Mother's Day

The official Mother's Day was last Sunday, coinciding with the National Day of Independence. This week the children in the Primary department have been busy finishing off making presents for their Mothers. They have also been busy learning songs and poems.
Yesterday morning the children celebrated. Each grade gave a presentation to their Mums in their classrooms. There were a few tearful Mothers as emotions took over and of course cameras were clicking away, recording the event. After the presentations and receiving of presents the Mums shared snacks and coffee with the children.

A whirlwind weekend of Fiesta

This has been an action-packed Bicentenary of Independence weekend with a continuous programme of events all over the city, ranging from marches, carnival parade, concerts, markets, light projections on buildings, military parades, theatre and spectacle, with a massive fifteen minute firework display last night at midnight. It has been quite amazing.

On Friday night Mags drove us into town in the new school bus..... big mistake! as we hit an enormous traffic jam. However, the Lord led us to a parking spot fairly quickly. It could have been much worse.

From there we walked all over the city looking at the illuminated buildings and what was going on. We were disappointed not to see the President's Palace illuminated and assumed that (in spite of the guards reassurring us that they would come on in a few minutes) there was a problem as there was lots of electricity being used behind the Palace where two enormous stages had been set up in the grounds for concerts.

The Pantheon of the Heroes (where the unknown soldier is buried along with other heroes) was a sight to behold. It has been renovated and repainted in it's original colours. It was illuminated in a loop of colours which made it appear first red, then white, then blue. There were dense crowds there all taking lots of photographs.

The atmosphere within the city was relaxed and very friendly. There had been strong warnings about security on the Thursday evening television news, telling people to be aware of thieves and even worse. In fact there were so many police and soldiers around that the usual sense of being careful almost felt unecessary. Mags carried her big camera around openly, slung around here neck and we did not feel threatened.

We wandered all over the city taking photographs.

Yesterday I walked into town and browsed for about two and a half hours (poor feet!!!). I photographed some of the buildings that we had taken the night before. Here are some of the photos for those of you who know Asuncion. After those I will put some up that have been in the local ABC newspaper.(I am sorry but after three hours I still cannot get the captions in the right places so I have given up.

El Panteon de los heroes

El Cabildo

Casa de la Independencia

Keeping dry on Avda. Mariscal Lopez.

Military Parade in the pouring rain. Nothing was suspended... there was no plan B.

Fireworks over the bay of Asuncion.

A very busy week of celebration.

This has been a busy week with lots of things going on in school and in the city.

In school we had several presentations connected with the history of Paraguay.

On Monday the seventh grade gave a presentation of old machines such as cash registers and old telephones. Each pupil explained what they were displaying and gave a bit of the history. For me "the Golden oldie" there was a bit of nostalgia as I recognized a few things from my youth.

The fourth grade gave a presentation this week too with a wonderful display of dance.

At the beginning of the week it was announced that there would be a national holiday on Saturday, Sunday and Monday to celebrate the Official Bicentenary of Independence from Spain. It was also announced that schools would close on Thursday but that all students were to meet in a recreation park to have a day of fun, educational activities to celebrate the Bicentenary. Our parents were concerned that there would not be enough security for our high profile kids. Consequently we decided not to take the Thursday off but to take the Friday instead, giving us a long weekend and enabling us to attend the first day of the Bicentenary celebrations in the city.

We rounded off the week with a beautiful bicentenary service in the Cathedral. It was packed to standing room only. It had been prepared very thoughtfully and it was a serious occasion. The theme was about God being the carer of the nation. The reading were given in Enxtet, Spanish and English. Bishop Andres from Concepcion gave the address and he began in Guarani. He aimed at the older children and parents and gave an opportunity for people to commit themselves to the lord if they had not already done so.

The school choir and a choir sang some beautiful songs. Then the third graders sang "Paraguay for Christ, Paraguay for God" in Spanish.

Afterwards we all moved out into the grounds to witness children, staff and parents placing their hopes and dreams for Paraguay into a time capsule. This has been interred in a special plinth, upon which an ex-pupil has placed a sculpture of doves of peace. Bishop Andres, Bishop Peter and the head of the school,unveiled a plaque explaining what the plinth is.

Finally, before we broke up for the long weekend, the children all enjoyed panchos (hot-dogs) in their classrooms.