Graduacion
Today we graduated 7 Kinders from the local kindergarten. I know it's a cute sort of accomplishment that parents like to adorn their children with, but in Mexico, it's a really a celebration for some reason. The kids spent so much time preparing, it was almost ridiculous.Yesterday they started with the baths. Brigida (the Kinder teacher here at the daycare) and Cande (the cook) both bathed kids, who took turns. This also involved delousing a few of the Kinders, which took a while. Then they all got haircuts from Rosa. Today the kids got a rebathing, and then the girls retreated upstairs with Brigida and Rosa to have their hair done, which means half back, and all of it curled with a curling iron, and hairsprayed into oblivion.
After lunch the kids all started to get dressed. The daycare bought brand new uniforms, I think with some donated money, while the kids bought brand new black shoes and knee high white socks for the girls, and belts for the boys. The girls wear a short sleeve white blouse, and a navy blue pleated skirt, while the boys wear a white dress shirt and navy blue slacks. Changing 7 kids' clothes is quite a chore, and even moreso is the chore of getting them focused enough to put on their own clothes. Little changes had to be made right before we left: belts adjusted, socks traded, hair re-gelled.
Rosa pulled her car up close to the curb, and instructed the children not to step in the dirt and off we went to the Salon Social by the park in town, where we had to bring our own white, homemade slipcovers for Kinder sized chairs.
All of the children sat in a large horseshoe shape facing the stage, and one parent was to sit directly behind them. A few of our children did not have parents there, so I sat behind Moises, Stephanie sat behind Willebaldo, and Brigi behind Mimi. We got there at 3, and it didn't start for nearly an hour, and so those kids sat in their little chairs for quite some time before anything started to happen. Moises actually fell asleep a couple of times and I had to be told by Stephanie to wake him up. Stephanie and I were separated by a few Mexican mothers, so she had to say my name kind of loud.
A lady came by to give us instructions, to tell our children. No running, shake everyone's hand, take your diploma, etc., except I didn't really understand and asked the mother next to me if she could tell Moises what the lady said. She did, and then asked if Moises was my son. I couldn't believe that she thought he was. He's so dark, I'm so pale. I could barely spit out enough Spanish to ask her to speak to Moises, and she asked if he was my son! Ha. I politely said no, and explained about the daycare.
First things first, we saluted the flag and sang the national anthem, and by we I mean not Stephanie or I. We stood politely. I'll tell you this: they teach their children patriotism very early. Everyone knew all the words to the National anthem. A very cute group of five girls in school uniforms, berets, and white gloves marched the flag in (with a very cute five year old leader yelling calls), everyone saluted, sang, pledged, and then a group of boys in uniforms and little hats marched in, there was a passing of the flag, more saluting, and they all marched out. Wow. Quite the prestige.
To make a long ceremony short there were some dances, some songs, the giving of the ltitle rolls of paper (with people of prestige there), and I must say that my little son, Moises, acted very well, did not run to the front, shook every hand, smiled, and gave his teacher a hug. Aw. I'm so proud.
Tomorrow we are supposed to be picking strawberries with Luvia. We're not quite sure how it will turn out. We made a new Mexican friend named Lupe, and when we told her we were going to pick strawberries she was in disbelief. She said she did it one day, and her back hurt so much she'll never do it again. When I told Geno this morning, she told me it was very ¨chistoso¨, or funny, that we were going to be picking fresas. I know it will hurt, I will hate it, and I'll never want to do it again, but I feel the need for doing it so that I know what it's like to make so little money for such hard work. The rest of the world lives like this, and I have no idea what it's like.
posted by Meghan @ 8:05 PM
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