I love living here. I really do. I'm not being sarcastic or facetious or anything like that. I've lived a fair number of places and I enjoy really LIVING where I am. Even when it's hot and sticky here, this is where I live. (And we budgeted to save up to pay for the air conditioning this summer!)
But I'm really, really frustrated with the political Powers that Be, but don't Do. As one friend put it, the left hand doesn't even know that the right hand exists.
So...our acquaintance X tried pulling strings here and there, and last week I was able to talk with Mr. K at the Larnaka Ministry of Education and Culture. He was quite nice and spoke excellent English, and said that it had been two weeks since they had contacted social services to "examine the children", to see how they're being educated, so that the Ministry can officially exempt our children from being required to attend school.
A day or so later my husband chatted with X, who said that that's frustrating, and that the Minister has already decided to give us permission, but that they have to follow the proper channels, which includes a report from a social worker.
On Monday this week, at X's request, I phoned X to remind him to contact social services, which he said he would do. Yesterday, my husband saw X again, who said that we should just go to the office of social services ourselves, that it was "behind the police station."
So after a great deal of discussion about who goes where with whom and what we take and how we get there (my host parents from Costa Rica are visiting and we thought maybe we could combine things), my host parents, my husband, the four younger children, and I set out on foot. (Well, Elisabeth was in the sling and Helen was in the buggy/pram/pushchair/stroller.) We had with us the IG for Sonlight Core 5 (which we've only just started and which will probably take a couple of years to complete IF we ever do, but it does look impressive), the records I've kept for the last two and a half years up to yesterday, and a Sonlight catalog. We also had some oatmeal cookies which Marie made yesterday. Marie and Jacob stayed home with instructions to do math, clean the table, clean out and sort the plastic (Tupperware etc.) cupboard, practice the violin (Marie) and guitar (Jacob), and then they could go on the computer if they wanted to work more on the create-an-island projects they both wanted to do. We also had one of the slips we'd received from the post office about a package to be picked up, but couldn't find the other slip.
Walking downtown was fine, although once we got to the coast, everyone else chose to walk along the sunny promenade, while I darted from shadow to shadow. I don't like the sun. We first went to the office where we had registered Elisabeth's birth and asked where the office of social services was. Across the parking lot, two-story building, behind the police station.
Following those directions, we found a three-story building that said it housed offices for social insurance and the labor office. I went in one of them to ask questions and was told to go back out, so I did. While we stood there talking about what we should do, a friendly man asked if he could help, took me inside, asked some questions, and told us to go to KEP and gave me directions how to get there, a few blocks away. I can't remember what the letters stand for, but something like the center for civil services. (The first word was Kentro--center--and the third word something like "political".) But since we had to pass the police station anyway, I went in there to ask, and was told to go back the way we had come. My husband led the rest of the group to the tourist information office while I went back and went into a two-story building with signs only in Greek. I didn't find out what the building was, but a man there made several phone calls and finally told me to call Maria at such-and-such number, that where I needed to go was the welfare office "across from Cineplex". Cineplex is not far from where we live, but nowhere near "behind the police station", so I was a bit skeptical, since I figured that X should know what he's talking about.
So, while heading towards the tourist office to meet the rest, I phoned Maria's number. She told me to call a different number, which I did. Person number 2 told me to call a different number, which I did. Person number 3 told me to call a different number, which I did. Nobody answered at the fourth number. I tried four or five times, but by that time I'd arrived at the tourist information. Since nobody else had thought to get a bus schedule nor information in Spanish about Cyprus, I went in and got both of those things. (I haven't looked at the bus schedule yet. It's only in Greek, but it's mostly street names and numbers, so I should be able to figure it out.) In the meantime, my husband had been given a phone number at the tourist information office that started the same as all four phone numbers I'd been given, so we tried that one too. Finaly, we just ate some oatmeal cookies.
Then we headed back to the post office side of downtown, but my host father had wanted to see about getting a Greek-Spanish dictionary, so while I took him in the bookstore, my husband went and bought water for us all. It can pretty much mostly be considered autumn here, I guess, but this would still be high summer in German terms, and we were thirsty. The man in the bookstore spoke native-sounding English and I decided to ask him if he had any idea where we should go. He was born here but grew up mostly in Australia, which explained his English, and I eventually did get convinced that we should probably go to the welfare office. It's been said that the U.K. and the U.S. are two countries separated by a common language, and although I do think I speak fairly fluent British (minus the accent), I only just today learned that "social services" does not refer to the people who check on confusing domestic situations, and that "welfare offices" DOES, and not to people receiving financial support from the state. He at one point said, "Forgive me for asking, but are you wanting to report somebody?" I laughed and said, "Yes--my family!" Then I did actually explain a lot of the situation, which was how we finally got the vocabulary sorted out. And the welfare office is "across from Cineplex" and I should go to the first floor. ("First floor" in European means up one flight of stairs--the second floor in American.)
So we went to the post office and picked up our packages (they gave me mine without my pick-up slip and without an ID, no problem at all), and then came home.
