Dia de Independencia

Happy Independence Day (Wed, Sept 15th) Guatemala!

This week has been very special in preparation for Independence Day. Working for La Union (the English School) gives many opportunities to work with other schools in this area. On Mondays and Wednesdays I teach at this Kindergarden school for about an hour and a half in the mornings. (I may also begin teaching at Finca Filadephia which is a large coffee plantation in Antigua.)
On Mon and Wed I leave real early from my house to get to their school on time (it is far from where I live) and because I leave before my cook arrives and I seem to never get breakfast I have a bad habit of buying delicious pastries on my walk. Baked goodness every time!

Instead of teaching them this week I participated in a parade instead. All of Monday the parades were dedicated to all of the young children in school. I arrived in the park around 8:30am to meet with the students and teachers. We stood there in the hot sun for about an hour or so, before the march even began. Can you image standing with 2-6 year olds for over an hour in the sun?? I held so many little kids to keep them from crying. That morning gave me another reason why I am glad I don't have kids yet!!!

The parade was quite fun though. We walked around the park and the main streets of Antigua, marching, singing songs (in English - btw). The children were absolutely adorable in their blue uniforms, with matching hats. The whole thing ended around 11am for us.

Tuesday I met with the same school in the park to march again. This time we were led by a fire truck (maybe? some sort of truck) and followed by another truck. This day was "running of the torches," ....so we ran. It was fun, the children were in a much better mood, and the parents were with us the whole time. We didn't have real torches, clearly, they are only 6 years old. But the other schools that were participating that day, did have lighted torches! We ran around the park and towards the school to an open field were we there was food, drinks, and games provided for the children. The food consisted of bread with beans and cheese in the middle (yum), sandwiches with ham, cheese and mayo (they are obsessed with mayo), and sweets. The games included a pinata, a blow up bouncing thing that they could jump around in, and nail painting. Only in Guatemala would you have people set up tables and chairs to paint nails...so funny!

I went to work later that day, hardly any students showed up, go figure. I am talking like a total of 8 ALL DAY. There was an afternoon parade which was dedicated to students in all elementary and high schools. The bands were excellent and it lasted a lot of the night - until at least 9 or 10pm. They would march all through Antigua - it was pretty fun to watch them. It reminded me of high school and homecoming.

Wednesday - the day of Independence. In the morning all of the bands around town came together at the park and marched around the city. I think it lasted about 4 hours. Many, many bands. Kind of like homecoming times 17. I didn't go to this because 1) it was my day off
2) it was at 8am 3) I was not about to get up before 11am on my day off!!!!
Fortunately for me, there was the same parade at 6pm that night, along with the flag ceremony and the reading of the independence declaration.
Me and some friends showed up in the park around 5pm to people watch and to eat! Yum, I love street food. The ceremony began around 6:30pm and then the bands circled the park. Some bands were really good, including their dancers and the girls with the baton (I don't remember what they are called). One band even played "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga - I was impressed! It lasted for about 3 hours total and was totally worth it.
Today, Thursday - is a normal day in Antigua. The streets are back empty, people are working, and the street food is the gone - except the few that are always around. :)