Although these last couple of posts are a little late they are nonetheless very important at least when talking about our community celebrations. Independence Day (Sept. 15th) was before AMUDESCO's celebration but Melissa was on the ball and wrote hers before mine. On Independence day a HUGE celebration was put on in Suchitoto with over 8 of the nearby schools walking in the parade and I believe 4 bands (including one from our community) that played with judging done on that day as well. That said this post will be more pictures that writing as we were very proud of our community that day (including many other parents as well) so we took a bunch of pictures.
The whole school was involved and the pictures above show the many many youth (many of whom know me from class) who marched in the event. At first I had thought that the youth were separated by gender based on some of the conservative nature of the school, however all of the schools followed so the tradition seems to be rooted much deeper than that.
Ana and Fatima were also in the parade. Ana danced with the girls up front but I hadn't seen her
practice during the weeks before so many times she was often lost but good for her for trying! Fatima played in the band and was a steel woman of concentration throughout the event. She really did well and kept great form throughout a rather long parade.
At several points in the parade the band split and did marching formations, from 2 rows to 4, weaving a letter S on the street, and of course different rhythms which changed how they played their instruments in sync with each other.
Overall it was a great day that the kids worked really hard for and hopefully take back a lot of pride in the process.
- Posted by Tom