I decided to at least try to locate this place, which I imagined was closed by now (it was around 12:15 by the time we got home), so put Elisabeth in the car and headed out. At the intersection with Cineplex, the only "official" looking building across from Cineplex looked like a bank, but I didn't know what all of the words on the sign meant, and it wasn't a bank with which I'm familiar. After a few complicated turns (including one illegal U-turn) I parked in a supermarket parking lot (also illegal, as I wasn't shopping there, but I was so far beyond caring...) and approached the building. It took me awhile to find a side entrance (since the front entrance definitely was a bank), and then I walked up to the first floor, but the door from the landing was locked, so I walked back down and took the elevator up to "1". (When I left again and walked down the stairs, I discovered that I had to walk down two flights of stairs. I don't quite get that.) I walked into an office area and asked if this was the welfare office, and got a very confused response of "this is a bank," and an even more confused look in response to my, "I thought it probably was." There was a cleaning crew already starting, but two people who worked there did try to talk with me a bit, and then finally took me into a back office. From the looks of the office and the way the man there spoke, I'm guessing I may have been meeting with the director or someone like that of the bank. He lived in New York for nine years, by the way. Anyway, he made a few phone calls, gave me yet another phone number, and then lifted a window shade to point the direction in which I should go--"across from Cineplex", but in another direction, and not directly across, "three or four buildings down".
Back to the car, a few more strange turns, probably covering about two kilometers to get something like 300 meters, parked neatly on the sidewalk, and started looking for the entrance in the building (the second one from the corner, by the way) that had a bunch of regular shops on the ground floor, but did have a sign saying "welfare office" in English, as well as in Greek, which someone at the bank had written down for me so I would recognize it. I walked all the way around the building, went down in the parking garage, and took an elevator from there up to the first floor, where I surprised a few women.
Now that it's far too late to make a long story short, there really isn't much more to say. After several back-and-forths about how children have to go to school, no they don't if the Minister of Education excuses them, etc., one lady suddenly said, "Do you have other children?" (Okay, so the whole situation is crazy anyway, but they didn't REALLY think I was trying to get permission to home-educate my four-month-old, did they?!) When I said, "Yes, five more," they suddenly got all excited and knew who I was. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. They asked if I'd already had contact with them, and I said yes, that the social worker Fodia had visited us in June, but that was essentially a separate case which was already finished. They looked through their big, handwritten book of appointments and sure enough, there was my name on June 18th. However, according to the book, that case isn't closed. So since this is Fodia's case, nobody else can help me in any way or give me any information, and as it was almost 1:30 by this time, Fodia had of course long since gone home for the day. They did give me her extension number, though, so I can call on Monday.
Four hours, several kilometers on foot and more in the car, and I lost track of the phone calls. But I know where the welfare office is, and I know WHAT the welfare office is, and I have Fodia's phone number. I suppose that's progress.
And unless Marie and Jacob did do math this morning (I forgot to ask, but I know that they did do the plastic cupboard, which was much more important to me), none of the children have done a single thing that would be considered "academic" by authorities, which I usually wouldn't care at all about, but I am thinking that if we're going to be "examined", now might be a good time to have something to show and maybe we should take a break from learning and do some schoolwork instead...
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Not what one could call news
News of the day: E called this morning because X asked her to call me and ask for my address. Okay.
Also, I got an e-mail today that Jacob's U.S. passport, which we applied for on Monday, is ready to picked up. So...sometime between now and our trip to the U.S., I'll need to head to Nikosia again, to pick up Jacob's passport at the U.S. embassy and Elisabeth's at the German consulate. (We applied for Elisabeth's German passport on Monday, too, and the registrar was apologetic that she couldn't give it to us immediately because we'd only arrived ten minutes before they closed. I received the e-mail on Wednesday that it was ready.)
Also, I got an e-mail today that Jacob's U.S. passport, which we applied for on Monday, is ready to picked up. So...sometime between now and our trip to the U.S., I'll need to head to Nikosia again, to pick up Jacob's passport at the U.S. embassy and Elisabeth's at the German consulate. (We applied for Elisabeth's German passport on Monday, too, and the registrar was apologetic that she couldn't give it to us immediately because we'd only arrived ten minutes before they closed. I received the e-mail on Wednesday that it was ready.)
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Latest...lack of news
On Saturday, September 11th, I posted that I hoped to have news by the following Monday regarding having received official permission to homeschool. Not that I really care about that in of itself, but Immigration is making things difficult, saying that they can't issue me with a yellow slip (permission to live here indefinitely and leave and enter the country at will) until my children are either in school or I've received permission to homeschool.
So...has there been progress? Nope, not really. Monday the 13th came and went, no news. On Sunday, September 19th, our acquaintance, X, called me and said that he would definitely have news for us the following day, that he had convinced the Minister of Education that if he doesn't deal with us quickly, then we will go to the media and it could cause a huge publicity problem for him. At this point, I'm willing to go the media...I think. If they were to come to us, I know I'd have something to say, anyway.
Monday the 20th came and went.
