Remember lots of spoilers.
Chapter Three 1950
Ellie starts school. She walks herself to school following the directions of Uncle Massoud (is her mother depressed? sad? or just useless). She is hoping to meet an amazing girl who will become her best friend. She just meets an annoying girl.
Five weeks later, on a Wednesday, she is heading home for lunch (they get 2 hours!). Her mother makes her pick the stones and grit out of the rice (apparently the mother’s eyes don’t work very well from all of the crying). And then the mother is too tired to prepare anything else, so they have rice and yogurt. On the way back to school she meets the annoying girl, Homa, who, after calling her a donkey asks her to play – hopscotch, 5 stones. They race back to school (Ellie enjoys the running).
This is still a setting the scene chapter. Homa has just been introduced, any sympathy for the mother is declining and Uncle Massoud is taking at least minimal care of them.