It does sound better in Spanish,I have to admit. This is the custom here, to give a school a Saint’s Day – in this case, a very obvious one! So forever more now, Aug 15 is our school’s day. The jollifications began on the afternoon of Friday 15th (after school finished) with a display of the children’s work, origami, glass painting etc (not their usual stuff!!). It then went on all evening with a little service on the school patio and then a traditional Peruvian procession, carrying the Virgin Mary icon + flowers on a bier, borne aloft by various teachers, parents and locals. The tiddlers, dressed as angels(with jumpers underneath!,halos wobbling on wires as they walked in front of it all, carrying little tin cans with burning cedar wood lumps(cheap here) to light the way. This time, we also had the local “teniente gobernador” Jaime Gariza present. He is a Ministry of the Interior officer,(hence the sash) who is there in lieu of a mayor, which they don’t have as yet in Pachacutec. Then back to the school for hot chocolate made with cinnamon….lovely!.
Sunday, was an all-day affair, beginning at 9am until 5pm (when it’s too dark to see or do anything, so that’s the end of the day!). This was called a “gymkhana” – I’ve no idea why as it bears no relationship to the gymkhanas and little Giles girls on ponies! This is like a “fair” – food cooked outside by the mothers, anticuchos (pieces of liver, heavily spiced and barbecued),other hot dishes, maza morada (a spicy jelly served hot with sweet rice)chicha morada (black sweetcorn) to drink – all very welcome on the usual misty day that got steadily colder and colder and wetter and wetter. However, nothing stops the programme there and so it was that 2 classes joined together, dressed in their home-made “Selva” outfits to look like little Indians. Their dresses were made of recycled sand and cement bags (only obvious when one turned round and the name of the cement co. was on the back!), painted and fringed at the bottom. With a few feathers and painted faces, they did look good doing traditional dancing. Each class had done something by way of a “turn”. Then there were various other games and events.
As ever, it was a monumental effort by the teachers – just 4 of them and some mothers to help – and then back to work on Monday.
The whole occasion was made even more poignant by the fact that Aug.15th was the first anniversary too of the terrible earthquake of last year, that claimed thousands of lives in the end and left 10’s of thousands homeless. I was, as ever, very happy to be there and proud of them all.