Today, November 20th, celebrates the 102nd anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. Celebrations are big - there are parades and every schoolchild is involved. Upon the request of our students (and out of curiosity as well), Erin and I headed out to La Palma early today to check out the festivities and see our kids in the parade. We arrived to deserted streets only to be informed that the kids had already gone past! We rushed down the road to Rancho Viejo, following the many little footprints in the dust. I felt like Mantracker. Finally we located the school just before the parade returned, and saw lots of our students dressed up as little revolutionaries. There were traditional dances (SO CUTE) and some sort of re-enactment which involved a lot of giggling girls picking up would-be wounded soldiers and carrying them off the field of battle. The boys were dropped none too gently and each one looked more terrified than the last at the gaggle of long skirts and braids rushing towards them. The program was really sweet, and it was cool to see our students performing.
It's been a busy couple of weeks as usual in La Palma and in Jalpa. We've been working on our Adobe projects with the secundaria students, and despite their perpetual embarrassment and incredible eye-rolling stamina, they are coming along. We had one group editing their photos today, and another taking theirs with costumes and props. It's great how different the two projects are - I won't spoil the surprise by revealing too much but I think they'll be very interesting. We also had a guest lecture from the multi-talented Dan (he can play keyboard! AND he can lecture on ethical consumption!), which I think was really useful for the group working on environmental issues.
In primaria, we've been working on understanding a Zapotec myth called, "How the rainbow was born". It's been a steep learning curve for me in terms of what I expected of the kids and what they've actually learned, but I think we're starting to get somewhere with it. Today I got them to writ in role as a character and I got some very cute responses. On Thursday we will be filming them speaking their parts, showing off their puppets, and sending the video to our Canadian penpals - my mom's kindergarten class.
I've posted some photos from the last couple weeks. Check them out, and thanks for reading, as usual.
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