colliding worldviews
by the accommodation-sorter
Riga, Latvia
On The Bus
There’s something about sitting next to a non-stop chatterbox for five hours!
For a few minutes, as Tgirl5 processes observations that the rest of the world is not exactly like our family, the conversation goes like this:
T: Heaps of people don’t say grace aye?
M: No, well some people don’t know God so they don’t understand that God provides their food.
T: So they don’t give thanks?
M: No, because they don’t know….
T: English?
M: People can give thanks in any language. How do you say “thank you” in Lao?
T: Kop chai la lai!
M: That’s right, so people in Laos could say thank you to God, couldn’t they?
T: Oh yeah!
Off The Bus
I see her. She’s the only one standing there with two small children, so I feel confident it’s her.
”Liga?” She nods, and two strangers, we embrace.
Then scramble quickly to get bags off the bus.
We have travelled halfway round the world since receiving Liga’s invitation to visit. She has travelled two hours by train to meet us in the capital, because we are not going to be able to take up her full offer of staying with her family in their village. (Having had a 5 o’clock start this morning and with a 21+ hour overnight bus trip ahead tomorrow, we don’t consider an extra two hours on a train and another 5am start to be conducive to a successful long distance excursion, so we opt for a night in a hostel instead – and settle for a day with Liga and her girls, looking round town and chatting together).
We embark on our third Baltic town in a little over a week, each unique, but all similar. Our Baltic Bash is drawing to a close.
old buildings
history
beautiful parks
music
Independence Monument
(where people were not allowed to lay wreaths during Communist times)
architecture
Off The Cards
Home education, except under almost-impossible exceptional circumstances, is illegal in Latvia. Even for someone like Liga, who has a horticulture degree and is currently studying education. She feels passionate about educating her girls for social, familial, religious and academic reasons, but this is a freedom not afforded to her. Does anyone want to join me in writing to the Latvian government, beseeching them to reconsider their legal requirements for education?
Tags: children, history, learning, parenting, postcard: Latvia, quote, recreation, transport
rayres
Regarding the Latvian homeschool stance, interesting. I heard there is a similar rule in Germany actually, have you heard about it there?
(In the USA a few months ago huge controversy erupted because California decided you can’t homeschool kids without an education degree- I suspect it will be overturned though.)