Independencia de la Escuela

Gracias a Dios that we only had four days of school this week. So while the rest of the country had the whole week off for Independence Day (September 15), we only got one day...lousy that we didn't get more, and yet so good to have a break from school.

In celebration of Independence, there have been parades, bands, concerts, marching in the streets, fireworks ALL DAY long (as opposed to just fireworks in the morning or at dusk when they usually fire them pretty much everyday around here to celebrate someone's birthday), and the best thing of all...the world's greatest nightmare fair, complete with a farris wheel that goes at least 3 times the speed of any farris wheel in the states. We had a fun time eating fair food, riding rides (but in opposite order so we wouldn't get sick), and just walking around enjoying the fair atmosphere.

All of our students claimed they would see us out at all the independence things this weekend, and sure enough, I think we've seen them every night so far. Thursday, at the fair, we came across two freshmen girls who were walking around the fair together. So, they joined our group of teachers and rode 4 rides with us, the last of which was a bit of an embarrassing experience for one of the girls and one of the teachers. A ride called the Zipper, rumored to be the best ride at the fair, was the last one we rode. One of the girls said, "I want to ride with Miss McCormack." So she rode with my friend Carrie (McCormack), I rode with the other freshman, Gaby. They were right, it was a GREAT ride. When we got off, however, Carrie was white from head to toe. She walked up to the rest of the teachers after getting off the ride with her arms out in front of her, saying "I can't move my hands." Well, she literally could not move her hands, they were cold and stiff. We tried to massage the stiffness out and put some warmth into them, but she felt terrible. She hadn't eaten anything since lunch and it was now at least 10pm. So, we got her a sprite and went to begin our eating-fest of fair food, where each person took turns picking what course of fair food we all had to eat next. Carrie could not even look at the food, much less smell it. After the first course, I looked over and tears were streaming down her face as she sat staring straight ahead, completely out of it. Well, another girl took her home, and she didn't feel any better until the next day after sleeping and eating some. I think she went into some kind of shock at the fair because of the ride coupled with not having any food or energy in her body. The poor student she rode with felt terrible about it though.

Last night was the "grito" or "yell" that they have the night before independence day; it's kind of like ringing in the new year only they ring in the independence day with a midnight concert series in the street. It was great fun, however there were tons of people. Like body to body, packed in almost everywhere you go. Our group of teachers and Guatemalan friends went straight to the back to hang out and be a little less crowded. However, Carrie and I decided we wanted to get to the front of the concert, working our way as best as possible through the crowd. It was CRAZY! We got a ton of dirty looks, and a lot of touches, but eventually we made it right in front of the stage. We felt as if we got the "real" experience of the grito, as opposed to everyone else who did not brave the crowd. The people at the front are very hard core about the music, and they jump and move and shove. The whole crowd basically moves as one because you are so crowded together that when one person moves even a little bit to the right, all the people to their right also sway right, sending the whole crowd to the right. Same with going forward, backward, or left. So, when someone pushes, the crowd moves a LOT in that direction. You have to be careful not to fall because if you fall, you'll get trampled. We basically relied on our neighbors to keep us upright. Carrie almost fell once, but the guy next to her pulled her back on her feet. It was EXTREME being at the front of the crowd!

All this in only the past two days, and there are still two days left of celebrating independence, I'm sure something else interesting is bound to happen!