On Thursday the 23rd, X called and said that if we could be at a certain location here in Larnaka on Friday the 24th, where the Minister of Education had a meeting planned, we would be able to meet with him. Our friend Annika, visiting us from Germany, willingly babysat five children and we dressed up (well, my husband did--instead of shorts and a t-shirt, he wore LONG trousers, a SHIRT, a TIE, and a JACKET!!!) and set off. After we'd waited for about 45 minutes, the receptionist told us that she'd had a phone call. I'm not entirely sure whether the phone call was from X, who had received a phone call from the secretary of the M of E, or if the phone call WAS from the secretary of the M of E. Either way, she said that the M of E had had to go deal with an emergency with his daughter at school, and so wouldn't be coming to Larnaka after all. So we went home. (But had very much enjoyed getting to sit and talk with each other uninterrupted for nearly an hour--it was like a date! :-) )
That evening, my husband looked up the M of E's biography on the internet: according to the internet, he has two sons, no daughters.
A couple of days later, X called again, said that he was sorry that the meeting with the M of E didn't work out, that there'd been a miscommunication and he only went to some villages, not into the city of Larnaka.
Yes, I'm aware that these messages don't match up. All I'm doing is reporting what I was told. It could be that there'd been a miscommuication and he was only going to the villages, but that was cancelled because he had to deal with an emergency with his son...or his granddaughter...or a friend's daughter...or someone else entirely. So maybe nobody actually lied.
Anyway, X then called me again on Sunday, October 3rd, and said that the District Minister of Education, Mr. Th., would phone me on Monday. As my cell phone doesn't ring, I carried it around with me all day. (Except while I left it in the car while at the U.S. embassy applying for a new passport for Jacob, as his passport expired in February and we only noticed it last Thursday. But there was no message of a missed call when I came out.) No phone call. Tuesday I talked with X's significant other, C, to ask for Mr. Th.'s phone number, and she told me to text X, so I did. No answer from him.
This morning, I got a phone call from my friend S, through whom we have the contact with X. X had apparently called S's husband, R, who called S because he didn't have my number on his new phone, and S called me, to tell me to call the location where we were supposed to have the meeting, as the District M of E was possibly there.
So...I called there. Happily, I was able to talk with E, whom I know, and who speaks excellent English. She said that the D M of E was only likely to be there a few more minutes. I told her I could be there in 10, and planned how I was going to call S and ask her if I could drop off several children, and I rushed to make sure everyone had clothes on (it may be October, but it still feels like summer to us...), but E said she'd wait and talk with the D M of E first, and ask if I could talk with him, and either he would call me or she would call me back. Within five minutes, she'd called to say that he had already left, but yes, she did speak to him. He said, "Mother of six children? Yes, we know all about it--we're just checking to see if the children are being educated." I asked E exactly HOW he was checking, if he won't talk with us or visit us or answer any messages!! E, of course, has nothing to do with any of it, but was sympathetic and said that things move slowly here in Cyprus, and to keep bugging him.
I'll keep trying...
So...has there been progress? Nope, not really. Monday the 13th came and went, no news. On Sunday, September 19th, our acquaintance, X, called me and said that he would definitely have news for us the following day, that he had convinced the Minister of Education that if he doesn't deal with us quickly, then we will go to the media and it could cause a huge publicity problem for him. At this point, I'm willing to go the media...I think. If they were to come to us, I know I'd have something to say, anyway.
Monday the 20th came and went.
On Thursday the 23rd, X called and said that if we could be at a certain location here in Larnaka on Friday the 24th, where the Minister of Education had a meeting planned, we would be able to meet with him. Our friend Annika, visiting us from Germany, willingly babysat five children and we dressed up (well, my husband did--instead of shorts and a t-shirt, he wore LONG trousers, a SHIRT, a TIE, and a JACKET!!!) and set off. After we'd waited for about 45 minutes, the receptionist told us that she'd had a phone call. I'm not entirely sure whether the phone call was from X, who had received a phone call from the secretary of the M of E, or if the phone call WAS from the secretary of the M of E. Either way, she said that the M of E had had to go deal with an emergency with his daughter at school, and so wouldn't be coming to Larnaka after all. So we went home. (But had very much enjoyed getting to sit and talk with each other uninterrupted for nearly an hour--it was like a date! :-) )
That evening, my husband looked up the M of E's biography on the internet: according to the internet, he has two sons, no daughters.
A couple of days later, X called again, said that he was sorry that the meeting with the M of E didn't work out, that there'd been a miscommunication and he only went to some villages, not into the city of Larnaka.
Yes, I'm aware that these messages don't match up. All I'm doing is reporting what I was told. It could be that there'd been a miscommuication and he was only going to the villages, but that was cancelled because he had to deal with an emergency with his son...or his granddaughter...or a friend's daughter...or someone else entirely. So maybe nobody actually lied.
Anyway, X then called me again on Sunday, October 3rd, and said that the District Minister of Education, Mr. Th., would phone me on Monday. As my cell phone doesn't ring, I carried it around with me all day. (Except while I left it in the car while at the U.S. embassy applying for a new passport for Jacob, as his passport expired in February and we only noticed it last Thursday. But there was no message of a missed call when I came out.) No phone call. Tuesday I talked with X's significant other, C, to ask for Mr. Th.'s phone number, and she told me to text X, so I did. No answer from him.
This morning, I got a phone call from my friend S, through whom we have the contact with X. X had apparently called S's husband, R, who called S because he didn't have my number on his new phone, and S called me, to tell me to call the location where we were supposed to have the meeting, as the District M of E was possibly there.
