Yesterday I saw some kids at the school practicing some kind of parade manuevers. At lunchtime I asked Aurora what that was all about and she said the kids have a Revolution Day parade around town every November 20th.
This morning we awoke to find the electicity had been off since one in the am. At 8:30am we walked down to the beach road to watch the parade (me) and join the parade (Aurora). (It turned out the electricity was off from 1am until 6pm).
It turned out that the parade encompassed every age group. From the two years olds (Mariana and Antonio) walking with the ten Kinder kids, to nine adult students (some more than 50 years old) who are part of the adult learning classes taught by Sarai. Women (plus one man occasionally) are working toward their primary and secondary certifications. Some of the women were working on writing the alphabet at the start of the year. Most of them are in their late thirties and early forties and never went to school or only had two or three years of crummy schooling as children.
Many of the woman in Chacala are so incredible, working hard for themselves and their children. Looking into the future and figuring out how to move into the 21st century. There are some very strong and competent woman here, and they struggle hard against the poverty and lack of water (there is never any potable water here except by the 5 gallon jug delivered by truck) for washing, toilets, etc. And the impact of machismo, corruption, inadequate educational system, and etc etc etc. Anyway....
I was really moved when I saw the women were all wearing school uniforms (white blouses and navy skirts) just like the Chacala primary kid's uniforms. They were marching proud, and in step. They have every reason to be proud.
There are 74 marchers, including the adult students. No kids from Chacala going to secondaria or prepatoria were in the parade because they are marching with their schools in Las Varas and La Penita. And some of the Chacala kids who go to primary marched with Chacala here in town. It was a very impressive morning.
Still no electricity at 10am RATS!!!!. I just bought a hundred pesos worth of chicken breasts. They are now defrosting in my tiny little freeezer section. Big feast of chicken breasts tonight, I guess.
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