Carla wrote:

Hi all!!
Helen and Elvern....I heard so many great stories of the parade! Tika thought the Sun City Twirlers were especially funny. What a treat you gave them in taking them to such a big event!

Monday the girls were up at 5:30 am, Tika said. A bit anxious! Tara was placed in the same class as the boy Tunka, who lives upstairs. Her teacher is Mrs. Murphy, and she has a room full! At least 5 languages represented. Pray for her! Mrs. Murphy was very thrilled to know that there is a support team around Tara and her family. Backpacks are not allowed at Cactus Wren, but there was a binder in the closet at home so she is set for school supplies. I reminded him that she needs a bike lock and told him that Fry's sells them. He wanted me to take his cash and go buy one but I said no, he needed to do it.

Then we hit Cortez High School, and met some confusion, but worked it all out. The girls have 4 classes together, and lunch. We walked through their schedule so they could find their classes easily. Cortez has 1300 students. My high school had 700. I felt anxious more than they did probably!! Their classes are very close together so it should be easy today. Lunch presented a brief problem as they had not been given the free lunch application on their visit in December, so they would have had to pay $3 each for lunch...that would have been $30 a week, until their application was processed. I pushed for a quick answer so the cafeteria manager said they could have free lunch this week and she would push their application through faster. They only have one textbook, Algebra I. They had to buy gym clothes so I'll submit the receipt for reimbursement. Cortez has very strict dress codes, including NO clothes with any writing on it. So upon our return to their apartment we went through their closet and had to eliminate about half of their few clothes, including that cute Roxy t-shirt that Uma got for Christmas.

Tika went with Billy and me to meet the Iraqi family and to deliver some clothes for one of the families. We also went by the LSS office to meet Ganga who had the paperwork for DES financial assistance for Tika to sign. He is to go over to Ganga's today, on his own, to get the application for the janitorial service company that has hired several Nepali's. Ganga said those applicants who go down there with an LSS worker generally do not get hired but those who go down wtih an American friend and who don't mention LSS generally get hired. To my knowledge, Tika has had no contact with any jobs placement staff from LSS. Neither have the Iraqi families. Thaer told me the jobs placement person told him to find a job on his own. Who really knows what is true, but it's obvious Tika has not had any assistance from the job developer. Tika and Thaer were commiserating about how little help they are getting. Tika was supposed to help Billy and me move some donated furniture but we ran out of time. Billy and I checked out the stuff....there is a dining table and chairs, though I don't know how large because we didn't get to see it. We did see a hutch and a very large entertainment center that will take a truck to move. But it's all free! So if you know who could use it, let me know.

Ann, thanks for taking Kamala to exchange the pants.

I continue to be impressed with how well supported and encouraged this family is and how much they appreciate our friendship.

Have a good week.
Carla