Immigration Day

Derek and neighbor Becca

Derek, along with the rest of the 5th grade, has been studying immigration. Yesterday I went to Derek's school and read an immigration story to his class and today the 5th graders are staging a mock immigration.

The school lobby is set up to be Ellis Island with immigration officials, judges, etc. The students were assigned a persona which included name, occupation, country, age, etc. Derek's persona is Mario Osborn. He is 43 years old, a potato farmer, and came over in steerage class from Germany. He has a scalp infection and his suitcase contains a few trinkets he hopes to use to favorably influence immigration officials.

Helen was rushing out the door in the morning when she told me quickly that Derek wanted a mustache for Immigration Day. She showed me the mascara and eye liner and gave me some quick instructions. I nodded to confirm that I had it under control.

I came back from my morning run as Derek was getting ready to head to the bus stop. I quickly worked to apply his mustache. I had two containers to choose from and I was proud that I was able to discern the mascara from the eye liner. However, the mascara applicator did not seem to be working. I quickly remembered that Helen said something about maybe needing to sharpen it. So I sharpened it and tried again. Still nothing would come out and Derek's upper lip was getting raw. I gave up, put down the mascara, and told Derek I didn't know what was wrong. Derek picked up the mascara, looked at it, and pulled a cap off the other end. It turns out there are 2 ends to a mascara container (who knew?) and I was working with the eraser end, which won't apply the mascara - even if you sharpen it.