Dia de Independencia

After months of practice, the big day was finally here! Children from The Jungle School traveled by bus to nearby town San Andres on September 15, 2011, in order to participate in the Independence Day parade. Together with other schools, the children marched down the streets debuting their new school and band uniforms and performing for the crowds of onlookers and supporters. Leading The Jungle School’s portion of the parade were three high school boys carrying the school’s banner, followed by six young girls wearing pageant dresses and sashes they had received throughout the week of activities at the school. Next came the display of flags of the nations carried by many students, the baton girls, and three girls dressed in traditional Mayan clothing. The band was close behind, stopping to give the crowd several performances, and children from the school organized by class and grade marched behind the band with pride. At the end of the parade, all of the schools gathered together in honor of their civic duties, and then came the highlight of the event as each school gave one grand performance. All of the hard work paid off, as the children from The Jungle School looked and sounded great!

The girls from the band spent the night at the school the night before the parade, and I was one of the lucky missionaries selected to chaperone them...haha! Teenage girls in Guatemala are like teenage girls anywhere... they talked and laughed and giggled well after we turned the lights out. We got up at 3 a.m., yes, 3 a.m., to make sure all of the girls were showered and to give time to complete make-up and this beautiful hairstyle on each girl. My crafty roommate Nineth made matching earrings for them as well!

Beautiful Albertina and her new band costume that her sponsor helped her to afford.

Marching in the streets...

& the big performance!

Culturally, it was exciting to watch the kids perform their civic duties. There was a flag processional, and I heard Guatemala's Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem for the first time. But the best part was really just getting to spend a day of fun with the kids. This is the first year The Jungle School has had a band and they were so proud of what they'd been able to accomplish!

Shoes, shoes, shoes!

Thanks to a donation from friends in Guatemala City and a generous gift from HIA, The Jungle School was able to purchase and distribute 271 pairs of shoes for each actively enrolled child. The shoes were purchased locally and are appropriate for the children to wear with their school uniforms, with slightly different styles provided for the various age groups. It was a heart-warming event for missionaries and staff to witness some children immediately trading the worn-out, ill-fitting, or broken shoes they had been wearing for a brand new pair, purchased just for them, and in their size.

Lesser trading his broken shoes for a new pair.

A closer look...

Yes, it was kind of amusing that the brand name for the shoes was Angela. I had to smile watching all of the kids carry around boxes with my name on them.

Kids in The Word

During the last week of July, children from The Jungle School, our after school Bible Club (Club Victoriosos), and from local churches endeavored to memorize 20 Bible verses, or 5 verses each week, to be ready for an evaluation at the end of August. If they could do this, a group called SuperAventuras would reward each child with their very own Bible or a book of Biblical stories for the younger children.

152 children from The Jungle School, 20 children from Club Victoriosos, and 145 participants from the churches of San Andres and Santa Elena completed the challenge. I was so impressed with their dedication and with the speed they could rattle off the verses. It was so beautiful to witness the kids opening their Bibles, pointing at the pictures, and reading to each other.

A Beauty Pageant of Sorts...

With home-made signs held high, the cheers and shouts rang out, “We support you!” and “You are the best!”

Two girls from The Jungle School competed with girls from other local schools in the Senorita Independencia pageant on September 1, in Sacpuy, a town not far away from the school. Evelin, age 10, was selected from the primary school and Maribi, age 15, was selected from the high school. Both were very excited to represent their school and for the opportunity to get dressed up. The pageant consisted of three wardrobe changes, and the girls modeled school wear, traditional wear, and formal wear before delivering a speech.

Maribi in traditional wear.

Evelin in traditional wear.

In formal wear, posing with the school director, Thania.

At the crowing event, Maribi received recognition as second runner up by just three points. However, Maribi and Evelin are both “campeonas” (champions) as far as Hearts in Action is concerned! Later, both girls were awarded sashes and crowns, and they were given the titles Senorita The Jungle School and Nina The Jungle School.