Maia asked this question frequently in the lead up to arriving in Bali. The poignancy particularly struck me when she asked me this during the drive out of the Northwest Territories. There we were surrounded by whites and grays of winter in the sub arctic thinking about what colour Bali would be.
A few days after our arrival in Bali I posed her question back to her a couple of days ago and her answer was a very certain “GREEN!” She's so right. This inland area that we're living in is most certainly green. There are trees everywhere, the rocks are covered in lichen and moss, there are green vines hanging off the houses and from the trees, ferns thrust out of the rockery, long lush ivy coil along the sides of the road, and there are the ubiquitous palms and rice paddies to intensify the green.
Maia has started school half days at Green School. Today we dropped her off and left the campus for the morning. She had packed her own lunch last night and proudly placed her lunch containers in the correct basket when she got to her class, which is an open air building constructed out of bamboo poles and thatch. It's near the mud wrestling pit (!) and close to the pig pen and the chicken coop that Chloe's class pulled down in preparation for rebuilding a new one. There is a distinct barn yard smell in her classroom.
Maia was happy to see a Spiderman costume in the costume box first thing today so I helped her change into her favourite outfit. When we picked her up at lunch the teachers were delighted with how articulate and engaged she was. And she seemed completely happy too. With the exception of her little face being red as a rose from the heat that we're all still adjusting to, she was very happy and seems quite at home with her role as a school girl. I'm preparing myself for her to ask to stay all day like the other kids, but will wait for her on that one.
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