So...I called there. Happily, I was able to talk with E, whom I know, and who speaks excellent English. She said that the D M of E was only likely to be there a few more minutes. I told her I could be there in 10, and planned how I was going to call S and ask her if I could drop off several children, and I rushed to make sure everyone had clothes on (it may be October, but it still feels like summer to us...), but E said she'd wait and talk with the D M of E first, and ask if I could talk with him, and either he would call me or she would call me back. Within five minutes, she'd called to say that he had already left, but yes, she did speak to him. He said, "Mother of six children? Yes, we know all about it--we're just checking to see if the children are being educated." I asked E exactly HOW he was checking, if he won't talk with us or visit us or answer any messages!! E, of course, has nothing to do with any of it, but was sympathetic and said that things move slowly here in Cyprus, and to keep bugging him.
I'll keep trying...
Monday, September 27, 2010
Socks
Being September, and being a barefoot/sandal/imitation Croc-loving family, none of us have worn socks for about five months, with a few rare exceptions. Last Thursday Katie needed a pair of socks for a trial ballet class (she decided against taking ballet, but that's another topic) and couldn't find a matching, hole-less pair in her own drawer, so I pulled out the single-sock drawer in my room and found her a pair of matching, white, hole-less socks. Well and good.
Then I added the rest of the single socks that were piling up on my desk, and the drawer could no longer be closed. We only moved here 20 months ago, and before moving I disposed of ALL single socks and ONLY moved pairs! Truly, I did!
Yesterday I got tired of the drawer sitting on the changing table and decided to do something about it. (Yes, that's Elisabeth's hand in the top left corner.)
Quite a few pairs were matched up.
After I'd had the children claim their socks (with much discussion between Jacob and Lukas about whether Lukas wanted the ones that Jacob had outgrown--which was most of them--and a similar discussion between Marie and Katie), and I'd put away Helen's and Elisabeth's (she has worn a pair of socks ONCE in her entire life, and they apparently got washed separately...), I went to look for more single socks in Katie's drawer, and found five...
...all of which had the matching one in the single-sock drawer.
And there are still a LOT of single socks left! But at least the drawer closes now.
Then I added the rest of the single socks that were piling up on my desk, and the drawer could no longer be closed. We only moved here 20 months ago, and before moving I disposed of ALL single socks and ONLY moved pairs! Truly, I did!
Yesterday I got tired of the drawer sitting on the changing table and decided to do something about it. (Yes, that's Elisabeth's hand in the top left corner.)
Quite a few pairs were matched up.
After I'd had the children claim their socks (with much discussion between Jacob and Lukas about whether Lukas wanted the ones that Jacob had outgrown--which was most of them--and a similar discussion between Marie and Katie), and I'd put away Helen's and Elisabeth's (she has worn a pair of socks ONCE in her entire life, and they apparently got washed separately...), I went to look for more single socks in Katie's drawer, and found five...
...all of which had the matching one in the single-sock drawer.
And there are still a LOT of single socks left! But at least the drawer closes now.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Latest visit to Immigration
We've been in Cyprus for nearly 20 months now, and I still don't have official permission to be here. We applied for "yellow slips" shortly after arriving--a sort of residency permit or visa, which allows the bearer to stay in Cyprus for an unlimited amount of time and to travel in and out of the country at will.
As my husband and children have German citizenship, and are therefore members of the European Union, their applications were relatively straightforward. (I say "relatively" because Immigration did keep changing their requirements and it took six months for the process to be complete, which was rather unnecessary in my Western European-influenced opinion.) As I am married to an EU citizen, my application should have been equally straightforward. It hasn't been.
Here's a far too long post about part of the saga, in November 2009, trying to get proof of medical insurance.
Then the next day I went back to Immigration in Larnaka and was told my paperwork would be sent to Nikosia.
The saga continued...and I was eventually issued with a single-use re-entry visa so that we could visit my family in the U.S. from the end of December.
In February we got back home and continued discussing things with Immigration, and in March they actually phoned and said my yellow slip was ready...and an hour later called back and said it wasn't. More arguments about health insurance, and then almost as an aside, the comment that the children need to be in school. A few days later I drove to Nikosia to discuss it all with them in person. They finally accepted that I have health insurance, but said that they would have to speak with the Ministry of Education about the children's schooling.
That's the last I posted, but events have continued. In April, the police showed up--sent by the Ministry of Education! (I had a hard time not giggling about it, especially as in the heading of my other blog I say that it's nice homeschooling without worrying about the police showing up...we had plenty of threats via letter, but never did actually have the police show up while we lived in Germany.) They took a statement, then met with my husband a second time to rephrase the statement so that they could drop charges, as they found the whole thing ridiculous.
Then a social worker showed up, also sent by the Ministry of Education. She wasn't interested in anything I had to say, just said that it was her job to make sure the children were okay. I wouldn't let her in the house, but offered to let her see the children, but she said that wouldn't be necessary, but would call for an appointment.
Six weeks later, she did call and asked if I'd spoken with my husband yet, and would it be possible for us to come to her office. I said no: I had six children, one of them four days old. Without missing a beat she asked if she could come to us instead, and did so.
