Mother’s Day is big deal here. It is celebrated
on May 30th and as the guide book says, “No one gets away with just
a card – more things close than at Christmas.” There is no school and every
school puts on presentation in honor of the day the day before. I went to two Actos, one at one of my high schools and
then went to the one at my host sisters’ elementary school. At the one at the
high school, there was singing, dancing, a skit, a poem and even games for the
moms. They had the moms play musical chairs and participate in a singing
competition. There was cake and soda
for all. There was an overabundance of cake and I was offered it 3 times. I
luckily was able to turn it down nicely the two additional pieces. Cake here is
definitely not as good here as it is in the states. The icing is both a strange
flavor and consistency. I miss Funfetti and
carrot cake. Overall, it was a nice Acto.
The only negative is that very few mothers showed up. We waited about an hour after
the scheduled start time to begin, hoping that more mothers would come, but
only a few trickled in.
In the afternoon, I went to the acto for the elementary
school in town with my host mother. It was at the parque central, and they had two kioskos set up with seats underneath. It looked like it was going
to pour so we made sure to sit towards the center of the small tent. It ended
up being an acto with a long rain-filled
intermission. It started an hour late, which I am finding out is completely
normal and expected here. There were mostly dancing numbers. The folk dancing was
performed by the local folk dancing youth group. They perform at all the local
events. One of the town drinkers arrived at the event while one of the dancing
groups was performing. He danced along with the music and tried to join the dancing
group as well. The students were very serious and barely reacted when he got near
them. The police escorted the guy out but it didn’t stop him from coming back.
Luckily, he seems pretty harmless. He is a running joke in my host family
because he is present at all community events and always seems to be dancing at
them. I have a few videos of him.
After the rain-filled intermission, we went into
a building. Unfortunately, it was impossible to see anything but a few minutes after
we arrived we were all served arroz con
pollo. It is a pretty typical dish here, especially for birthday and other
large events. It is served with a piece of white toast. And of course we each
got a cup of soda.
HAPPY BELATED MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL!
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