Back to the grind

We have now been back at work for a week. The time has flown by. On Monday the Paraguayan staff had a long day of in-service training from the government. The English teachers had a day of planning and preparation, which eased us in gently. The only hitch was that the Internet was down so we could not do all that we had planned. A tall truck had driven down the road and pulled down the cables. Nothing is fed underground here. Even high power electricity cables are swung from pole to pole precariously.

On Thursday afternoon we had a visit from a local artist, Lucy Yegros. She talked about her work and the work of other local artists. It was all very interesting. The art here can be very childlike and it can be simple, but beautiful.

On Friday we celebrated Friendship day. The staff arrived at school early, before 7.00a.m, for breakfast together.

                                               Here you can see some of the Primary staff.
It was a jolly time and a good start to the day. We were even serenaded with songs of friendship.

Before Friendship Day we all pull a name of a "secret friend" from a box. The custom is to send secret notes to that friend during the week and finally present them with a gift on Friendship day. I received a useful gift of hand and body cream this year, from my secret friend, Clemi, the art teacher. (The water here dries our skin terribly).

The children all arrived excitedly at 8.00a.m, clutching their gifts for their secret Friend. They also brought big bags of sweets to share with their classmates. I joined fourth grade as I was supposed to be teaching a group of them in the library area. The day began with prayers for friends.

They then sat around in a circle with their teachers and in turn they described their secret friend (only good comments allowed!) for everybody to guess the name. Presents were then swapped.  (I had to soft focus the pics, sorry).

It is a lovely occasion. The children are always boisterous afterwards, but my group soon settled to work, (probably after seeing a big bag of lollipops on my desk.) Of course they all received a lollipop at the end of the lesson. (probably something that you would never see done in UK).