I’ve mentioned before that we’re not always sure of what Ouest is doing at school or what exactly she is learning—mainly because she doesn’t ever tell us. But every once in a while something happens to let us know that there is a lot of knowledge creeping in. Today we sat down to do her homework and in her notebook was a page filled with triangles, circles, and squares. I read the instructions to her in Spanish—colorea de azul los circulos. That’s all I said. She immediately grabbed her blue crayon and began coloring the circles. She then did the other shapes in the correct colors as well.
Ouest did this in such a fluid manner that it was clear she understood the instructions without having to process at all what they meant in English. That’s the part that amazes me more and more with her—it’s the second nature of her second language. Unlike us adults learning a second language who seem to need to hear a word in Spanish, translate that word to English, and then comprehend its meaning, with Ouest there seems to be a complete lack of that second step of translation. I’m stoked by it.
Also pretty proud of her for nailing down her name. Two months ago the only letter she wrote was O. She’s learning quicker than we can keep up now.
We had a couple of rather big packages that were supposed to come down with me to Mexico on the bus a couple months back. They didn’t make it to me in time, then we misfired on having them sent to my mom to haul down. So there was a bit of shock when the doorbell rang yesterday and we answered to find a DHL delivery guy standing there. Just five days after we had said, “Ah, screw it, just send them right to us and let’s see what happens.” We fully expected them to get held up in Customs, but they didn’t—just sailed right on through.
What’s in the boxes? Only a couple of game changers for life aboard Bumfuzzle. One high output alternator with accompanying charge regulator, and one bad-ass high pressure pump to run that new 45 gallon/hr water maker I’ll be installing soon. Forty-five gallons an hour! Wrap your head around that. On the catamaran we had a Spectra Ventura 150 that cost more than this one, and only put out six gallons an hour—on a good day. Cruisers will already have guessed that this one is a Cruise RO water maker. The owner Rich is pretty much a legend in the Mexican cruising community. I met him like two years ago now—and while it took me a while to take the leap, I’ve finally done it. Which of course means no more Mexican marina tap water for the kids to ingest. So much for those awesome immune systems we were building.
One of these houses is doing its own thing—and didn’t bother to consult an architect.
This is a 100 amp alternator to replace my $30 Autozone Delco unit that I’m pretty sure fried one of my batteries not too long ago. And probably hasn’t done any favors to the rest of the batteries either.
There were a bunch of big pretty orange flowers on this plant last week, and the hummingbirds were going nuts on them. Then as we stood in the kitchen one day Ouest and Lowe walked in from out back and presented all of the flowers to us. To try and help out the birds we went to work DIY style. We built this beautiful contraption complete with flower decoration to fool the birds. Then we cooked up a pot of sugar water, and waited. And waited. And three days later they arrived. And once they found it they just kept coming back for more. And despite their frequent returns this is the only picture I’ve got to prove that we’re creating a bird sanctuary in the middle of Old Town Mazatlan. (You can’t really see, but there are four small holes in the top yellow lid for the birds to drink from.)
10 Comments on “Spanish Comprehension”
Awww . . . bless their little hearts for collecting all the flowers for their mom and dad. But bless your hearts too, Ali and Pat, for caring enough to want to provide a back-up plan ’til the flowers reappear – and then cobbling together an ingenious contraption so the hummingbirds can still get their equivalent of a hit of Red Bull or Five Hour Energy.
I think this qualifies you both for the Urban Naturalist merit badge. 😉
TJ
Ooh ooh, a badge! Seriously though, there are three new buds sprouting and we’ve had to have a couple of serious discussions about these new flowers. 🙂 Also, in the days before YouTube these poor birds would have been out of luck.
So, ok… Teach the kids how to make the hummingbird feeder….then, the next time they want to pick flowers….uh, ya, then they make you a hummingbird feeder….naw, guess that wouldn’t work to well:-)
Ouesty is sure a pretty little girl. I’m ah-struck by how smart she is… This whole Spanish learning of hers is fascinating to say the least!
Our new Cruise RO should be here next week. So very excited as we are also upgrading from the Spectra 6 gal per hour. Can’t wait!
Yay for Ouest. How exciting to learn a second language at her age. I’m still struggling with Spanish and I’ve been at it for a couple of years.
Seems ridiculous that the Spectra can only pump out 6 gallons doesn’t it? Ali and I used to run that thing for like eight hours every two to three days. With this CruiseRO we should be able to go absolutely nuts on the water usage. I’m thinking I’ll even install a hose up at the bow. Nothing like washing the gunk off the anchor chain with fresh water.
Exactly what we did.
George made 2 watermakers. One for our boat, and the 2nd for Rich’s old boat, which became the prototype for CruiseRO. Rich’s model is much more cruiser friendly – the originals ran off a small Kubota engine.
We have a washdown pump at the cockpit. We bought an xhose (as seen on TV) https://www.xhosepro.com/ . Works great since the hose expands and you can reach the bow and stern. Plus, it was easier to install the pump in the cockpit lazerette. Can’t wait for the Cruise RO to be installed!
Our neighbor had some guys working on his garage last week and one of them asked my daughter (30 months) if she could count in Spanish… I was super stoked when she shyly mouthed one through ten en Espanol. We gotta get to work if we’re going to spend her… 6th birthday in the Sea of Cortez. 😉
Met this guy (Scott Fratcher) in San Juan. He and his wife have been live-aboard captains for long enough to engineer a few nifty upgrades to their boats… including a reverse-mounted second alternator. If you get to feeling like one 100 ain’t enough, break out the welder and strap on a second! yachtwork.com/yanmar-electromaax-alternator-kits.htm
45 gallons an hour is definitely a game changer! We met Rich a few times and think both he and his products (especially the Cruise RO) are really great. Have fun splashing around in all the fresh water. We will be counting our drops with our 1.5 gallons an hour water maker. I’m so jealous!