Celebrate Good Times, COME ON!

Nicaraguans love to celebrate anything. In Matiguas there's New Year's Day, Valentine's Day, St. Joseph's (our town's patron saint) Feast Day, Teachers' Day, Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day, Revolution Day (and the day after), Labor Day, Kids' Day, the 11th anniversary of Matiguas being named a city instead of a town, the anniversary of the school being a school, inaugurating the new school buildings, Earth Day, Sandino's birthday, the anniversary of a famous battle during the revolution, Independence Day...and who knows what else. For all of these days school is canceled. If the date happens to fall on the weekend, have no fear, school will be canceled the Friday before, the Monday after, or both.

This past Saturday was the 48th anniversary of my big school (Jose Santos Zelaya) being a school. A student band from a school over three hours away were bused in to play; don't worry, my students will be returning the favor (and missing school) when it's time. Student teams came from 1-2 hours away to play volleyball and soccer against our students. Our's won. Teachers and students brought food and drinks to sell. And as out of place as it seemed to me, there was an inexplicable Haunted House. I elected not to enter. It was a tough choice though.

There was a beauty pageant. Well, actually there were two: one for primary girls and one for secondary girls. They're nominated to run, during class of course. Then, at the celebration the actual pageant-y stuff happens. They each answer some trivia questions about the school/town/whatever's being celebrated at the time. They each perform a traditional dance. That's about it. Then the students vote and a few weeks later, the queen is announced. Great.

I don't know how many different queens and princesses there are at my two schools but I've been to at least four of these pageants this school year alone. And we're only half-way done (the school year here is February to November).

So, I went to the school on Saturday armed with my camera but not sure exactly what would be going on. Well, turned out what was going on was Jocelyn getting sun burnt. That's right; I just did the first person thing. Deal with it. Anyways, there I was standing in the blazing sun in a tank top talking to some students. Marlo pointed to my camera and asked if he could take some pictures. I handed it over and he disappeared into the crowd. I continued talking to the rest of the group for about 15 minutes. Then I asked Edward where Marlo was because I wanted to go home. The following is our conversation (translated into English for your ease of understanding):

Me: Where's Marlo? I want to go home.

Ed: Why? Aren't you having a good time?

Me: Yeah, but I'm getting sun burnt.

Ed: Don't worry about it; it'll look nice.

Me: WHAT?! Edward, I turn red when I sun burn; my skin doesn't get darker like your's.

Ed: Huh? That's weird.

After he realized I was going to turn into a tomato he disappeared in the crowd to look for Marlo. I found him and he was taking a video that I unsuccessfully tried to upload onto this entry. He also took the pics that're on here. They're all of the primary school candidates because I left before the high school's pageant. Just in time too. I made it home with just a slight hint of pink on my shoulders. Bullet dodged.