Again

Schools. Transportation.

You'd think that it would have all worked out by now. But no.

I moved Iyyar's gan to a closer and I hope more appropriate gan for him. He started there a month ago, just for camp, which I think was a good intro; smaller group, more mellow with the schedule, more fun stuff. He's liked it so far and the ganenet, who will not the same as the one he'll have in the fall, has seemed positive about how he's been doing. Avtalyon will be there too; like many ganim here, it's one school with two classrooms, one for the younger kids and one for the older kids. So that part is good.

What's less good is that it's not all that much easier to get to. Faster, but not easier. It's still up a lot of steps and, more problematic, across a really dangerous-to-cross street; the only way to do it safely is to take the bus (the bus!) up two stops to the next crosswalk, cross the street and then walk back down. To get home, that's not practical because you'd have to haul the kids straight up a really big hill. However, it is easier to cross in the other direction, because of the curve of the road--you can at least see what is coming. So that's something. But it's still really not ideal.

Bigger problem: Barak's transportation. The school has been a great fit for him, he had a really good year and I don't want to move him. But it is looking increasingly unlikely that there will be any kind of a bus. Why? Well.

Because they are opening a new boys' elementary school, literally five minutes from our front door. Opening with first grade only.

I can't even express how I feel about this. If it had been here last year, when we came, my year would have been completely transformed. He could have walked by himself. It's up some stairs, down the driveway, through a gate and up four steps. There you are. Now, not only can we not avail ourselves of it, but the fact that they are opening means that all the boys--all EIGHT boys--who were registered in Barak's school for the fall, and who wanted to arrange a bus, are now going there. Naturally enough. So not only was the school not there when we needed it, it is now taking away the bus that I thought Barak would have.

Anyway. Nothing I can do about the school. But the hasaa. I cannot, and I really mean cannot, do again what I did this year. I don't have a hasaa for the two younger boys. Marika is no longer in the Snugli. Mr. Bigfoot has some part-time work. For me to take them all, and I feel sick just thinking about this, would entail me taking all three boys on the bus in the morning, stopping halfway up the hill, walking all of them back down, dropping off the younger two, getting back on the bus with Barak, taking it to the city entrance, and walking him up the hill another 15-20 minutes to his school before continuing on to my ulpan. It means taking the long slow bus instead of the short fast bus we took last year, and it also makes us vulnerable to rush hour traffic. It's what I was doing the last four weeks, just with Iyyar; one day we hit traffic so bad that Barak was an hour and a half late. For camp it doesn't matter. For school, it does.

And in the afternoon, I would have no choice but to load all three other kids on two buses each way to get him. Every day. Because this past year, the person who took him home half the days was Other Father, who as you may recall was the one responsible for allowing Barak to travel solo to the mall. So he's off the list of Approved Transport Options.

And add to all of this that I am now working more. I have Marika in gan in the mornings because I must, and I really mean must, not only work more but sleep more. I can't do this year again. I can't.

School starts in five weeks. I don't know what to do.