Wednesday, September 15th, was Independence Day here in Guatemala. Here marching bands are very common and several bands within earshot of my apartment have been practicing day and night for a few weeks to be ready for the big day. I will admit, I am glad they are done practicing now!
Our kids attend three different schools. One school had nothing going on that day (San Bernabe), one school was marching in the Parramos town parade and Maria's school is in another town and she was marching in the parade there.
Adrian and I took the kids from San Bernabe to watch the parade and Rodolfo and Graciela took the girls and the littlest boys and went to Itzapa to watch Maria march in the parade there.
This sign says "No to violence against women". There were many signs like this including no violence against children, protect me, don't use guns, honesty, integrity, etc. I was praying during the parade that these kids would grow up learning this and believing it and that the cycles of violence in the family would be stopped.
Arms of Jesus Christian school (Brazos de Jesus)
Luis is the gray donkey.
Angel. His sign also said "No to violence against women"
This video gives you an idea of the noise and how they march down here. They are always moving their bodies and not just marching with their feet.
You can barely see Maria smiling in the back. She is just to the right of the girl with the blue and white sash. She has a learning disability and therefore attends a special needs school. She has progressed so much since starting there and has made some good friends.
Maria is ready to march!
Marching.
Girls in their traditional dress. The skirt is called a corte, the shirt is a huipil and the belt is called a faja. The huipil and faja is all hand stitched.
Everybody who went to watch Maria.
After spending the morning in town we came back to the house to play and get started making the picnic lunch. The kids knew what the menu was and were very excited. I will admit, I was pretty excited too!
I will write a separate post for the picnic as I still have a lot of pictures to upload and things to write about.
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