Teachers' Day

The Brits were up early this morning to catch the Royal Wedding on TV before we headed off to work.

In fact we had a lovely day, being spoilt, because we celebrated Teachers' and Workers' Day.

We started the day by being entertained by the children. They recited poems about teachers in both Spanish and Guarani. The sixth grade then did an awards ceremony. Each teacher was awarded a certificate. Mine was for the teacher with special stickers.

After we had taught for an hour or so the parents had a "Merienda" for us. That is snacks and cakes. There was also a ceremony where we were all given presents by the children. I received an arm full much to my surprise. There was something for everybody, even our new teacher Beth and our short term volunteers, Jo and Zoe.

After the children left we all had a Bicentenary year staff photo taken (note the patriotic colours of the flag of Paraguay. By a stretch of the imagination we Brits felt that the red, white and blue would be the nearest that we got to celebrating the Royal wedding.)

Finally we were treated to a lovely staff lunch. It was a "family" occasion. We even had cabaret in both Spanish and Guarani. The teacher next to me translated the song that was in Guarani as it was being sung. That took some concentration on my part, but I applauded her for being so kind.

After the lunch we each received a new school shirt/blouse. They had guessed the sizes, with some amusing results, but at least we can change them to fit.

The Bishop and Pastor Ronnie made wonderful models. Is there a doctor in the house?

The Chaco wars

Yesterday the second grade gave us a wonderful presentation about the Chaco War. Their teacher Profe Diego, aided by art teachers and parents, had gone to a lot of trouble to set the scene with a background, boulders, trees and everything that could represent the Chaco.

We heard some of the history, the children danced and then they talked about artefacts and photos of grandparents that they had brought into school.

There was also a mock battle.

Finally Profe Diego reminded us all about the importance of forgiveness after any kind of battle and the Biblical message was brought to us.

Holidays are here

Before I start this post you will see that I have removed some of my posts. Some of my photos have been used on another site, without my permission, so I will not be posting much in future. I know that many of you who read my blog will be disappointed but I need to be security conscious.

Last week was a very busy week but Thursday found us celebrating the coming of the end-of-term with the annual Primary Department Easter Hat parade. This year the theme was linked to Paraguay, for obvious reasons. There was a vast variety of hats, almost all of which were Red, white and blue. The children had made the hats with the help of their parents. Each child had to explain what their hat represented. Some were very original and amusing with their explanations.

On Friday we finished the term with a wonderful service in church. The theme was that Christ is alive today.

The sixth form gave us a moving presentation of God creating his creation, with the climax being the creation of his son, Jesus. There was some quick painting involved and the result can be seen here.