She took plenty of notes, but appeared to be extremely skeptical when we told her that the Cypriot embassy in Germany and Immigration authorities in Larnaka had both told us that as non-Cypriots, we were free to homeschool here in Cyprus. She ended by saying that we should be aware that the police might get involved, and was very surprised to find out that the police had long since come and gone!
So by then it was summer, we had a newborn baby, life was busy and not much happens in the offices in the summer anyway. We tried half a dozen times or so to phone Mrs. Evie, but never got an answer. We waited for August to end, and on Monday this week I finally headed up to Nikosia to storm...um, er...to enquire politely at Immigration if they had any news for me.
I didn't get very lost on the way there, which was a nice bonus, and even better, found a parking space in the shade. They've taken down some of the chain-link fence, so it didn't feel quite like walking into a prision this time. Remembering that the doors to the stairwell had been locked last time, I took the elevator to the second floor--and discovered that the door between the stairwell and the elevator was now open, but the door on the other side, into the corridor where the offices are, was locked and said access only to carriers of an access card. In Germany, I would have turned around and gone downstairs to the registration desk. But then again, in Germany, my paperwork would have been finished 18 months ago. Not being in Germany, I stood there for a moment, and when two men went through the door (with an access card), I grabbed the door before it fell closed and simply walked in behind them and down the corridor to Mrs. Evie's office.
Once there I knocked on the door, but there was no answer, so I opened the door to find Mrs. Evie and another lady sitting at their desks. I got straight to the point and said that I've been waiting for 20 months for my yellow slip, they haven't answered the phone, a fax, or an e-mail, I wasn't able to go to my grandfather's funeral (true...but not necessarily totally honest, as I couldn't go anyway because Elisabeth didn't have a passport yet, not to mention it would have been prohibitively expensive...), and I really wanted to go to my sister's wedding in November (the wedding is in December, but we're flying in November), and when would they be finished? Mrs. Evie said, "We don't have e-mail," and then asked me to take a seat while she located my file. She didn't even ask my name.
Once she had the file, she told me that the Ministry of Education had said that we had to put the children in school, and they couldn't give me the yellow slip until I had proof of enrollment for them. I insisted on staying until she'd given me phone numbers for the Ministry of Education, the address, and a map with the location. (I had a map, but seeing as the U.S. embassy, the Ministry of Health, and Immigration have all moved since the map was printed, I wasn't taking any chances. As it turned out, the Ministry of Education IS where it says it is on the map--about a block away from where Mrs. Evie marked it on the map...) During the hour and a half I was in the office, the phone rang at Mrs. Evie's desk half or dozen or so times, and was never answered, either by Mrs. Evie while she was there nor by her colleague while Mrs. Evie herself was out of the office. The phone at her colleague's desk was answered about half of the times it rang.
I'll try to keep the rest short-ish: I went to the Ministry of Education, was led around the building to talk with four or five different people, finally waited an hour to speak with the second-in-command as the Minister of Education was not in the building, and was finally sent off with the address of the Minister, with the advice to write him a letter to ask for an appointment, or just ask directly for permission to homeschool, as it's really not a problem. I also found out while I was there that they had received the reports from the police and from the social worker and then sent the letter to Immigration a month ago saying that our children had to attend school, but of course, nobody could tell me why I'd never been notified by Immigration nor whether the Ministry of Education had any intention of doing anything else about my truant children.
That afternoon my husband happened to run into an acquaintance who has a connection with the Ministry of Education. On Tuesday I delivered (at his request) a letter to him to explain the situation, and on Thursday he let us know that he's on it, that nobody he spoke with at the Ministry of Education understands why we weren't given permission (not to mention never told we should ask...). He expects to have an answer by Monday.
So watch this space! Maybe, just maybe, I'l have a yellow slip by the end of next week...
As my husband and children have German citizenship, and are therefore members of the European Union, their applications were relatively straightforward. (I say "relatively" because Immigration did keep changing their requirements and it took six months for the process to be complete, which was rather unnecessary in my Western European-influenced opinion.) As I am married to an EU citizen, my application should have been equally straightforward. It hasn't been.
Here's a far too long post about part of the saga, in November 2009, trying to get proof of medical insurance.
Then the next day I went back to Immigration in Larnaka and was told my paperwork would be sent to Nikosia.
The saga continued...and I was eventually issued with a single-use re-entry visa so that we could visit my family in the U.S. from the end of December.
In February we got back home and continued discussing things with Immigration, and in March they actually phoned and said my yellow slip was ready...and an hour later called back and said it wasn't. More arguments about health insurance, and then almost as an aside, the comment that the children need to be in school. A few days later I drove to Nikosia to discuss it all with them in person. They finally accepted that I have health insurance, but said that they would have to speak with the Ministry of Education about the children's schooling.
That's the last I posted, but events have continued. In April, the police showed up--sent by the Ministry of Education! (I had a hard time not giggling about it, especially as in the heading of my other blog I say that it's nice homeschooling without worrying about the police showing up...we had plenty of threats via letter, but never did actually have the police show up while we lived in Germany.) They took a statement, then met with my husband a second time to rephrase the statement so that they could drop charges, as they found the whole thing ridiculous.
