Feliz Dia Mama!

As you know, tomorrow is Mother's Day.  Here in Honduras, it is a huge celebration.  All of the schools do something special for mom.  Our kids have prepared all week for this special celebration.  I imagine that Mother's Day is a bit of a sad day for the kids at CdE because their biological mother's are not a regular part of their lives.  However, I am very happy that we can be here to love them, and I hope they know it.

A few of the kids were told they had to be at the school at 8:00 this morning, so instead of starting the day at 7:00 like we usually do on Saturdays, we began the day like a school day.  Everyone finished the chores and was ready to go to school for the program.  None of the teachers of the kids who were supposed to be there at 8:00 arrived until about 8:45.  The program was supposed to start at 9:30, and in true Honduran fashion, the program actually started about 10:30. 

Fortunately, the teachers put on some music that kept most of our kids distracted from the boredom of waiting.  Also, the mayor of Santa Ana sent a Mariachi band to entertain us for a while.  As annoying as mariachis can be I find some great level of enjoyment any time they show up anywhere.

Almost all of our school-age children participated in their classes skit or skits.  Our first graders, Maryuri and Guadalupe wore traditional Honduran dresses, and each danced with a little boy in their class.  The second graders sang "Alauete" (sp) a French song, and later, both Adonis and Nohemi sang "Jesus Loves Me" in English.  They were very proud of themselves for being the only ones in their class to know a song in English.  I was proud of them too.  Sisi was our only third grader to participate with her class.  She danced in both skits.  The first, she and her classmates were these funny puppet characters.  They wore sacks over their heads with cutouts for their eyes.  The sacks came down to the hips, and the kids put pants and a shirt with the sleeves cut on their legs.  I think this was one of the funniest skits.  It was only made funnier because Sisi's mask kept turning to the side making her not be able to see.  Most of the 4th graders recited a poem, and Jose and Ana also did a dance.  Although in real life they are brother and sister, in the dance, Jose was a farmer that was trying to win the pretty lady's heart, and Ana was a beautiful lady that had no interest in the poor farmer.  Only the child with the biggest attitude would have been able to pull this role off as well as Ana did.  Ana was especially beautiful in her skit.

In between each skit, each class had a raffle for a basket full of home goods.  We were hoping not to win anything, but with that many kids and with a minimum of 2 baskets for each grade, we were destined to win each one.  Only one of our kid's numbers was drawn, and I had to go receive it.  I decided to give it to one of our employees who couldn't come because she had to work.  She appreciated it more than I did.

During the program, all of the moms received cake and banana soda.  I gave my banana drink to some of the kids who had come to sit by me and my mom after their part in the program was finished.