Panchos a la parilla

"Lazy day, Sunday afternoon," as the song goes (I'm sixties vintage!). We had a lovely service in the English church this morning. It was a beautiful day so I decided to invite my neighbours round for some panchos (a simple barbecue with hot-dogs.) We had a pleasant, relaxed time on my patio, gorging on panchos and drinking terere to keep cool. The temperatures have gone from 2C on Tuesday to around 40C for the weekend. Fortunately my patio is quite shady.

Here you can see (left to right), Sam, Kim, Ben and Matt.

Avid readers

This year we have been really promoting reading in the library. At the beginning of the year the children could read better in English than in their native language, so we bought in lots of new books in Spanish and held competitions.
Yesterday I reviewed the number of books read in the primary department and in what language. The children are now reading more books in Spanish. I sent out certificates yesterday to two pupils, one in second grade, who had read 52 books this year and another to a fourth grader who had read 40 books.
The exams are now on so as they finish an exam teachers are sending children along to the library to relax. Today first graders came in and sat, enjoying reading books in English.

Business Enterprise

This afternoon some secondary pupils set up stalls as part of their business enterprise initiative. They had a variety of goods on sale and were in competition with each other. Some had concentrated on cheap cakes and biscuits and others had made some boxes of chocolates and some photo frames, which were relatively expensive. There was some high-powered sales chat going on (as well as some flattering of staff!) in an effort to raise the most profit. I have yet to hear what stall made the most profit (if any).

A Saturday treat

Last Saturday I was given a real treat by my lovely new Irish neighbours. They took me to the nurseries with them. They were on the hunt for plants to brighten up their back yard. I made the most of the opportunity and came back with a new pot and some new plants, whose names I did not know. (I wrote to a friend in  UK for the names, so I now know them.) We came back laden with plants, including two quite large bougainvillae.
In the evening I was taken out for a delicious churassqueria meal. That is a restaurant where you pile your plate up with a delicious range of salads and then the gaucho waiters come around with swords full of all types and cuts of meat, which you add to the pile and then attempt to devour. (One always has "eyes bigger than" but we cannot throw precious food away so it just has to be eaten!) This is followed by a delicious array of desserts, my favourite being passion fruit mousse.
Here are some of my new plants on my patio.

I also have some new visitors to my garden. Ha! Ha!

Today I was very excited. I noticed something red in the middle of my pineapple plant. (I stuck a pineapple top in a pot six years ago.) It is a flower. That could be the sign of a pineapple growing. The last pineapple I grew took four years to flower and produce a pineapple. I had to go back to UK and while I was away a rat ate it!!!..... or so the story goes.

Children's Day

There was great excitement today as the children came into school. It is Children's day.

The Primary department was herded onto buses and whisked off to the school Sports Ground for a morning of fun and games. This was organised by the fifth form together with the P.E. staff.

Goalie of the year? (Auntie Rocio)

Hunt the tennis ball.

Football?

Anyone for Terere?

Round the pole ten times, keeping head contact

and kick the ball!

Traffic Cone skittles

Volleyball with a giant ball.

Being dragged in a bag.

Not too high!

Local spectator gauchos.

EeeeeeH!

They had organised a carousel of activities for which everybody won some prizes. The weather was beautiful with just the right amount of breeze to make life reasonably comfortable.
The games were interspersed with a time for panchos (hot dogs) straight from the barbecue.

Pancho preparation

Ketchup?

Even the teachers had one.

Finally they all had ice lollies and received a gift of a bag of sweets each.

They all went home for the afternoon, tired but happy.

Book Project

This week the children have been busy designing and making posters to promote reading. They have enjoyed the project.

In the library we have had  some new tables and chairs delivered. It has been something of a problem to fit them all in. I jokingly suggested that we should open a coffee shop.

Yesterday our "Writer in residence" (and school adviser) Nelson Aguilera, came to start off the reading project with the children. He was promoting his books. Nelson is very creative and he has a great sense of humour. He shared one of his poems and very soon he had the children captivated and joining in.

 He then did a book signing for the children.

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).