Then a social worker showed up, also sent by the Ministry of Education. She wasn't interested in anything I had to say, just said that it was her job to make sure the children were okay. I wouldn't let her in the house, but offered to let her see the children, but she said that wouldn't be necessary, but would call for an appointment.
Six weeks later, she did call and asked if I'd spoken with my husband yet, and would it be possible for us to come to her office. I said no: I had six children, one of them four days old. Without missing a beat she asked if she could come to us instead, and did so.
She took plenty of notes, but appeared to be extremely skeptical when we told her that the Cypriot embassy in Germany and Immigration authorities in Larnaka had both told us that as non-Cypriots, we were free to homeschool here in Cyprus. She ended by saying that we should be aware that the police might get involved, and was very surprised to find out that the police had long since come and gone!
So by then it was summer, we had a newborn baby, life was busy and not much happens in the offices in the summer anyway. We tried half a dozen times or so to phone Mrs. Evie, but never got an answer. We waited for August to end, and on Monday this week I finally headed up to Nikosia to storm...um, er...to enquire politely at Immigration if they had any news for me.
I didn't get very lost on the way there, which was a nice bonus, and even better, found a parking space in the shade. They've taken down some of the chain-link fence, so it didn't feel quite like walking into a prision this time. Remembering that the doors to the stairwell had been locked last time, I took the elevator to the second floor--and discovered that the door between the stairwell and the elevator was now open, but the door on the other side, into the corridor where the offices are, was locked and said access only to carriers of an access card. In Germany, I would have turned around and gone downstairs to the registration desk. But then again, in Germany, my paperwork would have been finished 18 months ago. Not being in Germany, I stood there for a moment, and when two men went through the door (with an access card), I grabbed the door before it fell closed and simply walked in behind them and down the corridor to Mrs. Evie's office.
Once there I knocked on the door, but there was no answer, so I opened the door to find Mrs. Evie and another lady sitting at their desks. I got straight to the point and said that I've been waiting for 20 months for my yellow slip, they haven't answered the phone, a fax, or an e-mail, I wasn't able to go to my grandfather's funeral (true...but not necessarily totally honest, as I couldn't go anyway because Elisabeth didn't have a passport yet, not to mention it would have been prohibitively expensive...), and I really wanted to go to my sister's wedding in November (the wedding is in December, but we're flying in November), and when would they be finished? Mrs. Evie said, "We don't have e-mail," and then asked me to take a seat while she located my file. She didn't even ask my name.
Once she had the file, she told me that the Ministry of Education had said that we had to put the children in school, and they couldn't give me the yellow slip until I had proof of enrollment for them. I insisted on staying until she'd given me phone numbers for the Ministry of Education, the address, and a map with the location. (I had a map, but seeing as the U.S. embassy, the Ministry of Health, and Immigration have all moved since the map was printed, I wasn't taking any chances. As it turned out, the Ministry of Education IS where it says it is on the map--about a block away from where Mrs. Evie marked it on the map...) During the hour and a half I was in the office, the phone rang at Mrs. Evie's desk half or dozen or so times, and was never answered, either by Mrs. Evie while she was there nor by her colleague while Mrs. Evie herself was out of the office. The phone at her colleague's desk was answered about half of the times it rang.
I'll try to keep the rest short-ish: I went to the Ministry of Education, was led around the building to talk with four or five different people, finally waited an hour to speak with the second-in-command as the Minister of Education was not in the building, and was finally sent off with the address of the Minister, with the advice to write him a letter to ask for an appointment, or just ask directly for permission to homeschool, as it's really not a problem. I also found out while I was there that they had received the reports from the police and from the social worker and then sent the letter to Immigration a month ago saying that our children had to attend school, but of course, nobody could tell me why I'd never been notified by Immigration nor whether the Ministry of Education had any intention of doing anything else about my truant children.
That afternoon my husband happened to run into an acquaintance who has a connection with the Ministry of Education. On Tuesday I delivered (at his request) a letter to him to explain the situation, and on Thursday he let us know that he's on it, that nobody he spoke with at the Ministry of Education understands why we weren't given permission (not to mention never told we should ask...). He expects to have an answer by Monday.
So watch this space! Maybe, just maybe, I'l have a yellow slip by the end of next week...
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Justification for my blog name
Oceanside, California, USA
Okinawa, Japan
San Bruno, California, USA
Weimar (two different addresses, three different houses), California, USA
Shin'ichi-cho, Hiroshima-ken, Japan
Tejar del Guarco, Costa Rica
Tuxtla Gutiérrez (three different addresses), Mexico
Düsseldorf (three different addresses), Germany
Essen, Germany
Bornheim, Germany
Ratingen-Lintorf, Germany
Ratingen-Hösel, Germany
Mühleim an der Ruhr, Germany
Lakeside, Montana, USA
Muizenberg, South Africa
Larnaka, Cyprus
So these are just the places where I've actually lived long enough to receive mail. (Well, I can't say whether I received any in Okinawa, Japan--I was three years old and don't remember. But we were there for two months.) I didn't count week-long summer camps, where I also received mail, but I also didn't count the two months in Thailand nor the two weeks in Peru in 2006, nor any place that I was only visiting "for the fun of it", as it were, such as visiting my brother in New Mexico or friends in Switzerland, etc.
