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I usually leave the cute kid stories to Erika’s blog, Life With Three, but I thought I would steal this one so people can see my warm and cuddly side. 

Michael has been riding the bus to and from school.  Worry not, we’re not sending Michael out to the boulevard with a couple of Lempiras (the Honduran currency) and telling him to hop on the public bus.  The bus is a 15 passenger van with a driver and a bus monitor that picks Michael up and drops him off at our front door.  His initial excitement at being a big kid and riding the bus gave way to trepidation as the first day of school came around.  With a little encouragement and some creative thought he made it through his first bus ride (”Mama, I’m going to take this book and ask the bus muchacha if I can read it on the bus.”) 

Thus trepidation in turn gave way to comfort and sure enough within the first week Michael was talking about his bus friend Luke.  It quickly became apparent that we needed to send an additional snack for Michael to share on the bus ride home and over Michael’s shared goldfish our two pint sized commuters decided that they wanted to set up a play date.  But how to arrange it?  A plan was hatched and Luke and Michael decided that the obvious solution was to exchange maps.  After all, the bus ride allowed them to see where each other lived and surely they would be able to guide their respective parents to the aforementioned playdate. 

When told of the plan, Erika responded as any good mother with a plan of her own.  The next day, along with Michael’s sharing goldfish, Erika tucked a note.  “Dear Luke’s mom…”  A phone call later that evening revealed that Luke’s mom was Elizabeth, mother of three kids just a year or two older than each of ours.  Luke’s dad works for the U.S. Embassy and like us they are newly arrived in Teguz. 

So this Friday, Michael and Lukes plan to exchange maps will come to fruition with a playdate at Luke’s house.  While this is a story about sophisticated five year olds it is also a story about the ease with which Erika has found connections here in Teguz.  Within the first week Erika has connected with a bunch of other spouses of people working at the embassy or for other internaitonal organizaitons.  The kids have been a good contact point and mostly we’ve met other parents from school.  It’s amazing how simply being an American in a foreign capital provides an instant connection that is sometimes hard to come by in normal social situations.  Moving overseas disrupts your normal social circles but it also provides opportunities for new ones to form.  All it takes is for your five year old to swap maps with his bus friend.