Jolon's week at school

Jolon has had a busy week. On Wednesday, they made gyoza at school so I sent him with his little apron and a bandana. Gyoza are like little savory pastries with minced pork and garlic filling. The round pastries are about as big as coasters and the kids had to put a teaspoonful of filling inside and carefully fold the dough over and then press it softly around the edges. The report on Jolon was that he was SUPER excited to be doing it, but he couldn't contain himself and just squeezed them way too hard. His hancho (Group leader), Yui, told him not to do it several times and kept reminding him to be careful, but I got the impression Jolon's never turned out very well. He still had a great time trying, I'm sure.

On Thursday they made mud balls in the garden. Making mud balls is an art form in Japan, or at least at Nakayoshi (their school). Ibuki Sensei told me that Jolon had improved lots from the last time they made them. The ball he ended up with was big, round and quite hard, which is the ultimate goal. The kids had made paper boxes to transport them home in and Jan picked up Jolon a little early so he got to see them all. He said the teachers' were like works of art.....very smooth and so hard he felt like they wouldn't have broken if he'd squeezed them as hard as he could. They probably worked on them for a couple of hours.

Today they went for another long walk and a picnic. I sent him with an avocado burger, one bite of fried potato leftover from last night, half of a boiled corn on the cob, a mini-tomato, some fried zucchini, and rice balls. On top of his bento box I put a little packet of ketchup for the burger. That packet of ketchup probably caused quite a stir....perhaps the envy of all his mates? By chance on my way home from university I saw them walking back to the school. Jolon never saw me but I caught a glimpse of him near the front of the pack, holding hands with his good friend, Yura, wearing his big white hat. So cute.