Okay, here goes with ALL the countries I've visited:
North and Central America:
United States (still the single country in which I've spent the most time, living there most of the time until age 20, with numerous visits back since then)
Mexico (11 months with an exchange program and one one-week visit)
Costa Rica (ten visits, ranging from two weeks to seven weeks, first time as an exchange student)
Guatemala (one day-trip and several plane changes)
Panama, Honduras (only plane stops--don't really count)
South America:
Peru (two weeks to visit a mission we were considering joining)
Europe:
Germany (just under 17 years altogether, 17 1/3 years from when I moved there to when I left, plus one visit since leaving)
Cyprus (current location, moved here 20 months ago)
United Kingdom (England five or six times to visit friends, usually five days each, and once for two weeks, Wales once only because I took the ferry from there to Ireland)
Ireland (several days while traveling around Europe by train one summer)
Norway (once while traveling around Europe, twice to visit people)
Sweden (really shouldn't count--drove through on a bus to get to Finland from Norway)
Finland (a couple of days to visit a friend)
Denmark (once while traveling around Europe, one day in Legoland)
Netherlands (many times: lived less than an hour from the border when I lived in Germany)
Belgium (one day in Brussels, several days house-hunting, and other times passing through to get the ferry to Dover from Calais)
France (once on vacation with the family I nannied, many times passing through by plane, train, or automobile)
Switzerland (half a dozen times at least, the longest a two-week backpacking trip with my aunt)
Austria (two days once, and drove through from Switzerland to Germany once)
Italy (three days in Venice)
Spain (one week visiting friends)
Czech Republic (only changing planes)
Africa:
South Africa (four months with YWAM)
Asia:
Japan (two months while my dad was in the U.S. Marines, one month as an exchange student when I was 15)
Thailand (two months with YWAM)
South Korea (really only changing planes on the way to Thailand, but got to go into Seoul during the 12-hour layover)
Okinawa, Japan
San Bruno, California, USA
Weimar (two different addresses, three different houses), California, USA
Shin'ichi-cho, Hiroshima-ken, Japan
Tejar del Guarco, Costa Rica
Tuxtla Gutiérrez (three different addresses), Mexico
Düsseldorf (three different addresses), Germany
Essen, Germany
Bornheim, Germany
Ratingen-Lintorf, Germany
Ratingen-Hösel, Germany
Mühleim an der Ruhr, Germany
Lakeside, Montana, USA
Muizenberg, South Africa
Larnaka, Cyprus
So these are just the places where I've actually lived long enough to receive mail. (Well, I can't say whether I received any in Okinawa, Japan--I was three years old and don't remember. But we were there for two months.) I didn't count week-long summer camps, where I also received mail, but I also didn't count the two months in Thailand nor the two weeks in Peru in 2006, nor any place that I was only visiting "for the fun of it", as it were, such as visiting my brother in New Mexico or friends in Switzerland, etc.
Okay, here goes with ALL the countries I've visited:
North and Central America:
United States (still the single country in which I've spent the most time, living there most of the time until age 20, with numerous visits back since then)
Mexico (11 months with an exchange program and one one-week visit)
Costa Rica (ten visits, ranging from two weeks to seven weeks, first time as an exchange student)
Guatemala (one day-trip and several plane changes)
Panama, Honduras (only plane stops--don't really count)
South America:
Peru (two weeks to visit a mission we were considering joining)
Europe:
Germany (just under 17 years altogether, 17 1/3 years from when I moved there to when I left, plus one visit since leaving)
Cyprus (current location, moved here 20 months ago)
United Kingdom (England five or six times to visit friends, usually five days each, and once for two weeks, Wales once only because I took the ferry from there to Ireland)
Ireland (several days while traveling around Europe by train one summer)
Norway (once while traveling around Europe, twice to visit people)
Sweden (really shouldn't count--drove through on a bus to get to Finland from Norway)
Finland (a couple of days to visit a friend)
Denmark (once while traveling around Europe, one day in Legoland)
Netherlands (many times: lived less than an hour from the border when I lived in Germany)
Belgium (one day in Brussels, several days house-hunting, and other times passing through to get the ferry to Dover from Calais)
France (once on vacation with the family I nannied, many times passing through by plane, train, or automobile)
Switzerland (half a dozen times at least, the longest a two-week backpacking trip with my aunt)
Austria (two days once, and drove through from Switzerland to Germany once)
Italy (three days in Venice)
Spain (one week visiting friends)
Czech Republic (only changing planes)
Africa:
South Africa (four months with YWAM)
Asia:
Japan (two months while my dad was in the U.S. Marines, one month as an exchange student when I was 15)
Thailand (two months with YWAM)
South Korea (really only changing planes on the way to Thailand, but got to go into Seoul during the 12-hour layover)
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Not exactly an introduction
Friends' reports were correct: this website is very easy to use and photos upload quickly. It took two tries for me to convince Blogger that I wanted THIS time zone, but it's now set correctly. The only question I have is that since I corrected the time zone and it re-dated and re-timed my first post automatically (and correctly), does that mean that if I post from a different time zone, my choices will be either to let the computer think I'm still in Cyprus, OR to have it reset the times for ALL previous posts?
