The School´s 44th Anniversary

(The coronation, complete with dancing. Those faces really tell the story...of cattiness at age 5 and beyond.)

Every year the school I work at celebrates the anniversary of its founding. As is customary for celebrations, the school erected a rancho, under which the festitivies took place. On Monday, May 28 (the actual day of its founding), the school had a Catholic mass to thank God for their successes and pray for good fortune in their future endeavors. The priest showed up Panamanian time (later than expected) and was requested by the principal to bless the newly constructed bathrooms before saying mass, but aside from that, everything went off without a hitch.


(So odd to me...)

Thursday, May 31, was the real celebration. The school invited dignitaries like the mayor, the district representative, and the Regional Supervisor of the Ministry of Education, as well as other school from the area. The first half was a very formal ceremony to honor certain special people given certificates for their service to the school. Then the Regional Supervisor and the principal each gave a speech. It was all fine and good, but one thing about speeches here annoys me. They have a very strict structure and everyone is essentially required to do the following:
-welcome all important people by name and title
-thank all those people again at the end of the speech

However, once that was all over, the fun began, known as the acto cultural. I, along with two other teachers, served as the Master of Ceremonies. I suppose because of the rural location of the school and the connection to farming and horses and all that, the anniversary always has a cowboy theme. And of course, with all celebrations, there was a coronation of one of the elementary school girls. So, little chicas from Kindergarten to 6th grade got dressed up in cowgirl outfits and full makeup. The coronation of the queen is determined by a fundraising contest. Whichever girl raises the most money wins, and ALL contestants´ parents get to keep half the money they raise. Crazy concept to me. But it was so cute. Then other small groups came up and danced, recited poetry, and acted out short stories. One little boy even dressed up and performed a routine to a Michael Jackson mix. It proved that the kids like to dance, which I might take advantage of in the form of some side project. When all that was over they turned on the music and some of the adults (myself included) danced. They served food and had a friendly soccer game with a team from a neighboring community.


(Preparing the señoritas)


(The queen/winner of the fundraising contest with her two escorts. This could be a weird ad campaign for kids, couldn´t it? Those faces are so...unique.)


(In this picture, upper Elementary school kids are dancing in a group they call the Bomberos, the Firemen. What a coincidence! They set off fireworks that lit streamers on the rancho up in flames. Nearly burned down the whole darn thing.)


(Hey y´all! Never thought I´d ever wear a cowboy hat, but there it is.)