Car seats? What in the heck are these, and why are they necessary? S is the only one with a car seat. Accept and move on. If I were to refuse to take A and B they wouldn’t go to school. What is more important? That’s how I’d explain it if I were stopped. Maybe my elderly status would help. At least once.
Getting three of them into the car, pulling and stretching the seat belts – (mind you, they were wearing their backpacks) is, in itself, a challenge. At the best of times finding the middle seat buckle takes poking and prodding. It’s a challenge. And if you have never had seat belts and are wearing a backpack, and the chauffeur is, should we say, elderly…well, it’s a challenge.
7:55 OK.. buckled up and ready to go. Sure, wails or tears…and yet, barely a minute on they stop. Ah, say I. No problem for the 10 minutes it takes to go to school. I sing a song, ask questions. No response. Then the back window rolls down. A is hooting with laughter. We’re on the interstate. I close the window and put on lock. Thank goodness it’s the window and not the door which locks automatically.
8:10 Arrive at school. Reverse the routine. While I’m unbuckling B, A starts across the street. She has no clue about looking. I have to speak sharply to get her to stop. Even after a week they seem puzzled about looking for traffic before crossing the street.
We walk to the classroom. The teachers greet them with a cheerful welcome and a hug and off they go.
Pick up is the reverse. The difference is that they are wired and ready to push, shove, unbuckle, try to open the doors, windows, turn on the overhead lights, screech. They bolt out of the car when we arrive at SIT giving their parents a hug.
So much to learn and yet what supple minds! On the ride home on Friday there are smatterings of English. They get the seatbelt routine. They don’t try to open the windows or doors. They know where to put their backpacks and how to say good morning to the teachers.
They are launched.
And I take with me what how much they have to learn and how resilient they are.
This contribution is from Tonia Wheeler, October 2024
From Afar to Home: Vermont Journeys 