In the meantime, I've now posted a profile photo, a photo that my friend Peggy took of me a few weeks ago, while I was breastfeeding my two youngest children at the computer.
(I had two breastfeeding children when we first got internet connection and e-mail almost 11 years ago and my friend Amy sent me a list of common abbreviations--LOL, DH, DD, DS, and so on. I printed the list out for easy reference, and one day I read NAK in an e-mail from her. I couldn't remember that one and wrote back, "What does NAK stand for? I don't have the list within reach and I'm nursing Jacob and don't feel like moving." She of course wrote back ROFLOL because I'd not been able to look up NAK because I was NAK: Nursing At Keyboard.)
Anyway (I say "anyway" a lot, which I have to, to get back on track after my paranthetical comments, which have a tendency to be longer than the original ones), the photo seemed a good choice because I'm not often on the computer and NOT NAK, although I don't usually have both children at once. Ironically enough, I started the last paragraph with my 11-week-old in the bouncy chair and my thisclosetotwo-year-old climbing on my husband, but I'm now NAK tandem while I sit cross-legged on the couch, the laptop balanced between one knee and the piano bench... (Baby in the cradle hold, older child in the football hold, for anyone who's interested. In the photo, they're the other way around. I also often have both in the football hold, but the little one is now too big to comfortably have them both in the cradle hold at the same time.)
I'm trying to remember if I had a point? I think I was going to list the places I've lived, but I don't think I feel like it now. On e-mail lists I always signed myself "Sheila in Germany" or "Sheila-usually-in-Germany" (for when I was, um, writing while not in Germany...) until we moved to Cyprus in January 2009, so for awhile I was then "Sheila-in-Cyprus-but-was-in-Germany" and finally got comfortable with "Sheila in Cyprus." But at some confusing point--I think it was while we were in South Africa, but going back to Germany after a few months and I knew we'd be moving to Cyprus eventually--I joined a homeschool forum and had to give a name, so settled on "Sheila Somewhere." That name, at least, will always be accurate. Since this blog has no stated purpose except for me to have fun rambling without feeling that I'm imposing on anyone, I couldn't come up with any more accurate name than that.
Here's a photo of my second-youngest daughter, Helen, who will be two years old on Sunday. This photo isn't one of her cutest, but I'm posting it because although it's from a couple of weeks ago this is about what she looks like at the moment ("Mommy-get off the computer!"). And besides, it's so easy posting photos and I don't know what else to put here!
The photo in the first post is, fairly obviously, our whole family, taken about two and a half hours after my youngest daughter, Elisabeth, was born. :-)
And now, having rambled about nothing in particular, I have to come up with a title for this post.
In the meantime, I've now posted a profile photo, a photo that my friend Peggy took of me a few weeks ago, while I was breastfeeding my two youngest children at the computer.
(I had two breastfeeding children when we first got internet connection and e-mail almost 11 years ago and my friend Amy sent me a list of common abbreviations--LOL, DH, DD, DS, and so on. I printed the list out for easy reference, and one day I read NAK in an e-mail from her. I couldn't remember that one and wrote back, "What does NAK stand for? I don't have the list within reach and I'm nursing Jacob and don't feel like moving." She of course wrote back ROFLOL because I'd not been able to look up NAK because I was NAK: Nursing At Keyboard.)
Anyway (I say "anyway" a lot, which I have to, to get back on track after my paranthetical comments, which have a tendency to be longer than the original ones), the photo seemed a good choice because I'm not often on the computer and NOT NAK, although I don't usually have both children at once. Ironically enough, I started the last paragraph with my 11-week-old in the bouncy chair and my thisclosetotwo-year-old climbing on my husband, but I'm now NAK tandem while I sit cross-legged on the couch, the laptop balanced between one knee and the piano bench... (Baby in the cradle hold, older child in the football hold, for anyone who's interested. In the photo, they're the other way around. I also often have both in the football hold, but the little one is now too big to comfortably have them both in the cradle hold at the same time.)
I'm trying to remember if I had a point? I think I was going to list the places I've lived, but I don't think I feel like it now. On e-mail lists I always signed myself "Sheila in Germany" or "Sheila-usually-in-Germany" (for when I was, um, writing while not in Germany...) until we moved to Cyprus in January 2009, so for awhile I was then "Sheila-in-Cyprus-but-was-in-Germany" and finally got comfortable with "Sheila in Cyprus." But at some confusing point--I think it was while we were in South Africa, but going back to Germany after a few months and I knew we'd be moving to Cyprus eventually--I joined a homeschool forum and had to give a name, so settled on "Sheila Somewhere." That name, at least, will always be accurate. Since this blog has no stated purpose except for me to have fun rambling without feeling that I'm imposing on anyone, I couldn't come up with any more accurate name than that.
The photo in the first post is, fairly obviously, our whole family, taken about two and a half hours after my youngest daughter, Elisabeth, was born. :-)
And now, having rambled about nothing in particular, I have to come up with a title for this post.
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