Dancing and Chatting

Dancing

            Today was the big party at my school.  When I got to school, all of the teachers were there and only a few kids, helping to set up and get things clean and organized.  I helped make “books” out of cardboard and paper to be used as props for one of the dances and I helped hang paper chains that I had help make earlier in the week.  At 9:30 Vanessa and the principal led a procession of students holding the Virgen del Rosario to the church on the main square.  I sat with the kids in the pews of the Spanish church built around 1580 and there was a mass.  Like any religious gathering when the majority of attendees are between the ages of three and five, there was a lot of fidgeting, talking, and running around (it kind of reminded me of being at family services at JRC).  My favorite part was when the priest came around with holy water which he sprinkled on all the kids and the kids kept jumping on him and asking to be sprayed again.  He took this surprisingly well and did spray them with the water again.  Much of the service was dedicated to blessing the “mischievous” kids.

            After the mass, we were greeted outside by a teacher and some of her students from another school who were carrying a flag and they led the procession of the kids holding the Virgen del Rosario back to the kindergarten.  When we got back, there was a mad rush to organize and distribute all of the costumes, that the teachers had rented in Cusco, for the dances .  All the moms and some dads were there to help their kids get changed.  And then the parents got changed into their costumes too.

            The dancing started outside in the schoolyard in the sun with the three year olds.  It was really funny watching these kids who had basically no idea what they were doing but looked adorable in their costumes.  And the schoolyard was packed with people - teachers from surrounding schools and towns, older students from two or three other schools in San Salvador, parents, friends, and people from the municipality.  Since my class is the biggest, the girls were put with the 4 year old class and the boys danced alone.  When the girls from my class started to dance the sky clouded over and halfway through it started to pour.  Although the people watching started to sprint for shelter, I was amazed that these 4 and 5 year olds stayed smiling and dancing like nothing was happening.  Eventually, Vanessa made the other teacher stop the music and got everyone inside.  We watched it pour for twenty minutes and the yard fill with mud.  Vanessa made the decision to have the boys (the last group of students to dance) dance in a classroom and we quickly made room for them by pushing the chairs and tables to the outside of the room.  It was fun watching each class dance because you could really see the progression in skill from year to year.

            By the time the 5 year old boys were done dancing, the sky had cleared and the parents danced in the mud.  It was kind of boring watching the parents because they really didn’t know what they were doing and it wasn’t made up for by them being cute.

            After all the dancing it was time for a big lunch of cuy!  During the dances, I watched the parents bring in huge buckets of roasted cuy and giant pans of pasta mixed with hot dogs.  I was so glad that I had the excuse to go home - I hadn’t told my host family I would be missing lunch so I had to get home for lunch there.  I have never been happier to eat lentils.

Chatting

            This morning, a woman who is frequently in the collectivo with me from Pisac to San Salvador introduced herself and asked me what I was doing in Peru.  I was able to have a short conversation with Ruth (a teacher in San Salvador at another school who also came to the party at my school) and felt very proud of my Spanish.  Even though it wasn’t much (where are you from, what are you doing here, etc.) it was fun to have a relatively quick conversation where I didn’t feel like I was holding it up with too many ums and ahs and actually understood what she was saying the first time she said it.  Now I have two friends to ride to school with, Ruth and Estelle.  Estelle is a teacher from Qosqoayllu which is a town near San Salvador, who also made the effort to ask me about myself a couple weeks ago.

            This afternoon, when I was shopping in the Pisac market, I ran into a woman who is a host mom in Pisac.  I have met her through other volunteers a couple of times.  I chatted with her about how it is my last week here and that I really like Pisac, especially for the market.  It was fun to talk to her and have this second biggish (for me) conversation in Spanish for the day.

Some of my students in their costumes!