So Monday has rolled around once again, which means once again, I had school this morning. It was another gray and rainy start to the week. After a breakfast of Nutella, bread, and a banana, Juan drove me to the school.
But this morning I was in for a surprise! We only had one and a half classes today because we were going to celebrate international Children’s Day (which was officially yesterday)! Pretty much everyone here celebrates this holiday, which is different than in the United States (as far as I as have never celebrated Children’s Day). It was really nice to be able to experience a new holiday/ tradition.
At 10am, the programming began. All the students gathered in the center quad/soccer field to watch the festivities. First was a guy dressed as Donald Duck (what I would call the unauthorized version). And he was one of the most genuinely terrifying Donald Ducks I’ve ever seen. Literally, the children were screaming and running away from him (in abject horror?) I found it funny, but he did a good job of getting the kids (at least the younger ones) on their feet and dancing. He even did the lift from “Dirty Dancing” with one of the kids, which they are much too young (both in age and generation) to understand. There was also a brief “Thriller” dance and some “Gangnam Style” moves.
After Donald Duck, there were two clowns, who were also kind of frightening, at least in my opinion (I’ve never been the biggest fan of clowns). But my thoughts aside, it was a fun time for the children, especially the little ones. There was a little rain, which made the more uninterested children scatter, but the littlest ones stuck it out through the whole program.
Then it was time for food. I’m not sure why the universal instinct when there is food is to mow down the person in front of you, but alas, it is. The fifteen year olds were ready to trample the six year olds in pursuit of a sandwich and Coke. It was only 11:30am at this point, so the children had an early lunch of bread and ham and individual sodas.
Then it was time for the teachers’ performance. They put on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. It was actually really cute and really well done. All the teachers had a role, from Snow White to the huntsman to the magic mirror.
After, there was a dance contest the kids in which the kids could participate. The ones who did not dance worked on pulling apart the gorgeous flower displays that lined the field.
Dance contest!
I got out early, since there were no more classes for the day. So I walked around town a bit, even though it was raining. I went into some kind of sketchy shops, something which I wouldn’t advise doing. I walked through the market as well. It’s hard to find stores that are open at lunch time, as everything kind of shuts down around 1pm.
At 2pm, I stopped by the radio for a few minutes and saw Mariana and Mariela. Their topic for the next couple of weeks is the Holy Spirit (“El Espirtu Santo”). Then I headed back to the school for English lessons with the seventh graders. We discussed the topic: what is your favorite movie? It’s hard to get 20 something 11 year olds to focus sometimes. Some of them really are good workers, and sit down and work on their exercises, while others would rather do anything but that.
Then I walked back home. I can’t believe it took me so long to realize how quick a walk it really is from the school to my house.
At 5:30pm, I had some herbal tea with Juan. The herbs were from the garden Sr. Marielena keeps outside. I worked on some old blogs a bit and then a small dinner of a banana and Nutella and bread.
Goodnight for now! I have another long day at school ahead of me.
Service in Ecuador 