Shift Work

Ah, *sigh*, the children. There are some very beautiful children here – dark eyes with long dark lashes, curls. They are very appealing – and also very adored by all.
I have to say that I haven’t seen so many adored and adorable children in other cities. Beautifully dressed, and the apple of everyone’s eye. Grandparents, parents, friends. I am intrigued that it is the children, especially babies and toddlers who are greeted first when encounters are made in cafés or on the riva at promenade time.
Most families have only one child, one adored child. Which sadly doesn’t help with the population growth in Croatia. Which doesn’t help with school roll numbers or employment for teachers. It’s like the days of country schools in New Zealand which the Ministry of Education felt compelled to close (more because of urban drift than low childbirth rates in those cases though), but it is a sad thing for the small schools in the villages and small towns here. As it is, when a child gets to 12 (high school age) there is a fair bit of travelling involved as not every town has a secondary school facility.
The population growth is a problem in Croatia. It is unusual for a family to have more than two children, and the norm seems to be only one child with this youngest breeding age-group. (Oh, and they do seem young). I noticed an article in the Slobodna Dalmacija recently about a woman who had just had her 13th child – comments were interesting from the ladies that I talk to – but perhaps the most telling was one where the woman paused and said ‘but she is Bosnian’. Ah.
I remember listening to the National Radio in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake, and the fear of the negative impact on students because school facilities were going to have to be shared. Well, here in Makarska¸ and in fact in many schools in Croatia, the schools are attended in shifts. First shift starts at eight in the morning and finishes at about one thirty (I think, by the number of students wandering out of the school at that time), and the next shift starts at two. Those who have attended the early shift will have extra tuition in the afternoon and evening – singing lessons, music lessons, technology lessons for IT and vice versa for those who attend the second shift. Great if you are a teacher - you start at eight and you are finished for the day at one thirty, or have the morning free and then work until eight. And it all seems to work perfectly well – children leave high school (I think it is called gymnasium) well educated, often speaking two foreign languages, and head to university (from Makarska) to either Split or Zadar of Zagreb. Education is important as it is seen as the key to employment, particularly in a country such as this where unemployment is high.
And while we are on the subject of shifts – the local shops have new opening hour signs on their doors – they open at eight in the morning and close at midday. So don’t even think about racing to get your prsut or meso at one o’clock (unless you go to the Konzum). And then they all open up again at five in the evening until eight or eight thirty. How civilized. Parents can go home and have the main meal of the day with their family (that’s the two o’clock meal – evening meal is a snack). All in all its not a bad regime, is it – particularly if you are in a small town where you don’t have to jump in the car to get to work, particularly if you want to catch the evening promenade crowd out for their last purchases of the day. Particularly if it is so hot during the middle of the day and it is cool at home in your apartment….