Independence Day Celebrations in Tela

Wednesday of last week we had our very first field trip. Unfortunately, this wasn't at all an educational field trip, this was yet another waste of time dedicated to the Independence Day parade which was last Friday, Sept. 14. Our entire school, along with all the other elementary schools in town, went to visit another school in town, where they elected a Independence Day Princess. Sara and I were irrigated to find out that it was pretty much a smaller version of a Miss America pageant, the only thing missing was the bathing suit competition! It amazes me that the entire town thinks that it is normal to waste so much time on superficial things like this! Of course the kids didn't get any time in the classroom, the entire day was spent watching this "show." The little girl form our school was voted as princess, and as you can see by the pictures our students were very excited. The other pictures from the day show how our entire school squeezed into ONE BUS, including all the teachers and students!The bus clearly states maximum capacity is 71 people, but as I'm quickly learning, nobody here ever pays attention to safety when driving, mind you, these pictures were taken WHILE THE BUS WAS MOVING!!Friday was the big Independence Day Parade for all the Private Elementary schools. Sara and I woke up bright and early to meet the kids at one of the big parks in the center of town, where the parade was going to start. As I said before, so much preparation was put into this big day. The last hour of school for the past 3 weeks was spent practicing how to march, and on Thursday, the day before the parade, we had to practice from 2:30-5:00!! Needless to say Sara and I were pretty fed up with all this time being wasted, and as for the kids, those poor guys were just as tired of marching as we were! We both tried to hide out in our classrooms and actually teach for as long as we could before someone came to our door to remind us that it was time to practice! So at 8:00 Friday morning, Sara and I were anxious to see how all of this preparation was going to look! I was in charge of marching with the Honor Roll Students along with the first grade teacher, Marlon. Sara was in charge of walking with the princess that had been elected from our school a few days earlier. The parade took 4 hours to walk about 8 blocks! We were going so slow because all the schools, including ours, had different band and cheer leading routines where the kids had to stop and perform. Let me highlight this very vital part......THE KIDS WERE NOT EVEN MARCHING, THEY WERE WALKING because the parade was moving so slow!!!! So, basically all the hours we spent practicing how to march, were even more a waste of time than we thought!! One thing that made things even worse was the intense heat! I myself, was about to pass out just walking, but all the poor kids had costumes, many of them with long sleeves and gloves, and they had to dance around the entire time!
The saddest part is that this has been a tradition year after year, meaning that the same huge amounts of time are taken from learning in the classroom , to prepare to "march" for this parade. And year after year, the kids end up walking instead of marching, and everyone thinks this is normal!
After the parade Sara and I were able to look forward to our long weekend. We had the following Monday and Tuesday off for Independence Day and Teacher's Day. More about the rest of our weekend coming soon......